, Wiggett sketches an ominous picture of what life is like at the exclusive Grey College in Bloemfontein. He interviews Jean Craven, headboy of Grey in 1990, the same year that child-rape accused Willem Breytenbach was made to leave the school.In his house fit for a banker, athletic head boy Jean is schooling me in Grey directives. You must become a Grey Gentleman. You must follow the Grey Way.
Jean remembers the first time he realised he was turning into a Grey Gentleman. It was a few months into 1986, late summer, and after a period of initiation, the year’s new intake was allowed their first afternoon out in Bloem. Quite quickly, says Jean, you realise “that what you’ve been taught at Grey has not necessarily been taught at other schools. You know, just the way you dress.
There is initiation when you enter the school, I hear, but you also get initiated every time you go to a new residence . You will live in three different dorms during your five years at Grey, and you will go through some kind of initiation at each.I don’t think Jean tells me the whole story. “It involves a lot of running in the sun with your blazer,” he says, and “some privileges that we didn’t have; maybe you have to eat fast; but nothing life-altering. Well, I guess for most of us.
I grant that walking across a piece of banned lawn is maybe not the most mature way to rebel against authority. At Paul Roos, there was also a random piece of lawn, next to the tennis courts, over which only matrics were allowed to walk. I waited until my matric year to walk there, and then found the stroll between classes quite invigorating.
“We do not assault each other at Grey. We are a team. And you have to be part of the team by the time you leave the school; have helped to make it a better place.Volksblad The assaulted boy sent his father a picture of his welted butt, because access to one’s parents is an important element of a child’s safety. But if he had been beaten in his first two weeks at Grey, he would have had no recourse.
Raising boys to be gentlemen is something more schools can strive towards.
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