Act 22 opens on a beautiful day off school, and the narrator laments the fact that the school's methods of contact are so poorly suited to the needs of a middle-class student. He laments that the students hide in empty classrooms and in the thickets around the school grounds, and that the tower clock is often deserted. He wonders why the prefects keep looking away from the bushes, and wonders aloud why the head prefect keeps looking away. The prefects are wearing rose colored glasses, and he wonders why they are wearing dog collars. The head prefect is wearing a dog collar, he says, because it looks like a dog's collar. The dog collar is a cruel insult, he remarks, and this is why he hates men. He also criticizes the prefect for treating the students like slaves, and for giving the students so little in return for their generous donations.