The Gilded Cage - Taking my Place

Terms and Conditions

"It is quite true that my Deepdene career might be...brief...under the current regime." Steven Blackstone sighed as we took our weekly stroll through the park, after I had raised his career difficulties in as sensitive way as I possibly could, because I did not want to upset him in any way. "Not only is my relationship with the headmaster strained, but I do not see eye to eye with the governors either...so, one way or the other, it is becoming increasingly likely that I will have to leave, sooner rather than later?"

"Because you find their methods too extreme, Sir?" I asked, still addressing him formally as per instructions.

"No...yes...sort of...I do apologise, Miss Scott-Montague, I am not really explaining myself particularly clearly...what I mean is that I do not really find the strict imposition of the doctrine on our pupils extreme?" He said, a little awkwardly. "That would be hypocritical, because, like you, I believe in our doctrine...and the parents of our pupils have chosen Deepdene because it promises to impose the doctrine. Nothing that happens to our pupils offends me...although I do question the motives of some of our parents, because they really are letting the school do all their dirty work for them, I think? Many of my boys went home at Christmas and were not kept in any meaningful routine. Deepdene should not be a penal colony..."

"I have always felt that the sort of people who send their children to boarding school are the sort of parents who expect the school to do the hard work of teaching basic manners and good character, as well as strong academics...my sister Caris was a good example of that...her dear parents did little or no parenting...although they are much improved now, Sir."

"Yes...my mother said as much...and there you go, you see...that is a positive of the purge or whatever you want to call it, because people like Nigel Montague have seen the error of their ways, as it were?" Steven exclaimed, spreading his arms wide, clearly exasperated about the situation he found himself in. "I believe in protecting children and letting them grow at their own pace, without outside influences...but their lives should also be enjoyable...and the adults should enjoy themselves as well...devotion and piety should not be so...damned rigid...and no one should be forced to be anything they don't want to be?"

"But there has to be rules? Doesn't there, Sir?" I suggested, just about remembering not to be quite so animated as we were obviously in public. Miss Knight would certainly not approve of me waving my arms around or showing such obvious signs of frustration, and she was only a few metres behind us, no doubt watching our every move with her eagle eyes. "I mean...that is one thing I loved about Meadvale when I first arrived here...everyone knew the rules?"

"Of course, I am a school teacher...and a good school has to have rules...but they need to be reasonable and justifiable, Miss Scott-Montague? The trouble right now is that Mr Ellesmere and his gang are trying to change the rules and force people to obey them. This community has always been self-policing...any religious community is the same...if any member seriously breaks the rules, there are consequences...shunning for instance?"

"But your mother would never do anything that would result in her being shunned, Sir?"

"No, she would rather die...and there are many people like her...good, faithful people...who are currently being forced...or coerced...or blackmailed...into behaving in many ways that do not make them happy in God's love...and my current employers do not appreciate me pointing that out, I fear." He sighed again, more agitated than I had ever seen him before. "And it is not just my mother...we have discussed before that she made her bed with Radcliffe...but it is my firm belief that the community should provide people with alternatives...finding other ways of following the rules which would make them happier..."

"Like an alternative church school, Sir?" I suggested, demurely.

"I do think that the idea of another school is a very interesting one, Miss Scott-Montague...I am still trying to think it through, but your grandmother has put a cat amongst the pigeons, she really has..."