The Old Boys Network
A Headmaster’s Diaries 1972-1986
by John Rae
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Pub Date Sep 20 2017 | Archive Date Oct 04 2017
Description
John Rae was one of the most charismatic and controversial figures in British education. His reputation as a great reformer was forged during his 16 years as headmaster of Westminster School, in the 1970s and early 1980s. And his candid account of that turbulent period – recorded at the time in handwritten diaries – seems as fresh and relevant today as it was back then.
The diaries, which he finished editing just before he died aged 75 in 2006, chart his struggle to keep out illegal drugs and the impact of family breakdown on pupils. Devious, rank-pulling parents are humorously dispatched.
Outspoken and humane, Rae believed in the right of parents to educate their children privately, but he was also a sharp critic of the public school establishment. “Say what you believe and head up high” was his life-long personal code – the spirit of which is captured in this often shocking and unputdownable book.
Advance Praise
“These diaries reveal beneath the serious public persona of John Rae a schoolmaster who got a lot of fun from the antics and the wit of his boys... an enjoyable read.”
The Spectator
“Rae 's writing is fresh, droll and poignant and the energy he displays here is prodigous.”
Daily Telegraph
“Gripping.”
Evening Standard
"It is a mark of John Rae's gifts as an observer of human behaviour, an analyst of power politics, and an urbane prose stylist that this memoir merits the attention of any reader."
-- The Daily Telegraph, April 2009
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9781910198575 |
| PRICE | $17.99 (USD) |
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Featured Reviews
Abraham P, Educator
As the product of an English post -graduate education, I can relate to the attitudes and eccentricities of the author of this book.
His diary, covering well over a decade of his tenure as the headmaster of one of Britain's oldest and most elitist public (private) schools, tells the reader much about the English class system but also about an educator who realized that the England of the Empire age had given way to world where snobbishness still exercised a hold over many but was slowly giving way to a multicultural, cannabis smoking generation that was caught between the worlds of yesterday and tomorrow.
For anyone wanting to understand how English upper class privilege was shaped and how it began its descent into irrelevance, this book will be an excellent introduction.
catherine h, Reviewer
When I saw this book, i thought it might be one of those fun boarding school type stories. I wasn't too far from wrong. It's fascinating, as an outsider to British schools, to read about the class structure found within their schools. So much segregation! But at the same time, kids, for the most time will be kids and teachers and parents the same! It's not an exciting book, but may bring a smile or laugh or two while reading it. I am ever so glad John Rae's Diaries were published!
