The Last Samurai

Today was Saturday. I read Book 1 of the Argonautica. It is longer than I thought. I read up to line 558 and I mastered 30 Japanese characters thoroughly and the rest of the time I practised tying knots.

3 October

Today was Sunday. I read Book 1 of the Argonautica up to line 1011 and I mastered another 30 Japanese characters and I practised some more knots and I read Half Mile Down.

MY FOURTH WEEK AT SCHOOL

4 October

Today I could have finished the Argonautica.

3

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11 October, 1993

Today Miss Lewis gave me a note to take to Sibylla. She said this could not go on.

I gave the note to Sibylla and I do not know what it said but I do not think Miss Lewis told her what really happened. Sibylla read the note and she said, ‘What!’ and then she looked at me and said, ‘Well, you must feel good after throwing so many people around.’

I said, ‘Well, do you want me to go and die? Do you want me to jump out a window?’

Sibylla said now that I was 6 I was old enough to act like a rational human being.

I said Miss Lewis told me to be a cooperative member of the class but when I tried to help people she said they should do their own work but when I tried to do my own work and take Algebra Made Easy to class she said I should try to be more involved and be a cooperative member of the class. I said, ‘We are supposed to be working at our own speed but whenever I try she tells me to stop and whenever I ask a question she does not know the answer. She does not know anything I do not know already so I don’t think there is any point in going to school.’

Sibylla said, ‘But you’ve only been at school a month. How do you know Miss Lewis doesn’t know anything you don’t know? You can’t possibly make up your mind on so little evidence.’

I said, ‘Well, how much more evidence do you need?’

Sibylla said, ‘What?’

I said, ‘How much more evidence? Do you want me to go for another week or another two weeks or how long?’

Sibylla said, ‘I think you are legally required to go until you are 16.’

Sibylla said, ‘Please don’t cry,’ but at first I couldn’t stop. No wonder Miss Lewis doesn’t know anything because we have to go whether she knows anything or not.

I said, ‘Let’s take two people about to undergo 10 years of horrible excruciating boredom at school, A dies at the age of 6 from falling out a window and B dies at the age of 6 + n where n is a number less than 10, I think we would all agree that B’s life was not improved by the additional n years.’

Sibylla started walking up and down.

I said, ‘I could just take some books and ride the Circle Line or go to a museum by myself every day. Or I could take the bus over to the Royal Festival Hall and work there, and I could save up my questions and you could just explain things for an hour a day.’

Sibylla said, ‘I’m sorry but you are too small to go out by yourself.’

I said I could work here and I wouldn’t be in the way. I said, ‘What if I promised to ask just 10 questions a day and only at one time it would hardly take any time at all.’

Sibylla said, ‘No.’

I said 5 questions which was still more than Miss Lewis ever answered and Sibylla shook her head and I said, ‘Well, I won’t ask any questions ever again, if I ever ask a question you can make me go back to school but I promise I won’t.’

Sibylla just said she was sorry.

I said, ‘What kind of argument is that?’

Sibylla said, ‘There is an argument but it is not one I can discuss with you. You will have to go to school and do the best you can.’

She said she would go and talk to Miss Lewis tomorrow after school.

12 October, 1993

Today Sibylla came after school to talk to Miss Lewis. Miss Lewis said I should go to the other end of the class but Sibylla said, ‘No.’

Miss Lewis said, ‘All right, then.’ She said I was a disruptive element in the class. She said there were other things in life besides academic achievement and that often children who had been forcefed at an early age had trouble adjusting to their peers and were often socially maladjusted all their lives.

‘La formule est banale,’ I said.

Miss Lewis said, ‘That will do, Stephen.’ She said she was prepared to adapt the programme to stimulate a gifted child but that it must be made clear to me that whatever my achievements they did not give me the right to disrupt the class and interfere with the learning process of the other children. She said that whenever I was in a group with other children she invariably found that the other children had failed to remain on task. She said she would make every effort to integrate me into the class but that she could not do this if everything she tried to achieve during the day was undermined as soon as I went home, and that it would only work if there was a genuine partnership between home and school.

I said, ‘Does that mean I don’t have to go to school any more?’