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School Stories
Sheila Ray
Attendance at school for some years between the ages of 5 and 18 is a common experience,
and one well within the comprehension of readers of children’s books. Many books
written for children have scenes set in, or references to, school, but the term ‘school
story’ is generally used to describe a story in which most of the action centres on a
school, usually a single-sex boarding school. In his essay, ‘Boys’ weeklies’, first
published in 1940, George Orwell suggested that the school story is peculiar to England
because in England education is mainly a matter of status (Orwell 1962:182). It is
certainly true that the genre is dominated by British writers, who are responsible for
most of the examples quoted in this essay.
The world of school is a microcosm of the larger world, in which minor events and
concerns loom large and older children, at least, have power, responsibilities and an
importance they do not have in the world outside. Despite the rules and regulations,
children enjoy a certain kind of freedom. A school story offers a setting in which young
people are thrown together and in which relationships between older and younger
children, between members of the peer group and between children and adults can be
explored. Events and relationships can be imbued with an air of excitement and the
possibilities for humour are never far away. Through reading an entertaining story,
children can ‘test the water’, learn how people may react in specific situations and see
what lies ahead.
School stories for girls differ from those for boys. Even before the advent of feminism,
writers must have realised, albeit subconsciously, the advantages of setting a story in an
all girls’ school, where females are leaders and decision takers. In the boys’ school story,
there are few references to home life, but the story for girls usually reflects close links
between home and school. The boys’ story and the girls’ story have developed in parallel,
but separately, partly because they have reflected educational developments in the real
world.
In Britain, the Education Act of 1870 marked the first official step towards education
for all, but even before this schools catering for every level of society were being
established in increasing numbers. Two early, full-length books for children, Sarah
Fielding’s The Governess (1749) and Mrs Leicester’s School by Charles and Mary Lamb
(1808), each used a small girls’ school as a framework for a collection of short stories,
but the first genuine story of school life, which looks at the experience from the child’s
point of view, is, according to Mary Thwaite, Harriet Martineau’s The Crofton Boys
(1841) (Thwaite 1972:153). Hugh finds learning difficult and thinks that life will be