Campion goes co-ed

Illustration/Uday Mohite

As a kid growing up in 70s South Bombay, the city was small. Well, it felt small. The adage that townies needed a visa to go to the "burbs" was true, certainly in the 70s - in a non-sea link, non-coastal road, non-highway Bombay, the city kind of ended in Worli. The BEST bus that took me to my school located in Fort, took a circuitous route, around SoBo, and Central Bombay - Pedder Road, Nana Chowk, down Opera House, via Kennedy Bridge, into Pydhonie, Lamington road, Girgaum, Dongri, Muhammed Ali Road, Byculla, through Colaba and ending at Fort. My particular interest lay in the many schools that we passed on the way, girls schools, boys schools, and co-educational institutions, Hill Grange, Greenlawns, Villa Theresa, Bombay International, New Era, Queen Marys, Robert Money, Christchurch, Xaviers Academy, ANZA, and as we came into the real South part of Bombay, St Annes, Scholar, Fort Convent.

As a co-educational Cathedralite, three schools came into our reckoning, one was the all-girls, JB Petit, our immediate neighbour in Fort. The other two were boys only, St Mary's in Byculla and Campion in Colaba.

JB Petit was principled by the legendary Miss Darasha, nurturing young ladies that came out of that institution, the ultimate girls school, individualistic, and independent. In a regular, binary age, with no "he/she/ they/ them" confusing matters, JB girls, were clearly "she". Mary's was the polar opposite, a male bastion, the envy of all us who loved sport, a massive football ground, the boys who came out of there, rough and tough, we called them, and they were markedly "he".

Campion was a boys school, but not as alpha-male as Mary's. From a co-educational standpoint, we looked at boys' schools with a solid superiority - "dude, we feel sorry for you, we have girls!" we'd say to them.

The Campion boys were up for this challenging barb, - their riposte - "We can jump over the Fort Convent Wall anytime, and we have access to the full school', this was a truism, as both schools shared a wall.

It's a fact, that those of us, Baby Boomers who were schooled in Bombay, you sized up, judged, a guy or girl, based on the school they went to.

"Hmmmm, so you went to St Mary's? ISC or SSC?"

" You were in GD Somani… was that GD or BD Somani?"

One thing was for sure, for infinity, an inpregnable truth - JB would always be for girls, and Marys and Campion would forever be for boys.

Till last week, when the unthinkable happened, the first little girl walked through the Campion school gates. History was made. And so as Campion turns co-ed, oddly, I served on the board, I didn't do much, but I sensed that this was a school that believed the only constant was change.

"Amazing forward step", "inclusivity", "progressive" … were the words and phrases making the rounds. And then I began to ask teachers, friends from the 70s, who were now teachers… in JB and Mary's, and Bombay International and boarding schools like Doon and Mayo, "Education was different in our time, Rahul". "Boys and Girls were different in our time, Rahul?" "Peer pressure has hit another level" "The pressure on kids today, Gen Z, Millennials…"

"Don't agree with co-education, and not for Campion becoming co-ed," said a teacher- friend from my college years, who now teaches in an all-girls school - "I'm dead against co-ed, girls can do and do and do just fine on their own, boys are a distraction, in co-education, inclusivity is fine but… hormones are raging, and boys will be boys, boisterous, macho and masculine, in girls schools, it's a level-playing field, sure, there's competition, but it's purely academic, throw in the boys and all hell breaks loose, the dynamics change, status becomes an issue."

Point taken, Pros and cons.

Either way, have to say, in my book, Campion School, becomes a C(h)ampion school.

Rahul daCunha is an adman, theatre director/playwright, filmmaker. Reach him at rahul.dacunha@mid-day.com