17. A collection of influences

Back in Cape Town, Lebanon receded in my consciousness. I had to adjust to the tasks at hand, which was to get to grips with a South African education. In retrospect, I realise I was not very well suited for the formal system at Wynberg Boys’ High School. It was a bit like the time my Dad felt I need to be more stylish and he took me to Ras Beirut to buy me an Italian suit and some smart pointy tan shoes. I didn’t realise how painful style could be as I tried to squash my stubby, broad feet into those shoes. To say that my steps were mincing is an understatement. I looked for the earliest opportunity to discard the shoes.  

Somehow my mind never travelled in straight lines as was expected. Years later, one of our Bible College lecturers, Martin Goldsmith, talked about ‘stringing beads’. He explained how many middle eastern people, Arab and Jew alike, express themselves by starting with a theme and then hiving off on associative loops, bead thought by bead thought, eventually coming back to the main theme. There we remain for a while then off again on another loop for however long the communicators want to go on until the basic concept was exchanged and received. I could thoroughly relate to Martin's description and finally understood why I had struggled to fit into a formal linear type of education. Like those confining Italian shoes, there was little opportunity for expression of my curious, expanding thoughts. 

My high school years were spent trying to engage with the subjects at hand and only latching on to what I found interesting or stimulating. The sum total of my high school education can easily be covered in a couple of short pages. I thoroughly enjoyed discussions, debates and activities done with others, but classroom lessons in general did not hold my interest. 

Art in standards six and seven under Mr. Hurter were absorbing. To this day, I enjoy making things with my hands, such as the functional fish-net hammock I made one year in his class and years later, made something similar for our young son. I also found affinity in woodwork, completing my small stool project with relative ease.  

Another subject which I responded to, was English. At various key points Alf Morris, alias “the kid” stimulated my growing enjoyment of some kinds of literature. We had to memorise some poems which have remained with me until this day. Classics like The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Macbeth and Hamlet were always lurking in the back of my mind. I loved reciting passages from these works. The words rolled off my tongue easily, and the characters came alive for me. 

A few phrases linger, but there was one instance which became a motivator for me. I had picked up a book of short stories and read a story of a blind person who had an operation to bring back his sight.  He narrated his experience of the bandages being removed. He could see, but then his sight dimmed and he was unable to see anymore. It turned out that it was nightfall, and he did not realise he needed to switch the light on. Not long after reading this story, I was sick at home and had to do some homework. From my own memory of this vivid narration and using my somewhat limited range of words, I described the process this person had gone through – the person in the story I had read – as my submission to Mr. Morris. Not long after doing so and getting back to class, I was rewarded with specific acclaim for my essay. When I pointed out that I had read the story somewhere and had merely reproduced it in my own words, I was still complimented on the fact that I had bothered to read such a story and remembered it so well as to reproduce it in my essay. I did not often get such praise. 

That encouragement had a big impact on my continuing to read and relate to some of the classics of English literature. Having to learn off by heart Jacque’s soliloquy, “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players...”  evokes many creative memories and experiences for me. I have English classes to thank for many of them.  

Next came Geography. Although the way in which we were exposed to the world was not very creative, I couldn’t help but be fascinated by the various aspects we covered. Perhaps my childhood experiences in Lebanon motivated and fed my interest more than Mr. Gilmore’s teaching methods, but I found myself intrigued as we went through the various physical characteristics of different countries along with their social, cultural, economic and political histories. While the school environment and the classroom situation didn’t stimulate too much immediate application of what I learned in the geography classes, many after-school activities did, such as hiking up Table Mountain with Freddy Glaum, as well as riding around Bergvliet with Malcolm Emms.  

Holiday meanderings and adventures which occurred in and around Betty’s Bay certainly added to my interest in the social sciences. Biology classes with Dr. Wood initially and then with my uncle Jim Mathew as I progressed, were mostly stimulating and very interesting to me. Again, venturing on the mountains, hills and valleys and enjoying the seaside allowed constant application of the lessons learned from Geography and Biology classes.  

I did Latin with Mr. Arguile. It was interesting but not applicable to my life at that point. I have a ditty I remember in my head: “Latin is a language as dead as dead can be. First it killed the Romans and now it’s killing me.” All the declensions of nouns, pronouns and verbs in the language left me somewhat bemused even though we had to reproduce much of it in exams. Mathematics was always a struggle for me, but, with help from a great variety of people, including Michelle Hickman, Neville Blackbeard (our principal at the time ) and “Shorty” Lennox  (who taught the “A” class), I managed to scrape through the subject, knowing it would never be my forte. 

Around standard 8 (tenth grade), my exposure to bookkeeping and commercial arithmetic became important and useful. Mr. Hopkins, somehow related to the Mathew/Lanz side of my ancestry, initiated my exposure to this subject. The Journal, Cash Book, and Ledger became a more and more essential part of my life (my wife find this hard to believe). While I may not have done particularly well in the subject, it has proved very useful to me over the years. Many of my school friends, including Denzil Le Roux, have become accountants. 

As I write, I have just heard my granddaughter Tatum received the Valedictorian award for 'the Grade 12 learner who has achieved the highest grade average across all subjects' at her school. This was not the kind of award I even dreamed of while I was at school. I was content to muddle along and generally aim for a pass in academics, gleaning what was of interest to me. I am so proud of her.

In 1965, my final year of high school, I became a Prefect, but that is a story for another time.