Page 17-Growing Up Project-mixed media.

Great stuff Lewis. We all have our own school memories and you bring them back clearly.

Another marvellous chapter of life. The years roll away when I see your superb drawings.

Great ideas and I do admire your memory recollection Lew. Not to mention your drawing ability!

Thanks for the great feedback. Alan, it's one of the things where more comes back as you think about it...I've left stuff out. The teachers talking about education also providing a 'more rounded life' is very clear in my memory...not their precise words, of course. I do remember the woman teacher talking about how reading improves your life...partly because we hardly ever had woman teachers. She was young, idealistic, and a looker...how could I not remember her?

we had "General science" - which made it harder taking the individual chemistry and physics later at night school and art was a subject I dropped - otherwise a very similar passage of arms. No ladies in the teaching staff and mainly older male teachers to start with - I would have started grammar school in 46. Class sizes were bigger though. You do bring back some memories Lewis.

Great stuff Lewis, but you should have paid more attention to English. Maths has an 's' on the end!

This is great stuff Lewis. Makes me reminisce over my very inadequate school years. Living in a small pit village where no one had cars, the classroom consisted of children aged 11 to 15 all packed in together. Never took the 11+ as was off school months with dysentery. Remember impetigo and ringworm were also rife so we looked a pretty bunch of bald, kids with purple faces (that would make a good painting). The sanitation for older kids was atrocious as the loos were so tiny and the toilet paper was too painful to use. We were sent out to play even if there was a howling gale and 6 inches of snow. Kids today don’t know how lucky they are. I was caned almost every day. The teachers would never get away with that these days. Thank you Lewis for my trip down memory lane but your schooling appears to have been a great deal more sophisticated than mine. Science wasn’t even on the menu.

Art, English, History, Geography, Woodwork, P.E and games ....fine...the rest..not so fine. We did some French stuff at Technical college which I didn't shine at. Learned to speak Spanish well enough to get by later in life (much, but I don't worry about it any more as many Spanish vacations have made me competent enough). I even got a G.C.S.E in it. (-: Happy memories Lew. Great stuff.

Thanks again for your comments and personal memories. I think you are right Tony...apparently MATH and MATHS are both acceptable abbreviations for Mathematics, but the UK prefers 'maths'. At some time I've succumbed to the spellchecker...American English mostly. Guilty as charged. I will write out 100 times 'I must learn how to spell MATHS'.

A superb trip down memory lane...all the comments are almost as entertaining as your fantastic drawings! I had a dragon for a science teacher and her daughter, equally as nasty as a French teacher, and as for the nuns...enough said!

Brilliant - my art teacher did not enthuse us at all and yet I always loved it - my favourite class - and history was another favourite. I know what you mean about physics! - perhaps we were just creative types!

Another great page, Lew - and I love reading all the comments too!

At grammar school I remember I liked history and geography mainly because of the drawing elements! The art teacher ("Charlie", we called him) was as useless as yours, he went in the stock cupboard for a fag most days. One thing I didn't understand for ages was why the geog teacher's nickname was "Flash" - he was called Mr Gordon! It was only in the 6th form that we were treated a bit more as adults. Your book, Lewis, is bringing back great memories for everyone - I won't dwell too much on the other kind.

This project gets better all the time, wonderfully depicted Lewis.

Thanks again to all for your comments and your wonderful recollections. Yes Marjorie, I remember very well the different, better, treatment we got from the teachers in the sixth form. And you are right about the 'creative' aspect, Maureen. 'Creative' always sounds a bit artsy-farsy to me, but it's true that some of us have no leaning towards the more scientific side of schooling.

Just catching up with with these Lew, great reminiscing!