Chronicle for 1955
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r- -J-SM: KEARSNEY j. COLLEGE CHRONICLE O#?PE o\t^ ■im July, 1955 '. "sy KEARSNEY COLLEGE CHRONICLE WPE D\^ July, 1955 m m M ipt m A / m 8® © w SCHOOL LAYOUT, INCLUDING PEMBROKE HOUSE. Kearsney College Chronicle Vol. 4, No. I July, 1955 ON SCHOOL MAGAZINES I think It will be generally agreed that, except for those most intimately concerned, School Magazines would not be classified among the "best sellers". They contain none of the features which attract the common herd, not even a bathing beauty on the cover (though it's an idea). Their interest-value is very local; to the outsider, the lists of event-winners or prize-winners have the monotony of a telephone directory, and does it really matter whether we won the match or lost it? Only to those most closely concerned does it matter. What, Magazine Reader, do you look for? Let's be honest. Yes, of course. You turn over hastily to those places where your own name is likely to appear: your own name, gold-embroidered, standing there for everyone to see, if it were not for the fact that they are too busy looking for their own names. That done, what else is there of interest? Well—you already knew the results of the matches, so that is not news; the activities of your Society are known to you and of no interest to anyone else; the Old Boys' News is just a catalogue of unknown names; articles are boring, except for the writers. Yes, surely this is not a best-seller. And Old Boys? You, of course, turn to your own section, to see what news there is of your old friends, and whether the Editor has included that snappy bit of news about yourself (which you forgot to tell him). That done, a cursory glance through the school news, and the Magazine takes its honoured place on the shelf among its predecessors. As for the wider public—well, it hasn't much sex-appeal, has it? T So you see how difficult it all is, this business of running a Magazine. There's a lot of work involved, for this booklet must be a record of the school's activities, its Minute Book, and as exciting as most Minute Books. It must aim at accuracy, it must not omit anything, it must be a "true reflection of the year's activities", and, somehow or other, it must be readable. Of course, we are not alone in this predicament. We are the fortunate recipients of a large number of magazines from schools both in South Africa and overseas. We like them; we enjoy reading them, in an impersonal sort of way; we are not really interested in the name of the fast bowler who did the hat-trick, but we enjoy the style of the writer. We are ever on the look-out for fresh ideas, both in the magazine set-up, and in the life of our school, to be derived from a study of the ideas and activities of older and greater schools than ours. A poor one is he who never learns, nor tries to. Adding up all the Magazines, and taking the average, we are left with a very fair conception of the run of life in the Average School—and, after all, that is what a magazine is supposed to give, isn't it? To begin with, ali magazine editors are faced with the same problem—how to fill up the Editorial. Their solutions come under fairly consistent headings: (I) A complaint about the scarcity of contributed articles from so large a school. (2)" I suddenly realised this morning that I hadn't written the Editorial. What shall I write about?" He had been thinking that over for weeks, and by the time he has finished wondering what to write about, the Editorial space is filled. (3) Just occasionally a little moralising on some well- accepted theme. One large school, producing its magazine every fortnight or so, begins with an essay, presumably by different students in turn. A good idea, this, if it can be worked. (4) Now and then some topical item—floods, snow. General Election, Test Match Victory, Billy Graham—is a godsend and eagerly seized upon. Once the Editorial is disposed of, we get down to brass tacks. School Notes, Examination Successes, Societies, Games, Feature Articles, Old Boys' News. The theme does not change greatly, though the amount of space allocated to each section differs. Some Magazines would be empty without the sport; others give space more generously to other things. Clubs and Societies are legion. If a school is supposed to be the world in miniature, then some of the larger schools certainly offer their pupils nearly everything that, as citizens, they are ever likely to be interested in. It is noteworthy, however, that, no matter how large the school, the attendance at any one Society is often very small; in other words, a Society is available for those who are really interested in that particular line. A Debating Society of 20 in a school of 700 boys seems a meagre proportion, but those 20 are keen. Others are attending other Societies. A good thing this. At a school like ours, with smaller numbers, either the same boys would need to attend all the meetings, or else the numbers would be too few to warrant their existence. To illustrate the variety offered, we select almost at random the following Societies and Clubs: Debating, Literary, Science, Films, Geography, History, Gramophone, French, German, Civics, Philately, Radio, Photography, Printing, Sailing, Meteorology, Farming, Cactus, Drama, Engineering, Art, Heraldry, Astronomy, Chess, Maths, Railways, Sociology. Others, too, whose titles convey little meaning to the uninitiated. Strangely enough, as far as we can see, no other school anywhere runs a Parliament. May we recommend the idea! Games and Sports? We read of the following: rugby, cricket, soccer, hockey, athletics, swimming, tennis, fives, rackets, squash, shooting, fencing, golf, boxing. Not wrestling, it appears, though we have been told that this should be taught to every boy. These activities do not present great interest to the "outsider but to the participator they are vital. It is, however, always interesting to read accounts of the same match, as reported by rival schools. How difficult is objective truth! According to School A, their wing three-quarter made a scintillating dash, handing-off and side stepping in bewildering fashion, and finally hurling himself across the line at the corner flag. According to B, "This was followed by a try by the opposing side." Weather conditions, in general, suited the other side, particularly at cricket, and we read, of the same match, "We were perhaps unlucky not to force a draw," and "We were unlucky not to have won by a larger margin." In the older Public Schools of England (and we wonder why these most private of all schools should always have been known as "public ") we find Clubs, Societies and Games which have developed traditionally, and whose titles and terminology convey little meaning to those not in the know. The Editor confesses complete ignorance as to the jargon of bowls and baseball—he still refers to the spherical articles used in bowls as" bowls", and talks about the "lawn "— but that is because he has not yet been perverted to that particular persuasion. Similarly we confess that the language of, say, the Eton Wall Game, though fully intelligible, we don't doubt, to the Etonian, bears little relationship to the English language as we know it. In that, of course, we admit our barbarism. Public School language tends to become a thing apart. Contributed items reveal a big range of literary skill. They run from unintelligible "poetry", to items presented by Jones Minor, intended to portray a cross-section of the school's literary life—but not necessarily raising the literary standard of the magazine. Many Editors, like your own, find that squeezing blood out of a stone is a childish diversion compared with the problem of squeezing articles out of a school. Our own opinion has always been that an item, if It is to be printed, should be reasonably good, and not too Jones- Mi nor-l ike. The Old Boys' Section features prominently in all magazines. In the older and larger schools, whose Old Boys run into thousands, it is obvious that the garnering and collating of Old Boys' information is somebody's full-time job. In our case it lies a good deal in the hands of your Editor, who has another full-time job as well! On one thing all Editors agree. The compilation of a school magazine is no easy task. It cannot properly be started until the term is ended, and that makes it a holiday task. So please don't shoot the Editor—he is doing his best. Hurrah! We have filled up the Editorial. Hands up all those who have read it. MAGAZINES We acknowledge the regular receipt of Magazines from the following schools, with apologies for any unintentional omissions: South Africa: Durban Boys' High, Durban Girls' High, Durban Girls' College, Glenwood, Epworth, Girls' High, Maritzburg, Hilton College, Michael- house, Maritzburg College, Kingswood College, Mansfield, Northlands, Port Natal, St. John's High, Maritzburg. England: Ampleforth Abbey, Aldenham, Blundells, Charterhouse, Culford, Downside, Dulwich, Eton, Felsted, Kingswood, Leys, Loretto (Scotland), Monkton Coombe, Marlborough, Oundle, Perse, Queen's College Taunton, Shrewsbury, Sedbergh, St. Bees, St. Paul's, Westminster, Taunton, Yorkshire Residential School for the Deaf, Doncaster, Cheltenham. SCHOOL NOTES In common with other schools, we had our sporting programme of the first term wrecked by the polio epidemic.