The Most Ignorant Boy in the School

“The most ignorant boy in the school” is a quotation attributed to a headmaster of an English prep-school, Wychwood, concerning one of his seven-year old pupils, a little boy named Gerald Durrell. The year was 1933. By 1956, ignorant Gerald was a five-time author who had just published a best-selling book that remains in print to this day. Two years after his first book was published, he signed the lease on Les Augrès Manor on the English Channel island of Jersey for his own zoo. That zoo, now known as the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, is a breeding zoo for animals threatened with extinction. Part of the story of young Gerald Durrell’s fifty year journey from an un-schooled, animal-mad “ignorant boy” to receiving the Order of the British Empire (OBE) from the Prince of Wales, is told in that 1956 book, My Family and Other Animals, a book that, after being produced for the big screen, has been produced for the small screen.

That book was the first of the books on Gerald Durrell’s life that I read. His biography is the latest. I mention this because the books about his childhood on Corfu are electric unschooling stories. His biography shows the darker side of the “whys” of his life, his father’s early death, his mother’s resultant bouts with alcohol, and the effect of WWII on their family and friends. Still the biography celebrates his unorthodox upbringing and his lack of official qualifications. He is quoted as saying, Yes, a degree might have helped – but would it? In the long run it might have killed the other side of me. Because of no job, which was because of no degree, only the need to write for a living compelled me to write at all. Also, the degree idea is waved about like a flag to such an extent that one thinks one needs it – when it’s only society needing it. These absolute dolts in my own field have the application to store knowledge like a squirrel and regurgitate it all over ruled paper at the right moment. That shows a sense of inferiority on my part, doesn’t it?

Gerald was born in Jamshedpur, India, the youngest child of the third generation of Anglo-Indians of the British Raj. After moving to England following his father’s death he was enrolled in a kindergarten under the tutelage of “Auntie” and “Squig,” two ladies who encouraged his interest in collecting wee beasties. It was the only schooling he completed. His older brother, Lawrence, known to the world as the author of The Alexandria Quartet, had an opposite opinion of his younger brother’s interests: “The boy’s mad! Snails in his pockets . . .!” A year or so later Gerald’s mother enrolled him in a school called Wychwood where he impressed the headmaster only with his “ignorance.” Gerald developed such an aversion to Wychwood that on schooldays he became fevered. With each episode the family doctor was called to the boy’s bed; he said that the fever was a “psychosomatic reaction.” The doctor named this reaction, “school pain.” Gerald’s short school career continued that term until the school sneak lied about Gerald’s involvement in a misdemeanor. He was given “six of the best on his bare bottom.” ‘Six of the best’ is a euphemism for a beating of six strokes, delivered at full strength, with a cane. That ended Gerald’s formal schooling. What followed is best read about in My Family and Other Animals.

When I read the book early in my homeschooling career it at once relieved and inspired me concerning unschooling, and perhaps, during my more timid moments, made me glad I wasn’t either Gerald’s mother or one of his siblings. Reading his books gives you the exhilaration of grand theater viewed from the safety of the printed page such as with a most compelling incident: the Adventure of the Scorpions in the Matchbox.

At the beginning of the "Adventure," young Gerald found a family of black scorpions and planned to add them to his growing collection of local fauna. He knew his family would object because he kept his animal collection in the house, something that annoyed his mother and siblings. Despite their annoyance, Gerald sequestered Mama Scorpion and the kids in a matchbox in order to smuggle them into the house. Before he got to his room, though, he was called to supper. He placed the matchbox on the mantle piece, went in to supper and forgot about the scorpions. After supper, his oldest brother, Lawrence, accustomed to an after-dinner cigarette, took down the matchbox intending to light up. He opened the box and reached in for a match. The ensuing pandemonium is marvelously described.

Lawrence flings the mother scorpion and her brood onto the table. She lands near Leslie, the next brother, and, using his napkin, Leslie flips the scorpion so that she rolls along the table and comes to rest near Gerald’s sister Margo. Margo dashes a glass of water at Mama Scorpion, but misses and drenches her own mother. Mrs. Durrell loses her breath from the shock and sits gasping. In the commotion, Mama Scorpion disappears under Leslie’s plate. Roger, the dog, joins in the mayhem by running around the room barking and, in the confusion, bites the maid. “’It’s that bloody boy again. . .’ bellows Larry. ‘Look out! Look out! They’re coming!’ screams Margo. . . . ‘But how did the scorpions get on the table, dear?’ ‘That bloody boy . . . . . Every matchbox in the house is a deathtrap’ ‘Hit it with your knife . . . your knife. . . Go on, hit it . . .”

After the upheaval subsides, and Leslie is dissuaded from slaughtering every last member of Famille Scorpion, Gerald scoops up the babies in a teaspoon, returns them to their mother’s back, and repatriates them to the garden wall. Decades later at the 25^th anniversary celebration of the Jersey Zoo The Princess Royal (Princess Anne to Americans), the Trust’s patron, presented him with a gift from his zoo staff: a silver matchbox complete with gilt scorpions.

In addition to modeling unschooling from the child’s viewpoint (more for an audience of older readers than for young children) Mr. Durrell’s books showcase mentoring. One of the chief personalities of My Family and Other Animals, and a sequel, Birds, Beasts and Relatives, is Theodore, who was Dr. Theodore Stephanides, a medical doctor. Dr. Stephanides gained a form of immortality through the names of the microscopic water organisms named for him: Cytherois stephanidesi, Thermocyclops stephanidesi, and Schizopera stephanidesi. He was a soldier, an author, a poet, a translator, an advocate of public health who worked to fight malaria, and the man for whom the moon crater Römer-A is unofficially named Stephanides. He was also Gerald Durrell’s mentor.

Although Theodore had a daughter around Gerald’s age, as he was 40 when he met the 10-year-old boy, he treated Gerald with respect, encouraged his interests, and allowed the boy to work with him. It is a joy to read one man’s version of another man’s kindliness to the child he was.

This short description by no means exhausts the cast of characters in the book. In addition to Gerald’s brothers, sister, mother and Theodore, there is Spiro, a Greek taxi driver who spent some years in Chicago. Spiro is described by Gerald as a “great, brown ugly angel” whose first words to the Durrell family as they haggle with local taxi drivers are, “Hoy! Why don’ts you have someones who can talks your own language?” To complete the cast of characters, add the tutors, the local Corfiots, Larry’s friends, Margo’s suitors, Leslie’s guns and, of course, the animals. Decidedly, the books are grand theater.

I first read these books at the beginning of the homeschooling adventure I shared with my three younger children. The books inspired me and encouraged me to allow unschooling to take its course, especially after I learned of the zoo on Jersey. I will admit I played the role of Gerald Durrell’s dreaded tutors, but with about as much effect. During our schooldays, our rabbit amused and distracted us, our cats dodged the rabbit, and the children and I took advantage of every “nice” day to do “nice day things.” Nice sunny days gave us bicycle rides in the woods. Nice snowy days brought outdoor snow fights and the building of a small snow-rabbit outside the back door that was so realistic we did double-takes until it melted. Nice windy days found us out at a local lake with the kids standing on bluffs to see if the wind would catch their upheld jackets enough for them to fly (it didn’t). Nice rainy days meant cocoa and books. The rest of the time the children followed their own interests. My children have since gone off to college and have all pursued the areas that they unschooled. I am happy to say that one is in vet school and has dreams of either zoos or Africa; she has survived her first round of rabies shots. [she has since graduated]

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Books and productions by, or about, Gerald Durrell:

Available from the Durrell Wildlife Online Shop:

The Aye-aye and I
The Authorised Biography
Catch Me A Colobus
Menagerie Manor
My Family and Other Animals
The Stationary Ark

The Amateur Naturalist (naturalist handbook)
The Ark's Anniversary
Ark On The Move
The Bafut Beagles
Beasts in My Belfry
A Bevy of Beasts
Birds, Beasts and Relatives
The Donkey Rustlers
The Drunken Forest
Encounters With Animals
Encyclopedia of Natural History
The Fantastic Dinosaur Adventure
Fauna and Family
Fillets of Plaice
Gaia State of the Ark Atlas: World Conservation in Action
The Garden of the Gods
Golden Bats and Pink Pigeons
How to Shoot an Amateur Naturalist
Marrying Off Mother and Other Stories
The Mockery Bird
Ourselves and Other Animals
The Overloaded Ark (his first book)
The Picnic and Other Inimitable Stories
Rosy is My Relative
Three Tickets to Adventure
Two in the Bush
The Whispering Land
A Zoo in My Luggage

Children’s books

The Battle for Castle Cockatrice
The Fantastic Flying Journey
Tobey the Tortoise

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By Lee Durrell (Gerald’s wife)

The Best of Gerald Durrell
Gerald and Lee Durrell in Russia

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By Douglas Botting:

Gerald Durrell: The Authorized Biography

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By David Hughes:

Himself and Other Animals: A Portrait of Gerald Durrell

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Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (DWCT)

The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, whose logo is the Dodo, is a breeding zoo for endangered animals. It was begun at Les Augrès Manor on the English Channel island of Jersey in 1958 with the signing of a lease. The 25^th anniversary of the zoo and the 21^st anniversary of the (then) Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust were celebrated in 1984

Mailing address:

Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust
Les Augres Manor
Trinity
Jersey
JE3 5BP

Email address for information concerning threatened animals

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