Kids struggling at school should emulate Winston; he had to battle too

_{Churchill at Harrow School}

Schoolchildren battling with exams should take heart from the greatest man of modern times. Winston Churchill had difficulties at school too.

“I had scarcely passed my twelfth birthday when I entered the inhospitable regions of examinations . . . These examinations were a great trial to me. The subjects which were dearest to examiners were almost invariably those I fancied least. I would have liked to be examined in history, poetry and writing essays. The examiners, on the other hand, were partial to Latin and mathematics. The questions which they asked on both these subjects were almost always those to which I was unable to suggest a satisfactory answer. I should have liked to be asked to say what I knew. They always tried to ask what I did not know. When I would have willingly displayed my knowledge, they sought to expose my ignorance. This sort of treatment had only one result: I did not do well in examinations.*”

Thus spoke the man who produced more books, wrote more words, than Shakespeare and Dickens combined. Churchill dictated his books, such as a “A History of the English Speaking Peoples”, while sitting up in bed in his pink romper suit dictating to Mrs Hill. His cat, Nelson, would be sprawled tummy in the air at the foot of the bed. Churchill would stop dictating from time to time and say, “Cat, darling.”

Kids can have no better role model than Churchill. If you turn away from mathematics or languages, because you don’t get them at all, you are emulating the great man. Like him, read widely, voraciously, from entomology to cosmology. Read about Sir Winston’s love of animals and be like him. On his estate at Chartwell he had ducks and geese. One goose he called the Flag Lieutenant because it reminded him of a naval officer. Whenever Churchill walked around his estate, the Flag Lieutenant would march two paces behind him. Churchill also had dogs named Rufus, one after the other. Aside from Nelson, he had a cat called Jock. It is a tradition upheld to this day that there should always be at Chartwell a Jock. The current incumbent is the 17th.

• The quotation is from “My Early Life” and begins his chapter on difficulties as a child at Harrow. Like many people who achieved greatness later in life (Obama, Clinton) Churchill had a hard time when he was child. He was neglected, often abandoned, by his parents, Lord Randolph Churchill and Jennie Jerome. But Churchill, perhaps because he had to fend for himself, developed a steeliness of character. He refused to be daunted. He soldiered on. KBO.

A fine role model for any child, indeed.