The Thirteenth Grade

Extract

Francis Bacon held every man a debtor to his profession, and there are few of us who would not discharge this obligation if we could. I feel particularly indebted because I have been fortunate, over a long period, in having been able to attend Association and Branch meetings, where I have met many of the best informed, most active and aesthetically inspiring teachers of mathematics of all ages and at all levels. When, in addition, the Association honoured me by making me its President, I knew that I was, in more senses than one, permanently overdrawn. I know that this distinction would never have come to me had it not been for the accidents of time and place that made me Honorary Treasurer for several years. I am an assistant master, and, since 1954, a House Master, so that I could describe myself, in a light-hearted way, as a full-time research worker in the educational field. My researches are not entirely mathematical, but close contact with boys of 13 to 18 has been an interesting and instructive experience.