I remember being very affected (in a negative way) by the public castration of Mr. W, and that wasn't even seminar, that was a "regular" school meeting.
http://wwf.fornits.com/viewtopic.php?t=21123That kind of climate seemed almost "normal" to me at the time, given the frequency with which it occurred... No doubt my social maturity at the time (i.e.,
none) played into this kind of acquiescence. I don't recall talking to
anyone about it afterwards. I thought that that was just how things were done, I guess, when a school was so committed to bringing out people's best, their unique potential, blah blah blah... But I remembered it, vividly, as some kind of traumatic event all these years.
I can remember certain family seminars too. The heat and the fear in the room would be palpable. So many people crammed into a tiny room, and it was hot, with little or no ventilation... being at that time, one of the classrooms in the Academic Wing of the Mansion. The aroma of stress given off by a human body in confinement can not easily be forgotten.
The fathers would all squirm in their hard plastic chairs with uncomfortable anticipation. A lot of clearing of throats as things got under way. The mothers were less uncomfortable, or, perhaps, did not show it so well. Joe always liked the mothers more, as a group. He thought they were "more in touch with their feelings." Of course they were more malleable, a la
My Fair Lady. That's kind of difficult for a dad to do. I can remember Sam Edgar's dad blinking nervously behind his spectacles; his mom cool as a cucumber, poised for the inevitable.
