In Episode 7 of my Education podcast, I interview Hugh Gammell.
Listen on Soundcloud – here
Or on YouTube – here.
Or subscribe to the podcast via iTunes here.
Hugh was educated at Cheam School, Marlborough College and then read History at Cambridge. He taught History in a Grammar School in Watford before joining Charterhouse in 1978, where he stayed until his retirement in 2016. He now does voluntary work for the Mark Evison Foundation and is a Dragon for the National Citizen Service.
The interview was recorded in a restaurant and I’m afraid the sound quality is not good. However, you get into the groove after a few minutes and I hope it remains intelligible.
In this interview, we talk about:
- His reflections as a housemaster at Charterhouse and the vocation of being a teacher
- Teaching teenagers from the 1970s to today. What has changed and what hasn’t?
- Teenage rebellion & risk taking & the conformism of children today
- The mavericks and misfits who “make a difference”
- The former pupils who have made him proud
- The importance for children of having non-academic interests
- Specialisation – studying history for its own sake
- Boarding, independent schools and their place in society today
- Mobile phones and the curse of technology today
Will Orr-Ewing 