Well, I enjoyed a lot of things including in no particular order - and avoiding the rare but dramatic dalliances with assorted damsels:

But the question is: "What did you enjoy the MOST?"

And there is only one possible answer to that: the lessons. That may be a surprise, but there are very few things more satisfying than learning about the world - and Life. As for the latter, I am not sure that my teachers really made me understand what a miracle Life is. Most of the unimaginably vast Universe is devoid of Life. Our lives could be said to be an aberration - a brief interlude between eternities of non-existence. The latter is NORMAL in the Universe, whereas Life is anything but. As it happens, I personally believe that there IS no other Life except us. Statisticians will say that is impossible, but I will believe that when there is PROOF. I am quite a fan of evidence and PROOF, which why I personally believe that God or Gods, ghosts, zombies, unicorns and any kind of Life after Death are just fanciful imagination - and mostly intended to ease the pain of realizing that death really is the end of it all.

And as for Death, THAT and SEX are: 1) two of the most fundamental aspects of our existence and 2) subjects that were NEVER discussed formally at school. Sex was mostly referred to with a snigger between guys in the dorm and Death in assemblies with references to the Resurrection, Eternal Life and so on. Now I think about it, how is it that two of the most (and possibly THE most) significant aspects of our lives were never formally discussed? Mr Keating was I grant you a bit OTT in "Dead Poets' Society". Even I would jib at gathering boys round an old school photo and telling them they were "food for worms". His Carpe Diem message, however, was sublime. "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may ..." and so on. I wonder how IHS deals with these two topics these days?

Life and Nature really are miracles, and both depend totally on the laws of physics. Were the various forces holding atoms together even microscopically different there would BE no matter. A single cell in our body is the most astounding combination of atoms and molecules created over millions of years by Natural Selection. But that is so magical it is almost UNnatural Selection. Were gravity (for me along with Time the most astonishing phenomenon in the Universe) even SLIGHTLY different there would be no stars or planets. It is all indescribably astonishing - and wonderful to study. I didn't realize all this so clearly as a teenager, but I think I kind of felt it subconsciously - hence the love of the Natural Sciences in particular. Learning about electricity, momentum, gases and so on with Fred Mudd was very exciting - as was biology with Steve Corner. I was very sad to have to give up the Natural Sciences in the VIth form just because I was better academically at languages - but the subject I MOST enjoyed in the Lower VIth was The History and Philosophy of Science.

That brings me to another point. I do not think I learned much at WHS about the great scientists of the past. The memories of details are dim, but though I am sure that Archimedes, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Faraday and others must have come up I do not remember learning anything much about them at the time. Since school I have read a lot of biographies of the scientists who created the modern world - and their lives are fascinating, the path to their discoveries as exciting as a boys' adventure book. There was talk in the 60s and 70s about synergy between subjects. I would have liked to study the life of thse people at the same time as their scientific work AND the social conditions of their time. Should history REALLY be a separate subject? Why not integrate it more fully into the lives of scientists, writers and other key figures of the past?

There is a book I can 100% recommend which partly does this: "The Ascent of Science" by the late David Silver. It is for me a masterpiece: a record of the most important scientific discoveries since Antiquity - covering the science but not in so academic or mathematical way that a layman cannot understand it. It would make a great present for a teenager.

P.S. There is SO much to learn about Life and people that at least one year should be added to the usual 7 of secondary schooling. There is just not time at the moment to cover all the general learning AND the lifetime skills people need. Among the latter (and which we never did at school) are: philosophy (especially about how to evaluate the reliability of evidence to construct logical conclusions), politics, nutrition & healthcare, the psychology of human relations and social communities and basic economics. GOTO TOP