History Boys Flashcards
Irwin
The wrong end of the stick is always the right one
Truth is no more at issue in an examination than thirst at a wine-tasting or fashion at a strip-tease.
History nowadays is not a matter of conviction. It’s a performance. It’s entertainment. And if it isn’t, make it so.
Conclusion - Irwin = immoral but gets results
Hector
You give them an education. I give them the wherewithal to resist it.
But it will, Timms. It will. And then you will have the antidote ready!
I count examinations, even for Oxford and Cambridge, as the enemy of education.
The transmission of knowledge is in itself an erotic act
Conclusion - old education death , tragic , literature
Hector is a man of studied eccentricity
Headmaster
Fuck the Renaissance. And fuck literature and Plato and Michaelangelo and Oscar Wilde and all the other shrunken violets you people line up.
Shall I tell you what is wrong with Hector as a teacher? It isn’t that he doesn’t produce results. He does. But they are unpredictable and unquantifiable and in the current educational climate that is no use.
Conclusion: Only cares for results , homophobic , uneducated
Lintott
Marginalised
feminist views
Cares about boys
“I assumed you knew” headmaster - Lintott expected to just listen
“History is just women following behind with a bucket
Posner
I’m a Jew. I’m small. I’m homosexual. And I live in Sheffield. I’m fucked.
Marginalised - ‘dictionary boy’
tragic alone
Dakin
Successful - good looking and smart
You should treat us with more respect. We’re scholarship candidates now.
‘She’s my Western Front.’
We haven’t done it yet, but when we do I’m hoping one of the times might be on his study floor
Obsessed with sex
Dakin
Successful - good looking and smart
You should treat us with more respect. We’re scholarship candidates now.
‘She’s my Western Front.’
We haven’t done it yet, but when we do I’m hoping one of the times might be on his study floor
Obsessed with sex
Scripps
narrator
religious
Education
Shift from old to new
death of old
I count examinations, even for Oxford or Cambridge, as the enemy of education.
Education isn’t for when they’re old and grey.” “What happens after the exam? Life goes on.
hector views it as preparation for life
Irwin views it as necessary for exams
History
How do I define history? It’s just one fucking thing after another
History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket.
History nowadays is not a matter of conviction.
It’s a performance. It’s entertainment. And if it isn’t, make it so.
Lots of views on history - feminist view , educative view. History is interpreted and men orientated
Sex and sexuality
marginalisation of certain people - Lintott, hector, Posner
Dakin is successful because of sex.
How sex is viewed by Dakin - western front - on his study floor.
Hope and failure
Successful - Irwin, Dakin, HM
Failure - hector, Posner
hope of getting into Oxford or Cambridge
Posner - All the effort went into getting there and then I had nothing left. I thought I’d got somewhere and then I found I had to go on.
Class and gender
Gender relates to Lintott and Fiona - marginalisation
Class - grammar school
Has anybody been to Rome? No? Well, you will be competing against boys and girls who have
