Some boys have a strong commercial instinct.  At my school my second master was giving back a number of exercises.  One of them was so badly written that he could scarcely read it.  He said to the boy,  ‘ If you write as small as this I shall have to get glasses.’  The boy went back to his seat, and then said, ‘ If you are really thinking of getting glasses, sir, my father is an optician.’
Another thing I am going to tell you about is that they are very ready to turn the sublime into the ridiculous.  I remember this happening at my old school.  We were reading a pathetic passage from Green’s ‘ A Short History of the English People ’ about the reluctant departure of the Pilgrim Fathers.  It went something like this.—
‘Men driven forth from their native land, not by the greed of gold, nor by the lust of adventure, but by the fear of God; and it was not without a wench that they tore themselves away.’  Ever since I have had a picture of these good men leaving their native land, each with a female of the species.
Boys are very ready to score off you.  I remember one time I was very displeased with the school, and, in dismissing them for the holidays, I said, ‘You may now go, and may you have a better holiday than you deserve.’  Six hundred‑and‑fifty boys shouted out, ‘Same to you, Sir!’
Another reason I owe gratitude to the school is that when I was Headmaster of this school I formulated my Educational Code.  Have you heard this: ‘Never run after a bus, a woman, or an educational theory.’  Educational theories have their little hour, and then they perish.  But my code is one based on the eternal verities.
You must work to be educated, and it is our job to see that our pupils work, and work not only on subjects they like, but also at those subjects which they dislike, for it is not good to work only on subjects that you like.  I still stick to a number of old‑fashioned ideas.  For instance, I believe that a boy should write legibly, and not like doctors.  I believe that their spelling should be Georgian, and not Elizabethan.  I believe that in arithmetic and mathematics they should get correct results, whatever their methods may be; that in history they should know a few dates.
It is quite old‑fashioned to believe in discipline, but I have always had my own views on this matter.  Of course when a boy misbehaves at school we call it self‑determination.  Any boy who misbehaved at my school got it in the neck, and when I say ‘got it in the neck’ I am speaking figuratively, anatomically he got it lower down!
Now I want to give some advice to the winners of prizes and certificates, and that advice is, try and think for yourself.  The whole world is in a conspiracy to keep you from thinking for yourself.  There are books, there are pamphlets, there are newspapers, there are societies of this, that, and the other, and, finally, there is the B.B.C.  They all want to supply you with ready‑made opinions.  I want you to be suspicious of any ready‑made opinions.  In particular, be careful of any slogans or parrot cries.  You have no doubt heard of the evil effects of noxious drugs, such as cocaine.  Well, slogans and parrot cries are much more harmful than noxious drugs, because drugs only rot the body temporarily, and can sometimes be cured, but slogans and parrot cries rot the brain permanently and incurably.
Now, as Lady Godiva said towards the end of her ride through Coventry: ‘I am nearing my clo’es! ’ ”
In his concluding sentences the speaker expressed his concern for the administration of Education in Wales in terms that have already been widely reported in the press.