Texts Fof Written Discourse
Contents
1. Doreen Pope
2. Education: Doing bad and feeling good
3. Dance cards
4. Language and literature
5. Inflation
DOREEN POPE
by Mary Loudon (The Independent Magazine, 20 August 1994) 1. Practically no one reading this will have heard of Miss Pope. Her greatness is not obvious and it has never been documented, but she is my hero nevertheless. This year she retires after a lifetime’s teaching, the last 25 years of which has been spent as a junior-school headmistress in Wantage, Oxfordshire. I was brought up in Wantage, and between the ages of eight and 11 I attended her school. 2. Miss Pope is a strong and wholesome woman. Tall, well-built and cosy with it, she was consistently cheerful without being too jolly or brisk. She had boundless energy, and soft skin that tanned easily and never lost its colour. Her clothes were functional and unobtrusive, heavy jerseys in neutral mauves and beiges, and sensible shoes. 3. Miss Pope’s permanent accoutrements were a white Saab 96, from which she would wave cheerily whilst driving around the market square, and a rather anti-social dog, a rare breed of Shetland collie called Sheena. Just as Shetland ponies look stunted, so do Shetland collies. Sheena consisted of long, thick, orangey fur on very short legs: imagine Lassie crossed with Dougal from The Magic Roundabout. We adored her because she looked arrested in permanent puppyhood, but she was completely indifferent to us. She would retreat to her kennel as the first child arrived for school and only re-emerge at 3.30. It was a marvel to me that such an affectionate woman could live with such an aloof dog, and yet they were inseparable, an item. I’m convinced that “Miss Pope and Sheena” were painted almost as often in that school as the Madonna and Child were in Renaissance Europe. 4. Miss Pope believed that children only learnt self-worth and corporate responsibility through recognition of their gifts, however insignificant
1. Doreen Pope
2. Education: Doing bad and feeling good
3. Dance cards
4. Language and literature
5. Inflation
DOREEN POPE
by Mary Loudon (The Independent Magazine, 20 August 1994) 1. Practically no one reading this will have heard of Miss Pope. Her greatness is not obvious and it has never been documented, but she is my hero nevertheless. This year she retires after a lifetime’s teaching, the last 25 years of which has been spent as a junior-school headmistress in Wantage, Oxfordshire. I was brought up in Wantage, and between the ages of eight and 11 I attended her school. 2. Miss Pope is a strong and wholesome woman. Tall, well-built and cosy with it, she was consistently cheerful without being too jolly or brisk. She had boundless energy, and soft skin that tanned easily and never lost its colour. Her clothes were functional and unobtrusive, heavy jerseys in neutral mauves and beiges, and sensible shoes. 3. Miss Pope’s permanent accoutrements were a white Saab 96, from which she would wave cheerily whilst driving around the market square, and a rather anti-social dog, a rare breed of Shetland collie called Sheena. Just as Shetland ponies look stunted, so do Shetland collies. Sheena consisted of long, thick, orangey fur on very short legs: imagine Lassie crossed with Dougal from The Magic Roundabout. We adored her because she looked arrested in permanent puppyhood, but she was completely indifferent to us. She would retreat to her kennel as the first child arrived for school and only re-emerge at 3.30. It was a marvel to me that such an affectionate woman could live with such an aloof dog, and yet they were inseparable, an item. I’m convinced that “Miss Pope and Sheena” were painted almost as often in that school as the Madonna and Child were in Renaissance Europe. 4. Miss Pope believed that children only learnt self-worth and corporate responsibility through recognition of their gifts, however insignificant