Transatlantic Connections: American Exchanges at MGS

The first American exchange of which we are aware was a brief connection in 1963-4 forged by Arthur Kahn as a Fulbright exchange teacher at Clayton High School, St. Louis, Missouri. Louis Deall from Clayton High filled his place in the Physics department. Both teachers wrote about their experiences in Ulula. Deall took a while to acclimatise to MGS:

“Then there was the time I assigned six problems in graphing to one first form; when they said: “Please sir, we don’t have any graph paper;” little did I dream that my casual remark to, “make your own graph paper” (meaning brief sketch), would result in thirty boys ruling 100 lines vertically and 100 lines horizontally six times each! I’ll never forget the thirty hostile looks received the next day which seemed to glare, “Yankee go home!” and the letter received from one parent saying in effect: “Sir—You are a cad!” Thereafter an order was issued to all classes that despite any statement I made in the future, the manufacture of graph paper was to cease.”

The next exchange would happen in 1973. High Master Peter Mason had met John Kemper, the Head of Phillips Academy in Massachusetts and had discussed the possibility of setting up an exchange programme. Kemper retired on the grounds of ill health in autumn 1971, and died of cancer that Christmas. However, Mason also knew Kemper’s successor, Ted Sizer. It was agreed to set up an exchange centred on drama. The Americans visited MGS first in March 1973, bringing with them a production of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. The Academy newsletter reported:

“Although the students will attend regular classes while at Manchester, a special curriculum has been set up to increase understanding of the region in which Manchester is located. Short courses which focus on the literature of the Industrial Revolution, and background information on the Romantic poets, mainly Wordsworth, will complement visits to museums and points of interest in the area. The students will also visit London…visits to Cambridge, Oxford and Stratford-on-Avon are planned.“

The visit was a success and the American students wrote a piece on their experience at MGS. It was published in Ulula and entitled “Colonial Impressions”:

“Visually the school suggests a formal atmosphere: school uniforms, briefcases, gowned masters. There is something mysteriously sobering about pouring schoolboys into blues and greys. But in spite of this sense of civility, the noise and antics of the younger forms remind one of puppy behavior!

In one respect the Manchester classroom is even less formal than the American: lateness was met with a smile from the master and only a faintly embarrassed look from the student. We seem less tolerant of tardiness; perhaps this is a function of our time-oriented, pressured culture.“

On the reciprocal visit, MGS took its production of Twelfth Night across the Atlantic and Classics teacher, Martin Fisher, remembers that it was particularly impressive. Influenced by noted theatre producer Peter Brook, the production utilized minimal scenery and props, and the cast wore striking velvet costumes created by talented parent Joan Vickers. The play was reviewed in the Academy newsletter:

“There were several reasons why the production succeeded. First and foremost, the Britishers thoroughly enjoyed themselves in the play and were all very enthusiastic about what they were doing. They had a total commitment to the show, having spent a good deal more time on it than is usually spent in mainstage drama around here. Also, Director David Wylde chose a play that would appeal to a high school audience (not to mentioned played by a high school cast) and he therefore filled the show with various drolleries intended for that audience.“

A programme for the MGS production of “Twelfth Night” – note the crests of both schools

The MGS boys enjoyed experiencing an American school and wrote in Ulula:

“The atmosphere was free, easy and relaxed, academically less tense and socially more fulfilling…Our departure, after a ten day stay, was unashamedly sad and tearful. Some very deep links had been forged and relationships made. The atmosphere of friendliness, security and goodwill was a difficult one to leave.”

Behind the scenes, the exchanges led to regular genial correspondence between Mason and Sizer, with both men commenting on the political situations in their respective countries and the impact on education. In 1973 Sizer responded to Mason’s anxieties about the probable removal of the direct grant scheme:

“I can imagine your concern over losing the government grant…From this side of the Atlantic Mr. Heath looks in more than a little trouble, but one never knows what foreign papers really reflect. I have also kept track of the debate over the James Commission Report and now Mrs. Thatcher’s White Paper”

By 1974, Mason had decided to combine an exchange trip to the States with efforts to research the American Voucher System as a possibility for MGS and similar schools once the direct grant was abolished. He travelled as a Walter Hines Page Scholar with the English Speaking Union and wrote to Sizer:

“I believe in fact you are one of the main experts on the Voucher System and I wonder if you could let me know whom I should try to meet and where to go? New Hampshire is clearly one centre…I would be very grateful for any advice you can give so that I can get on with planning.“

Mason later went on to write a report on the Voucher Scheme for HMC, though it was the Assisted Places Scheme that would later replace the Direct Grant system.

The exchanges continued in 1974, 6, 9 and 1983. In 1974, Peter Mason himself was co-producer of A Servant of Two Masters alongside David Wylde and the cast included a young Nicholas Hytner. It is said that the experience led to Hytner deciding to focus on moving in theatre production rather than acting. The 1976 production of The Recruiting Officer starred Richard Hytner and Michael Crick. At Easter 1979, MGS boys took Oh What A Lovely War to Massachusetts, whilst the Americans brought The Contrast.

The final visit was in 1983, with a production of She Stoops to Conquer. The programme is held in the archives and includes the following potted history of the exchange:

“The exchange, begun in 1973, has visited Manchester Grammar School, the Forest School, Sherborne School, Wanstead High School, Dean Close School, Bristol Grammar School, Eton College and Dulwich College. This is the tenth anniversary of the original exchange with Manchester Grammar School, this April we will play host to Manchester Grammar School, and their production of Goldsmith’s “She Stoops to Conquer” on the 15^th and 16^th.” Where MGS leads, Eton follows!

This production would prove to be the last. However, in the late 1980s a similar exchange was set up, this time with the University of Chicago Laboratory School (known informally as “U-High”). Patricia Hindman, a teacher at U-High, had joined MGS as part of a teacher exchange in 1985, whilst MGS sent out Daniel Kelly to be her counterpart in Chicago.

The connection led to a new theatrical exchange which began in 1988 with Jeremy Ward taking a group of MGS boys to Chicago to perform Twelfth Night. U-High then visited the following year with a production of The Matchmaker.

Programme for “Alice in Wonderland”, performed in the US and the UK in 1993

In their final visit in 1992, MGS boys performed Dr Faustus in Chicago, and the following year U-High staged a production of Alice in Wonderland.

Rachel Kneale – with thanks to Martin Fisher for useful information on the exchanges, and to Paige Roberts, Director of Archives and Special Collections at Phillips Academy