Even more on AGS

Still on about Auckland Grammar

 

There were downsides to attending the most prestigious state school in Auckland, especially when one lived at Papatoetoe, and it involved a long journey every morning and afternoon.

 

It would be true to say I knew none of my fellow-pupils when I started at AGS. Many of them had attended Intermediate Schools together: Epsom Normal, and Remuera were the two most prominent. Living miles away meant I rarely saw any of them out of school hours. And it also meant one thought very carefully about how much one could do after school or in the weekend.

 

Coming from a school with very few male teachers because of the war meant I had virtually no skills in team sports, so no chance of making a junior sports team. I tried boxing and a couple of other minor sports; had I had the opportunities I think I would have been a mediocre participant, but I found others were way ahead of me; besides which I was small because of my age, compared with the others who were all a year older. Completely discouraged, I never felt able to join in; consequently I avoided leadership roles except in the minor activities I felt at home in, like Crusaders and Magazine Committee.

 

Attending a single-sex school deprives one of everyday mixing with girls; they come to be a distant and romanticised vision. I think this is still true, though there are now many more ways of overcoming the obstacles to a rounded emotional and social adolescence. So my church activities, especially Saturday evening Youth Group, provided a reasonable substitute in those days.

 

But it did mean that in a variety of ways I was very sheltered, and not very well prepared for the social challenges of university or starting work, except in the very protected environment of the church community at Papatoetoe. Fortunately I had good role-models in my family, among my teachers and in our limited social circle, and learned lessons of perseverance and affability, and skills like the ability to project the image of a leader when needed.

I was the third of my family to attend Auckland Grammar, after my father and grandfather Gaze. Since then my brother Stuart, his three sons Andrew, Phillip and Jonathan have been Grammar students, and my grandson Rowan. Next year the next Gaze member will attend: Phillip's son Benjamin.