Posted by Smith on December 18, 2002 at 02:47:18:
In retrospect, the whole thing seems utterly bizarre. We appear to be the only school in the civilised world(?) that were required to engage in this peculiar activity once a year. As I recall we had to write to the Mons at some point and provide an account of our current situation. There was an underlying paranoia, I remember, that one had to present a favourable picture of life at SA regardless of how we might have really felt, on pain of some kind of punishment. I even remember a story (possibly apocryphal) that one boy had, in a fit of rebelliousness, quoted The Who's "I'm a boy, I'm a boy but my ma' won't admit it" in his letter, and had suffered whatever sanction that prevailed and was forced to rewrite in dutifully respectful terms. I would be interested to read what other former chaps (or masters) have to say on this matter and what you feel the point of it was. I suspect that Spike was to some extent, genuinely interested in our views, but evidently not that keen on any kind of criticism.