Saturday 13th
Another Saturday. Usual sort of bad hockey game 2nd, PSN ref, me wing and I was very glad when it was over. … zsp
Music Recital: Taylor, after a dissertation on the power of the Modern Trinity—Press, Radio, Cinema—played Bach, quite nice. zmu
A very poor and silly Debate ‘This House believes in the survival of the fittest’. I made a poor but not silly speech. zdb
Monday 15th
… we did the headless frog experiment. A 2-volt current down the spine, however, made it cease work. zsa
Works were digging on the [school potato] plot—I enjoyed it—I always like digging—we went on despite two very wet and windy hail storms. zsu zwr zem
Wednesday 17th
Kharkov has fallen, so hopes of German recoveries they may have had are somewhat blasted. Our gallant American allies in Tunis have lost three airfields and several thousand men as Rommel advances. zru zlb zwg
Soc. Soc. was on elevating London children’s characters with clubs and camps—some quite good ideas but a very stupid old fellow [who gave the lecture]. I asked if he “did not think it more important to change the schools which produce the bad characters than to change the bad characters which the schools have produced”, which I thought was neat. His suggestion was a twelve hour day for teachers and the abolition of the Teachers’ Union. zcb zlu zpn zey
Thursday 18th
… I saw [PSN’s] letter being sent to parents re: Penzance potatoes [proposing that a school workforce should help lift a farm crop], slimy—the idea being to give a good impression of public schools. A bad one [i.e. bad reason]. Profits and money saved on food to Newquay scholarship, perhaps 7/- to us. I would ask if my earnings could not go to something better … it being unlikely that public schools would continue. zsu zhk zey zpn
