At boarding schools the heroes are the people who play sports; they are the people whom the other boys look up to. The academic boys, however clever and successful, are never in that position. 

I was hired to tutor a very clever boy, who was potentially one of the cleverest boys in his school, but he was so intimidated by not being a games player and “one of the boys” that his academic work had suffered. My job, although his parents were not aware of it, was to give him his confidence back; they thought that he was either lazy or not clever enough to keep up with the other boys in his class. This was not true at all – he had the potential to do very well in the class, but didn’t use his potential to the full. 

I was with John for three months and it became apparent to me that his intelligence was well above average and it took me some time to find out what was at the root of the trouble. His work improved very quickly with me and I was determined to give him his confidence back. I started playing squash with him every day and he came to like it and, although he will never be a great squash player, there was no reason why he should not enjoy the game to a reasonable standard. He was amazed that he was able to play at all; he did not think that he had any ball sense, but squash does not need ball sense or any natural ability – some of the world’s great squash players have been bad at tennis, cricket etc. and those are the games that one is judged by at school by the other boys. John was terribly excited that he was able to play squash reasonably well – certainly well enough to play with other boys at school – and during the three months that I was with him he became much more confident and he started to find his studies effortless. 

When John  went back to school his squash elevated him in the eyes of his fellow pupils and he gained the self-confidence that enabled him to work well at his studies. 

I have not seen John again, but I have kept in touch with his parents, whom I got to know very well, and they say that he is a changed boy and is top of his class – a position he should have been in before I started tutoring him. And he plays squash on one of the school teams! PH