Turning back the clock
Well, I've now been teaching for just over a week at my old school in Southampton (St. Mary's College), 22 years after having finished my time there as a pupil... and the whole thing seems very surreal, as if I am in a waking dream. I'd been back to the school's attached Brothers community many times over the years as a Brother, but (perhaps subconsciously) avoided going around my old school in detail. Now, going round as a teacher, I am seeing the place through 2 sets of eyes. 5 of my former teachers still work here. They have given me a lovely welcome and made me feel right at home. All sorts of memories, smells, sights, sounds, have come flooding back. This is not an unpleasant experience. Though it does have a very melancholy edge to it concerning the Music block and the Music class where I learnt Music and also had my piano lessons.
For my Music/piano teacher, mentor, musical and vocational inspiration and good friend, Stephen Parry-Williams died 2 years ago of prostate cancer. As well as inspiring me to start learning an instrument (the clarinet) at the age of 14 and then to do a Music degree, he also took me (and 3 other pupils) on my first trip to a Cistercian monastery, that of Caldey Abbey (Caldey Island, off Tenby on the south Welsh coast) at a time when the first ideas of a vocation were burgeoning inside of me. When I was in 6th form he also encouraged the Brothers to invite me round to the community for a meal as he was sure (a strong, intuitive feeling he told me in later years) that I was meant to become a De La Mennais Brother. By then, the idea had started to grab hold of me too and the meeting of minds that took place served only to confirm what I felt inside of me.
I find his presence still haunts the building where I now teach (just 4 lessons a week - the rest of my teaching is R.E.) and rehearse the pupil Worship Band (first Mass tomorrow) and soon the Orchestra. I go into the room and expect to see him sitting at his piano accompanying himself as he sings an Italian Romantic opera aria or a Schubert lied.
I suppose I will always associate that room with him (much of the furniture is the same, as is the particular smell). I feel honoured to have stepped into his shoes. If I can have even just a small amount of the positive influence on our pupils today that he had on so many of the pupils that came through our school over the years then I will be doing very well indeed. I know that he will be watching over me.
"Parry" (right) with 3 fellow pupils of mine on our way to Caldey Island for 5 days retreat.
Things have gone pretty well so far, despite a surprise 3 days before term started. The Head of R.E. that I was due to replace in a month or 2 due to maternity had her baby 2 months premature just before the start of term. So instead of working with her the first 6 weeks or so, at a couple of days notice I've had to become responsible for the R.E. schemes from Yr. 8 to 11 (12-16 yrs. - they do GCSE in Yr. 10 so Yr. 11 = a non-exam AS-style R.E. course). So my head has been stuck somewhere up my nether regions much of this past week.
A major landmark tomorrow: my first involvement in liturgical/extra-curricular music-making. I've had 2 rehearsals with 7 budding rock musicians aged between 11 and 16 who will form our Worship Band for tomorrow's Welcome Mass to celebrate the start of the school year. They are a great bunch of young musicians, all very keen. If this is the sign of things to come then I am going to have great fun with them and also the School Orchestra which needs to be restarting.
Despite the busy start to the term, I have managed to fit in some recreational activities... more about them later.
Comments
I was roaming the internet to find some trace of Mr Parry-Williams as he was in my mind today and I came across your blog. I was a student at the school when he passed and it truly affected me. I was affected as while he was with us I was slowly losing interest in my flute lessons and he expressed to me how truly upset he was that this was the case. On the discovery of his death I dedicated my life to my passion for music and have just finished 3 years at Bournemouth University studying Sound with Film. I currently travel the world with his life lessons within my mind and can truly say he has been the most influential teacher in my life.
Like Lauren above, I was idly looking for traces of Steve P-W and found your post. He had a huge effect on me too; I'm a teacher myself now, and I often think that I learnt more about what real education is from Parry than from any of my teaching degrees. But more than that, he influenced how I think and live and feel. Things he said are etched on my memory more than twenty years later; he used to tell us that each day we had to become more cultured. By 'cultured' he didn't mean more snobbish or bourgeois. He meant that we had to become more attuned to the beautiful- and thus to the true and the good. My own musical tastes were formed by him too; his teaching style was idiosyncratic (to say the least!); his chief way of showing that some piece was truly great was to play it endlessly on the record player in the music room and weep (he was the first person to tell me that you can cry because something is beautiful). The final trio from Rosenkavalier, and the Four Last Songs come to mind. I kept in touch with him after I left school (I went to Tauntons for A level- needed to be in a bigger music department) and when I went to university. I was a seminarian overseas when he died and I hadn't seen him for a number of years. I think of him often and fondly- especially when some piece of music he loved comes on the radio. (I think I met you a couple of times too when you were visiting school from noviciate? university? in the 1990s. He must have spoken about you as your name stuck in my mind!) Venerable Jean de la Mennais, pray for us and for him!
Apologies for only just seeing your comment. My blog has lain inactive since the summer. Just starting posting again on it yesterday! Today, I went to look at the settings page and saw your comment awaiting moderation. Thank you so much for your lovely response. Seems like we had very similar experiences with Parry. Is it Music that you are now teaching? Are you still overseas?
God bless,
Bro. Jim