Remembering Jeanette Reay-Young
Jeanette Reay-Young, inspirational classics teacher, cricket coach, stage director and mentor to many hundreds of Sydney High School boys died on 26 February 1987, much regretted by all who knew her.
Now, more than 20 years later, her daughter, Rebecca, is living with her family in Ireland and her young daughters are coming to an age when they will start asking questions about their grandma Jeanette.
Rebecca, an Old Girl of Sydney Girls’ High School, would, therefore, welcome any memories of her mother from some of “her boys” that she can pass on to her own children as they grow up.
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Kiri:
Ms Reay-Young was the year co-ordinator, or teacher in charge, of the whole of our year. We were Year 7, first year at high school, 12 year old boys.
After the first complete set of exam results we ever received at high school, end of first semester year one, she called a meeting of all of us in the Great Hall. It was mid-1985.
150 twelve-year-old boys sitting on the wooden floor. A little cold, with the winter light coming in through the big windows.
As was (is?) the way at SHS, not only had each of us received a grade but also we had been ranked 1 to 150 (there were 150 of us) in each subject. Then there was also an aggregated ‘overall mark’ and consequent ranking telling you if you were ranked 1, 35, 127 or whatever among the group of 150 students. Our results were not just marked - we were ranked.
Some of us were expecting the meeting to involve a nice placid talk about how to read the marks, etc. Ms Reay-Young instead immediately launched into quite an unexpectedly fiery speech which focussed on how most of us, in fact all of us, had not done well enough. I don’t remember if she actually said we were all losers, but that was certainly the general thrust. Even if we had come in the top 10 (I personally was very proud to have come 10th in Maths) that was nothing to be proud of as it meant we had lost to 9 others. Only if you had come number 1 out of 150 had you done well enough in a given subject. Otherwise you had failed. In the dramatic high-point of her fiery speech (she liked drama of course) she pointed to Bruce Lambert, who had come 1st overall in the aggregate. “Even Bruce Lambert”, she said, “who has come 1st overall has not done well enough, because he didn’t come first in every subject. He has lost, he has not achieved at the level expected of you all”. I still don’t know what I make of this amazing speech. I am not sure if this is a good story, a bad story, or a value neutral story. But I know from the reactions I get each time I tell it all over the world that it was certainly a strange experience - even in global terms. It took a decade or so away from Sydney High for me to realize that this was (whether bad, good or indifferent I don’t know but) a unique take on the world.
9 July 2009, 2:45 amJeremy Grigg:
What a terrific lady Jeanette was!
I only knew her during the last year or two of her life, during which time she was producing the SBHS school play with Tess Kenway, but I can vouch for the energy, taste and joie de vivre of the lady, which remains with me to this day.
What a terrible shame she was taken from us so early! My memory of Jeanette was of a sophisticated, worldly and puissant woman who helped many of us as we were developing our identities and our voices. It was a privilege to have known her, however fleetingly.
9 July 2009, 4:15 amJoseph Waugh:
My memories of Jeanette Reay-Young come from the period 1982-1987, and in particular the two years in which she tried to teach me Greek in 1985-1986.
Jeanette’s strength as a teacher, at least from my point of view, was that she imparted an implicit belief in my ability to achieve at a high standard, notwithstanding my own lack of confidence. It was Jeanette’s advice on approaching translation exercises that later carried me through a 3 year Bachelor of Arts degree in Greek and Latin at Sydney University. It was a cause of some sadness to me that I could not share the completion of my degree with Jeanette.
As a teacher, Jeanette indulged us terribly. One of my fellow pupils hankered after the days when school teachers still wore academic gowns. Jeanette agreed to wear her academic gown to class, but on one condition. She bought another academic gown from a second hand shop and insisted that the pupil in question wear it too. She was also one of the few teachers to have invited us into her home. I remember a splendid dinner in her Coogee apartment with Professor Godfrey Tanner of Newcastle University, Jeanette’s much loved, and very eccentric, Honours supervisor of many years before.
Jeanette was a very thorough person. I would have said “meticulous” but, then, no one who saw her handwriting could accuse her of being that! Her handwriting displayed a flair which was extended in the marking of our class exercises by the use of “picture frames”. Jeanette would draw picture frames around the more egregious parts of our class work (in my case, egregiously bad!). These picture frames were not simple affairs, Jeanette often drew them with baroque corners and had them hanging from a nail with picture wire!
Jeanette’s thoroughness was shown in other ways. Any task she took on at School was done to the very best of her ability.
When she agreed to coach a cricket team she went and took a course in umpiring so that she could carry out her duties properly. I remember once in 1986, while umpiring a match, she was accidentally hit in the mouth by a misfielded cricket ball. She made her boys concentrate on fielding in the training sessions that followed this incident. The injury required stitches, but she took it all in her stride. I remember her saying the worst part was having to drink tea through a straw!
During class we would sometimes come across an unusual word, or an unusual usage. Jeanette would always consult a dictionary - but not any dictionary - the Oxford English Dictionary was brought out. She had the whole 12 volumes (with supplements) in a miniaturised 2 volume set. The two volumes came as a boxed set complete with a magnifying glass in a drawer on top. Notwithstanding the easy availability these days of OED databases, I was lucky enough to purchase one of these sets a number of years ago from a second-hand bookshop. I still use it myself at home on a fairly regular basis. I have Jeanette to thank for my little ritual of consulting the OED.
As one of the directors of Henry IV Part 1 in 1986, Jeanette produced a “script” by buying two copies of the play, cutting out the pages and gluing them into a teacher’s journal. This gave sufficient space for her to write all of her director’s notes. The notes, if I recall correctly, were colour coded. It obviously impressed me immensely since I still remember it over 20 years later!
Jeanette’s flair (and sense of fun) came through in more ways than her handwriting. Speech nights at Sydney High School were impressive affairs where most of the staff and guests wore academic gowns of various styles, colours and shapes. One year Jeanette stretched convention to the limit by wearing her husband’s London University Master of Surgery gown. The gown had a bright pink stripe down the middle - she said she wore it because it matched her shoes and handbag. Looking back on it now, it was certainly the right attitude to take to the pomposity that often accompanied such occasions.
On another occasion, as year 9 mistress, she had to deal with a boy who had been “popping” lids from a plastic drink bottle at his fellow students. The boy had been sent to her during one of our classes and tried to justify his actions by claiming he knew where he was aiming. I recall her putting on her sternest tone and saying to the boy “Don’t you know of the second law of thermodynamics? It could have flown off at any angle and you would have had someone’s eye out!” The boy, knowing nothing about the second law of thermodynamics, was sent off duly chastened and we all enjoyed a good laugh at Jeanette’s spur of the moment, but very impressive, misuse of scientific principles.
Looking back on it now, Jeanette was probably one of the handful of teachers who had a profound impact on me in my time at Sydney High. I can still trace her influence in my life almost twenty years later. She was a very special person.
10 July 2009, 11:23 pmGordon Ramsay:
I have a great many memories of Jeanette, from when I first met her in 1978, through to her death, and had the privilege of leading prayers at her memorial service at SHS.
She was a teacher and mentor, a co coach for cricket, a director for musical performances, and a friend.
She was a wonderful teacher - in fact she was one of only two or three teachers who was given a specific mention at the 20th Anniversary of the 1982 year in the speech by Geoff Webb.
But there are a few great memories that I have that stand out about her character and her wonderful sense of humour.
I remember getting what I thought was a pretty kick-ass report at some stage (I think early year 11) where every single subject was a good mark and a good comment. Good comments, of course, until I got to JRY’s section of my report. The mark was 98% and JRY’s comment was along the lines of “Gordon needs to be careful not to rest on his laurels for what appears to be quite a good result”. When I talked to her about it, she just said she couldnt stand a sickly report where everything was positive.
I remember her sending a student out of the class when he was being non-co-operative in a Latin lesson, but instead of him being sent out the door, he was sent out the window of the Greek Room, and spending the lesson on the balcony. I also recall that he was told that he had to ensure not to be seen while he was there.
I remember her arranging the rehearsal schedule for the school musical “Oliver!” in 1981 (for which I was the pianist) so that there would always be a rehearsal on at the same time as my economics class, which I was keen not to attend. She would carefully plan the rehearsals that involved singing so that there just ‘happened’ to be a clash. It meant that I went for more than a complete term without having to go to a single Year 11 economics lesson.
I remember coaching cricket with her after I had left school. She as the staff member had the “A” team. I as the Old Boy had the “B” team (standard protocol of the time). She specifically went and arranged a swap in the coaching arrangements so that I would have the A team. Not because of any lack in her skills or coaching by any means, but mainly because of the enjoyment she saw that I was getting from the coaching.
I remember with some sadness conversations we had in the final 12 months of her life. She never suggested the seriousness of her condition, but at the same time was honest about her thinking through matters of some life importance. They are conversations that I hold quite specially today.
JRY was more than a teacher to a great many people, and a lady whose way of impacting others is still a inspiration to me today
27 July 2009, 3:48 pmMichael Parsons:
I am there with you Kiri! I totally remember that day and yes it did have an impact on me. I can now even hear her projecting “caecilius est in via!”
25 September 2009, 2:27 am