AUSTRALIA
The Age
Chris Davis
Autres temps, autres moeurs. French for “other times, other customs”. A phrase that is relevant as the media and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse examine 20th century decisions using 21st century morality.
For those who weren’t there, I’ll share my 20th century experience. My boys’ only school was a place of great good, thanks to some exceptional teachers. The most enduring and inspiring was an English spinster who had lost her fiancé in World War I. Her surrogate children were her “boys”. She taught us English in the finest tradition, as well as a love of literature and a code of excellent conduct. Having been in the choir of St Paul’s Cathedral in London, she sang beautifully. She was strict, but with a delightful warmth and sense of humour. The headmaster was a World War II veteran, highly decorated for his skill and courage. He imparted wisdom and balance, acquired from having witnessed the best and worst of the human condition.
Sadly, there was a dark and unspoken side to it all. Older unattached male teachers who lived in at the boarding school. They invited schoolboy “pets” in for special tutoring and special occasions, and exclusive weekend camps. Given the status of teachers, amongst boys being a “pet” was seen as an achievement. Not that anyone talked about what actually went on behind closed doors, except when it emerged as unacceptable sexual behaviour amongst boarding school pupils. Some of it was seen as entertaining, such as when a “misbehaving pet” was backside up on the teacher’s lap for the duration of a lesson, whilst being intimately “spanked”.
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