Churchill noticed that the school song written in his honour contained the line 'Not less we praise in darker days.' He obtained the headmaster's permission to change one word: 'darker' to 'sterner.' The distinction was characteristically Churchillian. Dark days suggest despair and decline. Sterner days suggest challenge and resolve. By reframing the narrative from darkness to greatness, Churchill transformed wartime hardship into a source of national pride, telling the students they should thank God that each of them, according to their stations, had been allowed to play a part in making these days memorable in history.