The Transformation

When Foreign Correspondent Ernie Hill of the Chicago Daily News first received his orders to London, he knew that life was going to be hard for his teen-age stepson Jonathan. After attending U.S. public schools in Oklahoma and New York, and the American School in Tokyo, Jonathan knew no Latin, was way behind in French and algebra. Besides, as his father said, he "declined all invitations to study, and expressed the belief that all teachers were jerks." But by last week, after only two months in Castle Hill College, in a London suburb, Jonathan had changed--so much so, in fact, that Correspondent Hill felt compelled to make a report on the case to his paper.

"The change," said he, "leaves me strictly speechless. In the eighth grade last year at the American School in Tokyo, he was tardy 37 times, and the year before in New York, 32 times . . . I once went to his school in New York. When I put my head in the door, someone fired a book at me. All the kids were standing up screaming. The teacher was shouting and banging the desk.

" 'They're so spirited this morning,' she told me outside. 'Their little personalities are expressing themselves. We do nothing to curb the ego.' When she went back into the classroom, she was beaned by an orange . . .

"Then ... [in Tokyo], six of them gave their egos a workout by pushing one boy through a window . . .

"British schools," continued Reporter

Hill, "just don't operate that way. Jonathan, 14, has not yet been late. You have, to beg him to stop studying and go to bed. He even works out lessons ahead. He has started saying 'Yes, sir,' 'Yes, thank you,' and 'No, thank you' just like a civilized human being . . . One night he did homework until midnight and then rushed off in the morning without breakfast. I made inquiry that evening: 'What if you didn't have your prep (that's English for homework)? . . . What if you went without it?' . . . 'Well, the Head . . . would send you down to his study. He wouldn't talk or beg you to do your work. He would just give you six of the best . . . That's six wallops with his birch cane. And boy, do they hurt!'

"I inquired also what would happen if he was late. That would result in about two with the cane. And what would happen if he threw an orange at the teacher or hit him between the eyes with a paper clip, as in New York or Tokyo? . . . 'That would be Monday night detention for three to five hours, plus six of the best, plus no more football or swimming for the rest of the term . . .'

"At this point, I have not started to worry about whether Jonathan's personality or his ego is being damaged by discipline ... I am just basking in the warm glow of an unbelievable transformation that makes life so calm and peaceful where once it was so raucous."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.