I am quite astonished by all the birthday greetings rolling in on me. I suppose hitting the age of 79 is a feat to be applauded. Not that achieving this had anything to do with my healthful and perfect lifestyle. Not by a long shot. As some of you don't quite catch my sarcasm so there's a bit for you. Many of my really healthy friends are dead. Well come to think of it, most of my friends are dead.
Amongst the many messages is one from an old school mate who is a whole 10 days younger than me. she partly writes:
"Speaking of school reminds me of our old school and this bit of information might bring s smile.One of our newspapers, the Irish Independent, has a Saturday magazine. This Saturday it had a feature on Centenarians, Four centenarians were interviewed one of whom was Sr Mercedes.. She talked about her early life both before and after she entered St Marie's of the Isle, but the piece that might interest you was how she became a Science teacher and introduced Science into St. Al's which was unusual for a girls school then. She never taught me as anything science-y was beyond me. Anyway I texted Gladys to let her know and she replied as follows"She was thrilled with wisewebwoman and myself when we burned hydrogen in air and got H20, ie water". I wonder if you remember that incident. Gladys also said that your class was the first to study Science in St Als. Glad you didn't burn down the Science building anyway!"
I calculated this was 65 years ago, which is incomprehensible really. I can remember the experiment clearly in our spanking new laboratory. Girls and science were at a great remove from each other then. I feel like a living history book. Along with science and physics our incredible headmistress insisted her "gels" be taught calculus by a male teacher from the boys' school across the river. (Our school was a picturesque old red brick building in the middle of the river Lee). Higher mathematics were absolutely unheard of for any schoolgirl in Cork city in those days. We were incredibly fortunate.
Wonderful that girls were taught science and calculus. The headmistress was very much ahead of her time. Birthday greetings, whatever date that is!
ReplyDeleteIt was extrarodinary, Nick and a few PHDs and medical doctors were produced!
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Happy Birthday.
ReplyDeleteAnd what an amazing woman your headmistress was, a forerunner for many, many more.
She was terribly strict but a visionary for sure EC.
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I turned 80 a few weeks ago. Friends and others ask me what life is like at 80. Same as 5 years ago. I wake up, pee, then get out of bed!
ReplyDeleteA good routine Anon, and even better that you are aware of it all.
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I had a very different irish education. Inadequate, Protestant private under funded little school in Bray, Co Wicklow. No science taught. No irish taught. British history taught at length. But I was a dreamer, a reader. My education happened at home with talk, talk, talk around the table. My father was a socialist and a republican, the inadequate school chosen because it was simply the nearest one for me to get home from by bus. Somehow I thrived because home meant tons of books - nothing censored - and time and space allowed to read them.
ReplyDeleteI learned so much from my own reading, Anne. Taught by my dad at 4 which gave me a life long passion for books.
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My classes tended to be as good as the teacher. My biology teacher was an alcoholic who spent the hour chair leaning on the blackboard, sleeping. Save the time he caught me reading a "dirty book" while he was sleeping. He waved it over his head, demanded I remove the brown paper cover to expose what dirty book it was. I carefully slid it off and handed him Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi."
ReplyDeleteI love this story Joanne, I hope his face was bright red.
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Isn't that the truth. They didn't want us studying science in case we'd question things we were told we didn't have to understand, we just had to have blind faith! You were lucky. At my school science consisted of collecting and naming leaves from different trees! oh and some interesting geology. But beyond that - nada!
ReplyDeleteIn contrast to you Molly, we were taught to question everything, which had to do with our gifted headmistress I'm sure. The school was perfect but in comparing notes with others I am astounded at how incredible it really was. I graduated with five languages also.
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I keep forgetting that I have to identify myself each time now - Molly here
ReplyDelete16th is your birthday? Mine too. I am 70 now. our science classes were divided into chemistry and physics. As I remember we had exactly one chemistry lesson (maybe two, it was a LONG time ago), and the physics was mostly focused on things like inertia and what happens when moving things are suddenly stopped and so on. Boring.
ReplyDeleteYou are a young 'un River compared to me. Gack that was boring indeed!
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Interesting to reflect on our long ago school days. You were quite lucky to be exposed to those subjects. The school I was in though considered one of the best in that U.S. southern state where we lived then was lacking for good science courses. We only got through half of the physics class book. Chemistry was only offered alternate years. Algebra II was the highest level math offered. I felt cheated.
ReplyDeleteOh that's dismal Joared, how very limiting. You must have been so frustrated.
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I am still in regular touch with a friend who was my late younger brother's classmate and just one year younger to me. We were also neighbours and both of us still have family and friends who live close to where we used to live though both of us are in different cities now. Every now and then something to remind us of our childhood happens and we share the information to our delight. We too keep reminiscing about our old teachers particularly when some old photograph turns up in the process of digitalising it.
ReplyDeleteI bet you and brother had a great education Ramana at a boys' school I would surmise. Boys got ALL the university scholarships in the city I grew up in. Not one single girl. Education was wasted on a girl in their eyes.
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Due to family constraints, all three brothers had to discontinue education after school and start earning. As the eldest, I supported both my younger brothers for a while till they too got employed. All three of us studied through distant education systems and prospered.
DeleteHappy felicitations on yet a trip around the Sun. Good teachers make a lasting impression - good pupils equally so :)
ReplyDeleteMay you live and write for many more years to come!
Thank you so much Charlotte, a lovely message.
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happy, happy birthday to you!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you had a progressive nun to advocate for girls' education and yes, it's quite surprising that she is still around.
Thank you for the good wishes, Kylie, yes were so very lucky.
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Happy belated birthday wishes! I'm glad you are moving about and getting out.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much E
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PS, Happy Birthday!
ReplyDeleteThank you River!
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I am perplexed at the number of highly intelligent women who obtained advanced degrees in science and engineering and were then relegated to the kitchen. Thank goodness we have moved beyond that, although I am quite sure the Republican Party and the Christian right would like the pendulum to swing back. Happy birthday!
ReplyDeleteThank you David. The Republican party takes everyone's breath away as we watch The Handmaid's Tale come to life. These are very strange times indeed.
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Happy Birthday! Wishing you a healthy 80th year around the sun.
ReplyDeleteInteresting about your education. I took the required classes in a school in NY but no teacher stands out nor did I develop any big interests. I think though that I learned a lot from my Irish father who recited poetry as we did the dishes at night - the best of memories for me. As far as healthy - luck and genetics have combined for me. Certainly it hasn't been anything I've done. So wishing you lots of good luck as we go along this road.
Thanks for the good wishes Mary. My father introduced me to opera when I was 15 (Madama Butterfly) and I was never the same again. So grateful for these wise and self-cultured fathers of ours!
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