Interview with Christine Jackson, 4 May 2010

Abstract

Christine Jackson was born in 1937. She attended an extremely over-crowded infants’ and then primary school in rural Oxfordshire during the war, full of evacuees. By the time she was nine she was in a class of 60 with ages ranging from 9 to 11 and just one teacher. Unsurprisingly very little history was taught; she remembered learning about the Romans in both schools. Nevertheless she passed the 11+ and went to a small girls’ grammar school in Oxfordshire. Here they learnt history in a formal way, starting with the Egyptians. The same general teacher also taught them elocution so they would lose their rural accents. Christine remembered schools broadcasts on the radio, the occasional school trip, and encouragement to visit the museums in Oxford. She chose to do history O level covering the period 1789 to 1936, which she found very interesting and described how they were encouraged to read relevant novels like those of Dickens. Christine did A level history which also covered the modern period. The teaching was very different at A level with only 3 of them in the class so there was a great deal of discussion as well as intensive reading. She went on to university and later joined the civil service. Interviewed by Jenny Keating