Billy, Macdowall and the other smokers eventually bully him into taking the cigarettes. Every time he tries to give Gryce, the message Gryce snaps at him and he does not get the chance to deliver the message. The messenger tries to give the message to him and he quite politely says, “Please sir.” The response from Gryce is “Don’t interrupt boy, when I’m speaking” When I read that I thought how unreasonable a response that was. As far as I can tell, he was not even speaking. The poor messenger had politely asked for Headmaster for his attention but instead of getting it, he was told to shut up and go into his office. This is a good quote as it tells us that teachers did not really care very much at all and were rude to the kids. As soon as Mr Gryce saw the boy he immediately judged him and assumed that he was in trouble for one thing or another.
Another example of a bad teacher is the P.E teacher Sudgen. At the start of Act 2 Scene 14, the boys are talking about Sudgen before he arrives. “I hate P.E with him. It’s always football” This quote shows that the teacher did not do anything with them apart from football. This shows that either the P.E system only taught football or that the teacher was lazy and enjoyed football. I believe that it is the later. There are two other quotes in the same page that back my point up. One of the boys says, “We haven’t been in the gym for years now” (Page 30). This quote gives the impression that all they have been doing for years is football. “Other classes do basketball sometimes”(page 30). This tells us that it is the teacher’s own decision not to do anything else but football. When the teacher arrives (late) you can tell straight away that he is not the nicest of teachers. On the contrary, he takes the first opportunity of humiliating Billy that he can. Billy tells him that he does not have a kit. Sudgen mimics him saying, “Please Sir, I’ve got no kit”(page 31). This is evidence that again this teacher does not care about his pupils and I think he enjoys making fun of him. In addition, when Sudgen goes looking for a kit for Billy “He goes into his room and brings out a giant pair of drawers.” They obviously will not fit him. I think that there were probably shorts in his room that would have fitted Billy but instead of getting them, he purposely brought out a giant pair to embarrass him. When Sudgen cannot think of anything to say he “bounces the ball on his head.” as a bully would do. If he cannot think of a comeback or a reason to back up his point, he resorts to violence.
On the other hand, some teachers were considerate, kind and thoughtful to the pupil needs and feelings. The English teacher Mr Farthing treated Billy quite well and was concerned about him. Most of the other teachers could not care less about Billy but Mr Farthing was different. For instance, when Billy walked in late after getting the cane from Gryce, Mr Farthing is genuinely concerned for Billy. “ How many this time?” I believe that this shows that Mr Farthing feels sorry for Billy because he often gets the cane. The tone that I imagine him saying it in is a sympathetic one. Furthermore, Mr Farthing asks later “Sting?” This also illustrates that he does actually care about Billy.
This brings us to corporal punishment and whether in Barry Hines’ opinion it was successful or not.
In Scene 11, the Headmaster’s Study, Gryce, the headmaster, is dealing with Billy, Macdowall and the smokers. In his talk to them at the start when they have just arrived, he is complaining. He says, “I still have to use this everyday”(page 19) meaning the cane. This shows that corporal punishment did not work. If it did work and had an effect on the pupils, they would not be getting into trouble repeatedly. In addition, the headmaster says, “As far as I can see there’s been no advance at all in discipline, decency, manners or morals.” Therefore, we can tell from this quote that using the cane in schools had resulted in no improvement.
Another injustice in schools in the 1970’s is how pupils are treated differently depending on whether they come from a wealthy area or a poorer area. In scene 14 the P.E Changing Room Billy informs he teacher, Sudgen that he has no kit. Sudgen goes into a rage and starts making fun of Billy for not having a kit. “You’ve skived and scrounged and borrowed and… Why is it that everyone else can get some, but you can’t?” The reason he does not have any kit is that his parents do not have enough money to buy him one. The teacher will know this and is just being cruel to him. This shows that children who were poorer were disadvantaged when it came to school.
Having explored the main points of teachers in the 1970’s shown in Kes I have concluded that although there is a few dreadful teachers there are good teachers as well. Gryce and Sudgen being the worse teachers and Mr Farthing being a great teacher. I concluded that Corporal punishment did not work although I thought it did in a way because I felt it worked well on pupils who were not getting into trouble very often like the messenger but for pupils like Macdowall the belt would not be so bad as they would get quite used to it eventually. Pupils from poorer backgrounds were disadvantaged in their education I felt, mainly because they had a bigger reputation for getting into trouble and not really for being poor.
