The Full Monty
When a group of enterprising students at the William Borlase Grammar School in Marlow, England, held a brainstorming session last fall to figure out how to raise money for their sister school in South Africa, what they settled on was no bake sale. They asked their teachers to pose naked for a calendar to be sold to the general public.
The idea came from the popular Rylestone Women’s Institute calendar. The calendar, which caused a stir two years ago, was produced to raise money for leukemia research and featured a group of older ladies who tastefully—and modestly—posed au naturel.
“It was a pretty outrageous thing to ask us to do,” said Melanie Macfarlane, the music teacher at the 900-student Borlase school.
Still, 18 of the school’s 80 teachers took the students up on their offer to take it all off.
“They were very keen to take part actually,” said Charlotte Longstaff, the school’s head girl (akin to student body president) and the project’s leader. “I think they like a bit of attention.”
The pictures were shot by a London photographer, and the poses were carefully arranged so that the teachers were hidden behind props.
Biology teacher John Stebbins, one of the 11 men to take part, posed behind a strategically located cactus.
Most of the reaction to the calendar has been positive, said Ms. Longstaff. “We knew we weren’t going to please everyone,” she added.
Nearly 400 of the calendars, which run from September 2003 through December 2004, were ordered before going on sale last week. They are available at www.zest2003.co.uk.
