Subject: Fwd: Transition
Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2008 06:41:46 EST
Dear Myron,
Please find below thelatest page of the biography.
Transition  As Myron headed for Aberystwyth he remembered what the transition the Craigcefnparc Primary School and what a typical day at Pontardawe Grammar School had been like.  The day started around 7.00 am, because the bus from Craigcefnparc ran early at about 7.50 am to reach the school early.  The bust was often severely overcrowded with the law of the jungle prevailing.  This was tough on the smaller 11 or 12 year olds who were hauled out of their seats by the larger individuals, but was useful as a kind of rugby training.  The contingent from Craigcefnparc, were then put down for hard labor on arrival at the school, being required to move a large number of chairs from classrooms to the assembly hall.  This was because the earliest arrivals were considered to be work fodder.  The classes started at about 9.50 am, and were divided up throughout the day, with as many as fifteen subjects being taught, gradually reduced to about nine as pupils progressed through school into the older year groups.  In each class home work was allocated, so numerous notebooks were carried around between school and home.  The bus ride back to the village was again jungle law, seats gradually being cleared before the village was reached at about 4.15 pm.  In winter the Craigcefnparc contingent never saw the village in daylight except on weekends.  After a meal Myron started on his homework about five pm, and went on often past midnight.  As examinations approached the routine was supplemented by learning for examinations every term.  Up to forty five written examinations were given every term.  After the examinations the papers were marked, and the results read out in class.  Being something of a glutton for punishment Myron thrived in this environment considering that this was as good as any public school regime and it was a really tough discipline which was good preparation for the real world confronting school leavers.  Many did not take this routine seriously however with sometimes farcical results.  Myron’s recalls that that the whole Latin class used his homework for copying. They just came in the mornings, and copied what they could out of his work. The teacher was well aware of this and gave one of them minus five out of a hundred, nothing for the exam and five off for copying. O and A level examinations were rigorously controlled by the WJEC and took place in the assembly hall.  UCW examinations were controlled by external examiners.  The quality of the education was therefore kept uniform throughout Britain.  Myron kept up this rigorous routine from age 11 to 21, when he graduated the top first of his year of 1971. Now it was time to adapt his routines to his new life in Aberystwyth.
  Freshman       Myron became a freshman in the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth in the September 1968. He was to study chemistry there at the university’s chemistry department, which was called the Edward Davies Chemical Laboratories (EDCL), which had been built in 1909 from a bequest of the Davies family of Llandinam. The Department was thriving and one of the best chemistry departments of its type in the world.  Kerry
Many thanks again – only one minor typo, 8.50 am not 9.50 am.
