Giddy and guileless Grammar Girls Cartoons

1964 December BGGS Magazine, artist Isabella Richard p34

In the science class sketch, Isabella comments: ‘It was generally understood that chemistry was about making stinks—maybe an apocryphal kind of terminology—anyway that’s the point of this slightly amusing sketch. A student with a peg on the nose and an apprehensive teacher. I don’t remember if she is supposed to be Mrs Castledine (our Science teacher) or just a generic mistress’. We even see two students wearing lab coats, as was the requirement of the time (Power, 2024). While on the surface, the classroom might have been an orderly space, the sketches reveal the dynamics and personalities that were allowed to flourish in these contexts. And, it is often the expressions on the faces that provide the most amusement.