1. What made you join The Doon School? And did you enjoy Doon?
Doon was the only school I was registered for because I believe of the family connection. Until then I was taught at home. Interestingly I was admitted against an unexpected vacancy 10 days after school started.

2. Tell us a little bit about what life was like for a dosco when you were in school.
Life was full of learning and fun both inside and outside the classroom. The teaching was largely open ended (no rote learning) and often made interesting by straying from the syllabus (a luxury not permitted today). Some instances of this I can recall are listening to Wagner during an English class with Holdy or naming a bird sitting on the window of our classroom during a class test. Sundays were rarely days of rest – it was either cycling to Tunwala or going rock climbing or working in the art school or workshop or making up the fourth in a bachelor master’s bridge game! There was also the now defunct quota work where in order to get school colours we had to exceed our allotted labour quota over a number of years. There really was a rich programme of learning that kept us busy and taught us skills and attitudes that made us feel responsible as citizens.

3. What do you remember most about your time as a student?
It would be difficult to recount all the many memories – one usually remembers the happy ones and ofcourse what one recounts when friends are around is not the same as when one is writing for an interview. But it was the fun I had at school that made me choose school mastering as a career.

Did you enjoy being headmaster of Doon? What is your fondest memory of that period?
I enjoyed it enormously but always regret that I was not younger. There was a tendency in those days to think that Doon required an older person. Considering I had become Principal of Mayo at the age of 33 I feel I was ready for Doon at least 5 years earlier. Once again it would be difficult to pinpoint a single memory that I could recount but the general interaction with staff and students was a very relaxed one and made it easy for me to cope with problems. The general intellectual level of boys was high which was another plus point.

5. What achievements as headmaster are you most proud of?
I think I was able to liberalise the general atmosphere greatly and also raise the academic standards without putting additional pressure on the boys. I was often accused of being too liberal!

6. If you could be headmaster for another year, what would you do or change?
I would have changed the regime for the seniors so that their role in the school would be
a more responsible one and their attitudes more mature – the prevailing idea of seniority and its privileges tends to encourage physical violence towards younger boys considered as “juniors”. The plans were already there but I needed to convince my Governors.

7. Do you feel you made any mistakes while being headmaster? If so, what would you count as a mistake?
I think my error of judgement was being too trusting of staff and boys and therefore frequently having a feeling of being let down. But I believe and always will that’s erring on the right side!

8. How do you feel the community in terms of the students teachers, parents, old boys, administrative staff support the school and the headmaster?
On the whole they were very supportive.

9. Do you have any suggestions or thoughts on how the Doon community can be made stronger and how we can each support the school more?
There are very few schools that have such a supportive Old Boys community.

10. Do you feel Doon School lives up to the ethos and value system set forth by the founders of the school especially your grandfather?
On the whole Yes. Look at the objectives: Espirit de corp, teamwork, no caste or creed, fair play, freedom of speech, courage to stand up for what is right and honourable, spirit of tolerance, questioning mind and so on.

11. You’re now recognized as one of the foremost experts on education in India. Given that, do you think Doon still deserves the reputation it has of being one of the best schools?
I am flattered by the description of me but let me say that among all the schools I was associated with including the ones in the UK I found the Doon School to be the best for the kind of education these schools set out to impart.

12. How do you feel education in India can be improved and what do you think are the most pressing priorities?
I believe we require the entire learning-teaching method to be more open ended where students construct their own knowledge and teachers act as facilitators and not as knowledge givers. Apart from the skills of the 3R’s all other learning must be based on students learning to collaborate with each other and their teachers to analyse, synthesise and communicate. The teacher’s role is key to this and requires enormous changes in prevailing teacher education courses.

13. What do you think are the most important ingredients for a school to succeed? Does Doon still have those qualities?
Good facilities, good teachers and dynamic leadership and a vision. Doon certainly strives for these.

14. Do you have any suggestions, thoughts or pieces of advice for doscos of today?
I wish more would join careers in science and technology and administration.

15. And finally, any suggestions or thoughts about Doon Online?
It’s a real labour of love - I don’t know how you do it. Keep it up.

Shomie Das
165 H Class of ‘51