The Edmondson Blog

Teacher comments on old school reports, as reported in The Daily Telegraph Letters to the Editor:

• “When the workers of the world unite it would be presumptuous of Dewhurst to include himself in their number.”
• For Woodwork: “Give him the job and he will finish the tools.”
• “At least his education has not gone to his head.”
• “Unlike the poor, Graham is seldom with us.”
• At the end of my first term at Radley the Warden wrote, “He may be the youngest in the school, but there is no need for him to be the worst behaved.” There is hope for us all, as I became a headmaster.
• “The improvement in his handwriting has revealed his inability to spell.”
• “For him all ages are dark.”
• “He has an overdeveloped unawareness.”
• “By the time he has mastered French he will be too old to cross the Channel.”
• “I am sorry to have to tell you he is doing his best.”
• “A happy soul and quite unconcerned at his own ignorance.”
• For Religious Studies my report was, “Not very interested.”
• I have kept none of my school reports. My mother’s maternity records judged me, “Feeble at birth with considerable moulding.”