The History Boys

Alan Bennett, The History Boys (“Gli studenti di storia”) – ultima scena

The staff, Irwin in his wheelchair and the boys, who sing a verse of “Bye Bye, Blackbird”, during which we see on the video screen photographs of Hector as a young man.

Headmaster If I speak of Hector it is of enthusiasm shared, passion conveyed and seeds sown of future harvest. He loved language. He loved words. For each and every one of you, his pupils, he opened a deposit account in the bank of literature and made you all share-holders in that wonderful world of words.

Timms Some of the things he said… or quoted anyway, you never knew when it was which:

“We are mulched by the dead, though one person’s death will tell you more than a thousand.”

Lockwood There was the time he put his head down on the desk and said, “What am I doing teaching in this godforsaken school?” It was the first time I realized a teacher was a human being.

Akthar There was a contract between him and his class. Quite what the contract was or what it involved would be hard to say. But it was there.

Crowther He was stained and shabby and did unforgivable things but he led you to expect the best.

Even his death was a lesson and added to the store

Mrs Lintott Hector never bothered with what he was educating these boys for. They became solicitors, chartered accountants, teachers even, members of what used to be called the professional classes.

Two of these boys became magistrates. [Crowther and Lockwood put up their hands]

One a headmaster [Akthar puts up hand]

Pillars of a community that no longer has much use of pillars.

One put together a chain of dry-cleaners and takes drugs at the weekend. [Timms puts up hand]

Another is a tax lawyer, telling highly paid fibs and making frequent trips to the Gulf States. [Dakin acknowledges]

Dakin I like money. It’s fun.

Mrs Lintott One is a builder who carpets the Dales in handy homes. [Rudge does not put his hand up]

Rudge Is that meant to be me? I’m not putting my hand up to that. Like them or not, Rudge Homes are at least affordable homes for first-time buyers.

Mrs Lintott All right, Rudge.

Rudge Death, it’s just one more excuse to patronize. I had years of that.

Mrs Lintott Same here. If I may proceed? Hector had seen Irwin turning his boys into journalists but in the event there is only one… and on a better class of paper, a career he is always threatening to abandon in order, as he puts it, “really to write”. [Scribbs puts up his hand]

Irwin Hector said I was a journalist.

Mrs Lintott And so you were. Briefly at the school and then on TV. I enjoyed your programs but they were more journalism than history. What you call yourself now you’re in politics I’m not sure.

Irwin I’m not in politics. Who’s in politics? I’m in government.

Mrs Lintott Well you’re not in monastic history, that’s for sure. Hector would have been surprised and gratified, too, to find himself regularly recalled in the Old Boy’s Letter few of them can otherwise be bothered to read. Still, of all Hector’s boys, there is only one who truly took everything to heart, remembers everything he was ever taught… the songs, the poems, the sayings, the endings; the words of Hector never forgotten. [Posner looks at boys on either side before putting his hand up]

He lives alone in a cottage he has renovated himself, has an allotment and periodic breakdowns.

He haunts the local library and keeps a scrapbook of the achievements of his one-time classmates and has a host of friends…though only on the internet, and none in his right name or even gender. He has long since stopped asking himself where it went wrong.

Hector Finish, good lady, the bright day is done and we are for the dark.

Irwin He was a good man but I do not think there is time for his kind of teaching any more.

Scripps No. Love apart, it is the only education worth having.

Hector Pass the parcel. That’s sometimes all you can do. Take it, feel it and pass it on. Not for me, not for you, but for someone, somewhere, one day. Pass it on, boys. That’s the game I wanted you to learn. Pass it on.

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Care ragazze, cari ragazzi, siamo ormai in dirittura d’arrivo, entro poche settimane il nostro obiettivo comune sarà raggiunto e si chiuderà una fase importante della vostra vita: noi resteremo a scuola a “presidiare il fortino”, voi spiccherete il volo per nuovi orizzonti, si spera più limpidi e sgombri dalle nubi che hanno funestato questi ultimi due anni e che ancora incombono – per altri motivi.

Inutile tentare bilanci, ognuna/o di voi in cuor suo saprà riservare un angolo della sua “stanza dei ricordi” per gli anni del Liceo, anni importanti, durante i quali si stringono legami che spesso durano tutta la vita e sicuramente il venir meno della contingenza didattica relegherà in secondo piano le fatiche, le piccole frustrazioni, per esaltare invece altri dettagli ed esperienze gioiose e costruttive.

Per parte nostra, quante volte, presi dalle nostre preoccupazioni professionali, ci siamo chiesti - ed ancora ci chiederemo - se siamo riusciti a lasciare un segno, a crearci un varco nelle vostre anime, a gettare un seme di curiosità, che magari germoglierà in circostanze inaspettate. Ad ogni modo, anche se la nostra funzione è stata anche, forse soprattutto, accompagnarvi a conoscere e comprendere altre culture e linguaggi, ad indagare nei segreti della Natura, ad apprezzare le bellezze del nostro straordinario patrimonio artistico, nessuno di noi docenti ha la presunzione di essere ricordato per un sonetto in più o in meno, per una formula di chimica o di fisica imprescindibile, per quell’irrinunciabile trattato di pace, insomma per una spiegazione memorabile: ATTRAVERSO le discipline, altri erano gli obiettivi, come la correttezza, l’onestà intellettuale, lo spirito di collaborazione, l’attitudine all’ascolto. Queste sono le “competenze” che devono rimanere e che non si trovano sul web.

Dal nostro punto di vista, ciascuno di voi è cresciuto in consapevolezza, capacità organizzativa e – perché no – anche in competenze cognitive spendibili nella vostra formazione, a breve e lungo termine, e se anche solo in parte abbiamo contribuito a darvi gli strumenti per proseguire nella vostra vita futura, abbiamo ottenuto lo scopo, abbiamo “passato il testimone”!