By Colin Barrable
Treble C’s rehearsals have resumed – thank goodness – but have moved to the hall of Stour Valley school (where we met when I first joined).
There are a couple of trampolines folded away along the wall, and this took me back to my years working for the company which introduced trampolining to British gymnastics, led by Ted Blake, a former army physical training instructor.
Under his leadership, the company, Nissen, a subsidiary of the US company of the same name, was very successful until it got snarled up with all sorts of litigation problems – not here but in the USA, where even a drunk trampolinist was able to sue the company for damages after an accident! Ted was passionate about training, and during his time as MD, every employee was taught the basics of every job in the company, and learnt how to read a balance sheet (my first teaching role).
On a different tack, I’ve been thinking back to my boarding school days since I found out very recently that my good friend Bob died back in December. Bob’s dementia started a while before the pandemic began. He was in a care home, and I was able to talk with him on his phone for a while, but that gradually became impractical. I made an attempt to visit after the worst of the Covid troubles, but couldn’t as they had an outbreak. Then to my great regret I left it too long, and missed the chance to see him.
Bob and I, with another friend, were very close at school, and even spent holiday times together. Bob was more of a sportsman than an academic. Chris and I were really not so hot at the sport, but we three were fast friends, and whenever we met in later life, would agree that school really was a happy time, and that certain teachers were particularly inspiring and a great example for us.
When I did a few trips to Kenya with a group from our previous church, we worked with an American who was teaching subsistence farmers how to organise themselves in local groups, so that they could start to earn enough to pay for their children’s secondary education. I quickly learned how important this was for the future, and it is one of the reasons why I started volunteering at our primary school here in Clare, something I found very fulfilling, until COVID-19 put a stop to it – education is the key to so much!
The Great Teacher is of course always there for us to turn to:
When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and He began to teach them many things. (Mark 6:34)
I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go;
I will counsel you with My eye upon you. (Psalm 32:8)
And of course, as Janet Baillie reminded us recently, Jesus taught us the Lord’s Prayer.
(Photo by author)
