To Sir With Love

by E. R. Braithwaite

  Sometimes he would divide the class into two opposing factions to debate the pros and cons of some idea or other which either affected their lives now or would be of importance later on. Mr. Florian acted as leader of one faction and I led the other. The arguments that followed were lively, entertaining and enlightening. Youngsters who might be thought backward because of failure to win entrance to a Grammar school, or even to some other secondary school, were exhibiting a degree of careful analysis which, though expressed without rigid observation for the rules of syntax, could not easily be bettered by many other children with greater advantages. Here indeed was a vindication of this man’s beliefs and of the soundness of the concepts on which he acted. They wore no school uniform, but they possessed character and confidence and an ability to speak up for themselves. They might not be familiar with the declension of Greek or Latin nouns, but they were ready, or nearly so, to meet the stern realities which awaited them a few short months away.

  Chapter

  Fifteen

  ONE MORNING IN OCTOBER, soon after assembly, I was called to the Head’s office and found him looking grave and troubled. He told me that one of my class, Patrick Fernman, had been arrested by the police the night before on a charge of wounding another boy with a flick-knife during a scuffle. The wounded boy, a tough little tyro in Miss Phillips’ class, was in hospital seriously ill, so much so that an emergency operation had been necessary immediately upon his admission.

  Fernman was on remand and would remain in custody until he was brought before the Magistrates at the Juvenile Court next Monday. It was now Thursday. The Head wished me to prepare a report on the boy’s attendance, conduct, abilities and interests.

  “This is very serious, isn’t it, Sir?”

  “Yes, Braithwaite, more serious than you think. The wounding is bad enough, but both boys are from this school and Greenslade does not exactly occupy a very high place in the Magistrates’ opinion; they have on occasion criticized our attitude towards punishment, and have not hesitated to infer that this school is very nearly a breeding ground for delinquents. Any appearance of a member of our school before them is further grist to their mill.”

  “Have any of them visited this school?”

  “Oh yes, one of them even has some personal association with us. But you must not misunderstand my remarks; I do not suggest that because of their views about the school there will be any contravention of justice. But it would help enormously if we had a little more help and understanding of our efforts in such official quarters. We would like them to appreciate the fact that we fill a very urgent need among these children, possible because they could so very easily be delinquents.”

  “Is there anything else I can do?”

  “I don’t think so; not yet at any rate.”

  “What about his parents? Would a visit to them do any good?”

  He thought about it for a while, then said: “I can’t see that it would do any harm. I’ll write a personal note to them and you can take it along when you go.”

  I left him and returned to my class. They were working quietly and I somehow felt that they knew all about Fernman; yet none of them so much as mentioned his name or gave any hint of having noticed his absence. At the least hint of trouble they, like their elders, promptly closed their ranks, and in a time such as this even I was an outsider.

  I prepared the report, and if I laid rather much emphasis on the boy’s credits, I felt justified because I knew him to be a fine, sensitive, intelligent boy in spite of everything. The wounded youth, Bobby Ellis, was a rugged thirteen-year-old who considered himself very tough, bullied his smaller colleagues, embarrassed and annoyed the girls by his precocious, unwelcome attentions and had even once tried conclusions with Potter and received a good cuffing for his pains. Although I did not condone or excuse Fernman’s use of a knife, I felt sure that he must have been driven to such an extreme by some vicious attack by the young bully.

  At lunch I told Gillian what had happened and she offered to accompany me to see the Fernmans, who lived in a neat walk-up flat in Jubilee Street. When the mother answered our ring her face bore the tell-tale marks of prolonged weeping. She led us into a small comfortable sitting-room and we introduced ourselves and were in turn introduced to the father and grandmother of the boy, all of whom wore the same expressions of deep sorrow. Mr. Fernman read the Headmaster’s letter and asked us to convey the family’s appreciation and gratitude. Then, to the accompaniment of quiet weeping by the two women, he told us the story.

  The knife was one of Grandma Fernman’s prized possessions. She used it for cutting away tiny shreds of knotted silk during her weaving. It was always kept razor-sharp by a barber at Shadwell, and it was Patrick’s job to take it there whenever it required attention. Apparently he had unwisely shown the knife in its velvet-lined case to Bobby Ellis, but had refused to let him touch it. An argument followed, and the young bully had tried to take it forcibly. He was as tall as and huskier than Patrick and did not hesitate to try every roughneck trick he knew; the case was smashed in the struggle and somehow Patrick had seized the knife and used it, cutting his own hand quite deeply in the process.

  Thoroughly frightened by the sight of the blood and the shrill screams of the wounded boy, Patrick had left him and run off home, quite hysterical from shock and the pain of his own wound. He was quickly taken to a nearby chemist where his wound was dressed, and then Mr. Fernman had insisted on taking him to the police. The boy, Ellis, meanwhile had been taken to a hospital by a passing motorist.

  The incident had shaken the small household to its foundations; they were evidently a very close-knit Jewish family. I assured them that we at Greenslade were all deeply shocked and grieved at the incident, but would do all we could for Patrick, who had always proved himself friendly, cooperative and trustworthy. I mentioned that I had prepared his school report and this was some small consolation to them. Gillian was comforting in a way which made me very glad that she had come. She spoke to the unhappy mother in Yiddish, an accomplishment I had never suspected she possessed, and before we left it was quite clear that she had completely won them by her charm and sweetness. This girl was no dilettante playing at Lady Bountiful; she was earnest and honestly sympathetic, and these simple folk, who so well understand such things, warmed to her.

  The next morning I asked the Headmaster if I might be permitted to attend the court hearing on the following Monday. I wanted to see and hear at first hand how the Law dealt with young offenders, and to note the way in which the offenders themselves behaved when faced with the Law’s solemn majesty.

  I arrived at the Juvenile Courts soon after ten o’clock on the Monday morning. The large waiting room was crowded with parents and their children, whose ages were from about six to sixteen, and whose offenses, I later discovered, ranged from non-­attendance at school to shop-breaking and charges involving sexual misconduct. I explained my business to one of the policemen in attendance and waited while he sought permission for me to enter the courtroom.

  Fernman was standing in a corner of the waiting room with his parents and grandmother. He and they looked dejected and miserable; in contrast to the brash, cocky attitude of some others of about his age, or the innocent unconcern of the little ones who were happily unaware of the gravity of the situations going on around them. I did not go over to him: these Cockneys are proud people and prefer to be left to themselves at times when they feel ashamed.

  Inside the courtroom I was struck by the absence of the ponderous formality and the trappings usually associated with the machinery of the law. It was a small square room, in the center of which trestle-tables covered with coarse woolen cloth were arranged to form three sides of a hollow square; on the fourth side were a few rows of chairs for the parents and guardians of the children concerned.

  The magistrates, one man and two women, occupied the center table and were flanked by the Clerk of the Court on o
ne side and the Court Bailiff on the other. Representatives of various of the Council’s Child Welfare departments were seated nearby busily preparing and arranging stacks of documents pertinent to the cases listed for hearing that day. Several policemen and policewomen were grouped near the door.

  The first case concerned a girl of about fourteen, pink-cheeked, full-figured and somewhat defiant. A young policewoman stepped forward and read the charge in the kind of stilted monotonous voice which aims more at enunciating each word separately and clearly than in conveying sense.

  This was the second hearing of the case, the girl having meanwhile been in a remand home while certain investigations were made into her background. The charge stated that she had had carnal knowledge and was considered to be in need of care and protection.

  It transpired that the girl had been on intimate terms with several youths in the same tenement building in Stepney and was now pregnant, with no certainty as to the person actually responsible.

  She listened tight-lipped to the details of her misfortunes, looking younger but far wiser than the prim uniformed girl who read the charge; an expectant mother at fourteen, betrayed by the combined evils of poverty and overcrowding, and ignorance, and abandoned by an unforgiving aunt who sat stiff in her outraged respectability and inflexible in her resolve to have nothing more to do with her wayward charge. The girl did not seem unduly impressed by the proceedings: probably she had not yet completely understood the extent of her trouble, and I felt sure that the terms in which the charge was couched were too unfamiliar to mean much to her. The actual machinery of the court was intended to be as informal as possible, yet the terminology used was vague and involved. “Carnal knowledge,” I thought, what an odd-sounding term. The act itself was simple enough in the circumstances; could not simpler, more understandable references to it be used, for the children’s sake?

  The Chairman of the bench looked large and formidable, his shaggy gray brows beetling as he listened to the unhappy story. Then, after a whispered consultation with his associates, he addressed the girl in a surprisingly gentle voice.

  “Do you understand everything that has just been read, my dear?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is there anything you would like to say?”

  “No.”

  “Do you realize that by your behavior you have caused your aunt a great deal of sorrow?”

  The girl merely shrugged. Her aunt’s state of mind was of no interest to her whatever.

  The Chairman asked an official for the school report, which described the girl as intelligent, hardworking, friendly and helpful; her grades were high, her attendance excellent. But that was not enough. In my mind’s eye I replaced her at random with the girls in my class, most of whom would have a similarly good report. Yet, what did I really know of them, of their lives away from school, of the pressures attendant upon the early physical development in which they took so much interest and pride? The area was not without its prostitutes, pimps and other specialists in illicit persuasion. What could I as a teacher do to counteract such influences? The unlucky ones were found out and sometimes exposed like this girl; but what of the others? Who could tell what was going on in the minds of youngsters on the threshold of adulthood; where did childhood end and adulthood begin when you are at school today, and tomorrow at work as junior assistant bread-winner to an overlarge family? If they were old enough to earn, why should they not consider themselves old enough to learn and do other things which adults do? And what would happen if they were encouraged to try ways and means of acquiring much more money, quicker and with less effort?

  History and Geography, Arithmetic and Religious Education, were they enough? I talked to them about life, but in deference to their youth and inexperience I spoke objectively, giving to certain important matters of sex a remoteness, in the absurd hope that my remarks would neither cause offense nor be unduly distorted or misrepresented. Was I somehow failing them, contenting myself with their apparent “niceness” and favorable reaction and conduct to myself?

  “Well, my dear, your aunt is not prepared to have you back, so you’ll be sent to live in a special home where you’ll be treated well until your baby is born.”

  The Chairman’s voice showed real fatherly concern; years of experience had taught him to look behind the brash, sulking, defiant exteriors and see the fear, the panic, the helplessness of youngsters like her, whose only crime was ignorance. The girl left the room accompanied by a matronly court official.

  Several other cases were dealt with before Fernman’s name was called. He entered the room slightly ahead of his parents, his right hand in a sling, his head hung in utter dejection. He stood before the bench while behind him his relatives sat in a tight, unhappy little group on the hard chairs. A policeman read the preliminary statement, intoning each word as if it were written in a foreign language; then he itemized the various charges made against the boy.

  Being in possession of an offensive weapon, to wit an eight-inch knife.

  Wounding with intent to commit bodily harm.

  Malicious wounding.

  The knife was exhibited to the bench, and from my point of vantage I must admit it seemed an attractive and innocent looking article. Fernman looked sickly pale as the policeman described the victim’s wound and the injury Fernman himself had sustained to his hand. Now and then the Clerk of the Court would interrupt the policeman’s report to inquire more closely into some detail of it.

  Transcripts of the charge and of Fernman’s school report were handed around the bench.

  “Has he been in any previous trouble?” the Chairman of Magistrates asked.

  A probation officer rose and stepped forward.

  “No previous record, Sir. The other boy, the victim of the attack, appeared in this court last month before you; that case of the boy who burnt his mother with the hot poker. He’s under a supervision order for one calendar year.”

  “How long is he likely to be in hospital?”

  “The doctor said it would be about six weeks, Sir.”

  “Thank you.”

  The Chairman then turned to Fernman, who seemed ready to drop.

  “You are charged with a most serious offense; it is only by extreme good luck that the charge is not much more serious. According to the reports, a little more push, a little more pressure and today you would be facing a charge of murder.”

  The poor boy shook visibly; his tongue kept flicking out across his lips vainly trying to moisten them. The vigilant policeman moved over to him, then said to the Chairman: “Could he be allowed to sit, Sir? He seems to be a bit all in.”

  “Yes, give him a chair.” The voice was chill. The Chairman spoke briefly with the woman colleague on each side of him, then picked up the knife very gingerly by its ornate handle; the blade, safely retracted within the polished wood, was not in sight.

  “In this country we specially dislike and deplore the use of this type of thing. I would be happy if I could be told that the Government had taken some steps to ban the sale of such articles in these islands. It is a vicious weapon at best, and in the hands of a foolish, inexperienced youth its danger is increased immeasurably.”

  Again he paused to let his hearers digest the profundity and weight of his remarks.

  “A parent who would allow a child to play with an unexploded bomb would receive and be deserving of our most severe condemnation. It is our considered opinion that in many ways an object like”—and here he suddenly pressed the button on the handle to release a slim, shining, wicked-looking blade about eight inches long, which leaped out of its polished housing with a soft “ping”—“an object like this is no less dangerous in the hands of a boy. Had this weapon been used to greater effect, resulting in a more serious charge, no amount of tears would have been able to restore that life.”

  Now all informality vanished from the little courtroom as the
clear, vibrant voice rose and fell in measured delivery. Here was the law at work, as dignified, severe and remote as its representative who seemed to grow larger and graver as he spoke.

  “The court has read and heard the statements of the boy and his parents, and we are in no doubt that this youth did not arm himself with the weapon, but was sent out to have it sharpened; a simple enough errand one might think, but one which had serious consequences. When faced with the danger of attack, especially if such attack is from someone or something felt to possess greater physical strength, or which is able in some way to inspire a high degree of fear, some people are prone to rely on some form of weapon in an attempt to control the situation. That same fear may be so great in intensity that the weapon is used with greater force and to a more damaging extent than might have been intended.

  “I want to warn you, Patrick Fernman, and to advise you against the use of weapons, any type of weapons. This frightening experience should be a severe lesson to you and to your unhappy parents.”

  Then the Chairman turned his attention to Fernman’s school. He did not mention it by name, but to anyone familiar with the area there could be no doubt that he meant Greenslade. His voice was harsh and cuttingly sarcastic as he referred to the evils of “free discipline” in general and the particular practice of it at “a certain school in this vicinity.” In his opinion such schools were the brood-pens of delinquency, attested by the frequency with which children, boys and girls, from that school appeared before the Juvenile Courts on one charge or another.