Comment on George Bernard Shaw's Maxim / Gabbitas–Thring

Norman Moss comments on G B Shaw’s maxim:

Those that can, do. Those that can’t, teach.

I agree, the maxim sounds witty but in fact it is nonsense. Some people can do, some people can teach, some can do both. Someone I know went to a weekend course in creative writing, and she said an accomplished novelist there was an excellent teacher. I have spent a lot of my life getting people to explain things to me, particularly scientists. Some are good at explaining what they do in terms that I, a non-scientists could understand, some were not good at it, some could not be bothered. There was no correlation between this and their ability as scientists.
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Ronald Searle: Gabbitas and Thring trap a young man and lead him off to be a master

The name Gabbitas-Thring is one that I have been familiar with all my adult life. However, this agency for the recruitment of schoolmasters — as its former sole function appears to have been — has always had a rather ghostly existence in my mind. And I confess that I've tended to think of it as (historically) the last — if not the first — refuge of humanities graduates for whom there were limited employment opportunities, and a decided disinclination for pen pushing (and in all likelihood a positive horror of trade and industry). Ronald Searle’s delightfully wicked cartoon — here illustrated from HOW TO BE TOPP A guide to Sukcess for tiny pupils, including all there is to kno about SPACE, by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle. Max Parrish. 1954 — can only have reinforced my overall impression. Insofar as my mental picture was true, it must be admitted that it was understandable that young men used to a fairly comfortable life–style, and educated in Classics, English Literature, or History, should have baulked at the prospect of life outside of academic circles (or publishing). Unfit and untrained for law, banking, medicine, engineering, etc., what else could they do?

However, it does not do to generalise too much, and if the impression I have outline above has some historical truth to it, it remains true that Gabbitas–Thring have provided some of the best teachers to some of the best schools — and that pupils from those schools have gone on to become high achievers. Equally, Gabbitas Education continues to thrive — as they always have done — globally, as may be seen by accessing their website: http://www.gabbitas.co.uk/ Also of interest is the short history of Gabbitas http://www.gabbitas.co.uk/history/ from which the following poem is quoted:

A Letter to Lord Byron

The only thing you never turned your hand to
Was teaching at a boarding school.
Today it's a profession that seems grand to
Those whose alternative's an office stool;
To many an unknown genius postmen bring
Typed notices from Rabbitarse and String.

W H Auden, 1937