GROUSE, GEESE AND THE ANTARCTIC LINK
I had absolutely no chance of getting anywhere with history at school. One would’ve thought that the right thing to do would be to welcome your new and impressionable students with an exciting lecture. Something like what John Keating (played by Robin Williams) in Dead Poets Society did, ripping out the introductory chapter of their poetry manual – now that’s teaching!
But on my first day in standard 6 (I was never in grade 8), I slammed into a history brick wall and summarily decided this was the end of the line for me. The slob of a teacher sat behind his desk and slowly read from the book – smacking his lips between every sentence – murdering a subject that should get a young boy dreamily lost in the exploits of famous adventurers and explorers. But instead of getting us hooked on polar exploration and Scott and Wilson dying in the snow, or cannibalism on the high seas following the sinking of the Essex, by a whale, I fell off the bus between the Phoenicians and hieroglyphics and never got back on again. Somehow, Imissed the first day’s homework assignment and was given the task of writing out the paragraph on the
