During my time at Gordonstoun I was periodically invited to share my views on an issue of the day with a national audience through articles in established newspapers. This sometimes helped with a right of reply with tricky issues in the wider world but, almost as significantly, could be employed as a means of underlining messages to the community on the home patch.
It's a lovely day for happiness lessons, missus
[ Published in The Scotsman on 30 August 2006 ]
HAPPINESS, Ken Dodd, below, observed, was the greatest gift that he possessed. As that doyen of the 1970s populist philosophical movement went on to share with us his thanks to the Almighty that he possessed more than his share of that elusive commodity, we have to admit there are some who are so compellingly bright and breezy their very presence can lighten the spirits of the rest of us. Some are indeed born happy.
Others clearly achieve happiness. Current debates centre on whether the depth and intensity of that happiness is governed by a supposed 1950s environment of having little and achieving much or by the perceived snapshot view of society 50 years on, where material acquisition is said to be paramount and meaningful accomplishment at a low ebb. However, there is no doubting that our degree and sense of happiness can be determined by what we believe, what we do and what we have.
So far so good; this uncluttered analysis had stood all manner of tests as it has been practised and proven for many years. However, it is now complicated by a third cate- gory, those who are to have happiness thrust upon them. In certain eminent establishments, under the cloak of positive psychology, lessons are to be given in the acquisition of happiness, as if it were on a par with conducting an experiment or appreciating the sprung rhythm in the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins.
It is a rare irony that, when artificial stimulants are frowned upon by those who would guide the youthful generation, hypnosis into happiness is to form a compulsory part of the curriculum. And isn't happiness in any event, like another well-known ethereal quality, in the eye of the beholder, so a catch-all formula is unlikely to be effective? "Sir, I don't think your version of happiness is quite applicable to me" can reasonably be compounded by "I don't want to be happy today, anyway." Are we to deny students the freedom to experience sadness as well as elation?
Medicines are antidotes. Instead of groping in the cupboard for the bottle marked 'Happiness', the architects of this perverse strategy might, with advantage, pause to ask why the remedy is needed in the first place. Why are the young so entrenched in the slough of despond, if indeed they are?
It might just be that they have had the lifeblood taken from them, by a diet of undiluted and unadulterated academic slog. They are not seen as fires to be lit by intellectual and mind broadening stimuli, balanced with formative experiences of life elsewhere. There are too often vessels filled to overflowing with exhausting exam information and techniques, as they battle to grab an extra grade and ensure their schools maintain their place in the spurious league table battle.
Perhaps it is time we set young people free from this myopic and remorseless tyranny and tempered their diet with broader experiences. Let them cycle from Thanet to Thurso; let them work in a drama project in a deprived inner city area; let them sail the seven seas; let them follow their dreams not with an eye on ticking yet another UCAS box but as a way of developing and becoming themselves. And"let them" means give them the encouragement and the means to do these things, explaining that, through them, fulfilment may be found. The student who acquires a sense of perspective, sense of duty and sense of humour will not require artificial aids for happiness.
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" someone once observed, although uninspired Jill would rightly merit a mention also nowadays. I can remember in the early 1950s sitting in a group on the beach at Frinton-on-Sea under the benevolent eye of a generously proportioned Scripture Union lady as we all sang: "I'm H-A-P-P- Y; I'm H-A-P-P-Y; I know I am, I'm sure I am; I'm H-A-P-P-Y."
At the time I probably resisted the temptation to comment on the gratuitous tautology of being sure as well as knowing in this refreshingly simple ditty. However, I do remember being happy as I viewed with relish the miles of golden sand and deep blue sea; happy at the prospect of jam sandwiches on the beach hut at 4pm sharp; happy perhaps to be free of parental influence for a while; and happy to enjoy the camaraderie of, and activity with, the group around me. The singing was indeed a reflection of happiness at the thought of many sources of fulfilment - past, present and to come. This state of associated contentment did not stem from our leader telling me that I had to be happy and jolly well to sing about it too.
Our overworked, exam driven school students are more likely to find their own version of happiness on the beach than through collective brainwashing in the serried ranks of the happiness classroom. It's all a matter of developing your soul rather than pondering it.
__________
Of course the eternal debates about the importance of examinations and the relative merits of different systems is always with us.
Are A levels really as good as gold?
Be aware of the real value of learning, says Mark Pyper
[ Published in The Times on 13 August 1998 ]
T he interminable wait is almost over and thousands of young people experience temporary respite from traipsing through Tuscany and lounging in Lanzarote to discover their fate at the hands of the A-level examiners. And just as August 20 will be a "frabjous" day for many and Armageddon for more than a few, the time is ripe to question not so much the inevitable benchmark qualities of this idiosyncratic system but whether it merits the sobriquet "gold standard".
"Gold" attracts overtones of ostentation and swagger not totally divorced from an arrogance which would claim the "one and only" label for A levels while looking askance at other excellent systems such as the International Baccalaureate or Scottish Highers.
However satisfactory A levels may be for those who take and benefit from them, to claim for them a position of pre-eminence serves to undermine and dismiss the majority of the population who have different talents, who are busy obtaining other qualifications and who will be at least as useful to society as those who have traded in so-called gold.
If the recipients of the result slips really believe they have an ingot of high-carat gold in their hands, we shall have done them and the rest of us a grave disservice. If success at A level has been of such para- mount importance to teacher and student, the chances are that spoonfeeding will have played a substantial part in preparation for the exams.
Contrary to popular opinion, it is relatively straightforward in an educational context to get a young horse to drink the water it finds in front of it.What is much more challenging and important - is for the same horse to appreciate for itself the need for water in the first place and then to have sufficient motivation and skill to seek it out.
Those who have been crammed can come sorely unstuck at the higher education stage with disillusionment, mental turmoil and a limp academic performance the frequent consequences.
Equally if, in pursuit of that elusive crock, our sixth-formers believe that the knowledge that brings success at A level is all they need to know while at school, they will be utterly ill equipped to face life and play any meaningful part in the wider and increasingly unpredictable world. To academic qualities must be add- ed the skills and personal qualities which will enable this generation to lead itself to- wards an even better tomorrow.
Just as there is no point in the individual sacrificing enterprise, initiative and the ability to prosper on a short-term altar made of gold, still greater is the pity and harm for society if our bright young people conquer the academic world but lose their souls in the process. We all need training, not only to meet the challenge of life in a fast-moving and international age but an education in responsibility and compassion.
These are aspects of personal development which require resources of time, thought and energy as essential complements to an academic education. We neglect them at our peril and are more likely to forget them if we believe that the streets of life are paved with A- level gold..
___________________
At an early stage in the headmastering proceedings I realised that, if you are running a philosophy driven school, you should not be shy about explaining that philosophy.
Broadening their horizons
In all the vogue phrases and acronyms, says Mark Pyper, the point of education can be lost
[ Published in The Times on 25 January 1993 ]
What should we be asking of our educators in 1993? The question may appear trite, but is surely not without significance for, whatever the benefits or otherwise of the past turbulent decade, education has at last achieved recognition as one of the most powerful influences in com- munity and national life. Schooling has moved from an "Any other business" item on social and political agendas to the point where we rouse ourselves at the mention of the topic. Few would dispute that this is right and proper.
However, while fresh institutional and ideological saplings shoot up apace with the proliferation of educational acronyms now reaching encyclopaedic proportions, it may be prudent to examine some specific fundamentals and to appreciate the broader picture. I have a few suggestions which may sharpen the focus and stiffen the resolve of those responsible.
First, I wish we could stop "opting out". Of course we should applaud the trend towards increasing independence; but my real contention is that the term "opting out" represents a potentially harmful irony. At this time we should be encouraging our young people as never before to eschew a minimalist, defeatist approach to education and to life, committing themselves instead to positiveness in thought and action. "Opting out" is heavy with overtones of by-passing conviction and side-stepping endeavour.
A more assertive phrase is clearly called for. Should "turning around" appear to lack decisiveness and "setting forth" conjure up visions of a journey into the unknown, may I suggest, with the benefit of several literary allusions, including kindly lights and the good Macduff, the notion of “laying on” [ when Shakespeare of course meant ' leading on ].?
Second, let us wave a cheery goodbye to League Tables (please note capital initial letters to reflect the grossly inflated status of these vapid but menacing documents). Many have already - but thus far to limited avail pointed to the shortcomings of comparative lists; the inevitable lack of information on intelligence levels and social backgrounds; the tendency in some schools for doubtful candidates to be discouraged from sitting the exams; the use of artificially high criteria in devising tables, basing them, for example, at A level on A and B grades alone; and the deceptive narrowness of banding, whereby the distinction between, say, 73rd and 173rd place in a list of 200 top schools (all of which are excellent) is minuscule.
"Ah," I hear the protagonists claim, "something is better than nothing and we can always crunch and refine the figures ad infinitum." Or is it that the statistics on academic performance - or attendance, or conduct, for that matter - like your steak and kidney pie or your nut roast, are equally unpalatable in their raw state?
But all this is barely relevant and possibly dangerous - window dressing, implying that the league tables may have some intrinsic merit. Further critical questioning shifts the argument to the no less spurious realms of the "value added" factor. The term itself, soggy with the ethic of commercialism, invites us blinking and grasping down a cul de sac of indefinables and incomparables.
The one certainty about league tables is that they militate towards a stereotyped sameness, with schools employing battery methods to lay pale, insipid eggs in glamorously prepared baskets of uniform de- sign. And all this paradoxically at a time when the government's latest white paper on education is called "Choice and Diversity".
The real heart of the matter, as far removed from soulless statistics as you could possibly travel, but vital as the lifeline and lifeblood of the salvation and good health of our planet, is the responsibility of us all to foster and develop those basic essentials known as human values. These are not examinable or easily definable items which can be "added" to other factors as an afterthought. They are, however, hallmarks of independent schools and central to the procession of education and upbringing.
Our children will want to do well and of course we share with them their aspirations to achieve success but, to an equal and perhaps greater extent, we should want them to do good also. The two are not incompatible. Boys and girls must become honest, caring, decent people; whole people, knowledgeable certainly, but wise too. They must gain an awareness of the differences between right and wrong, and be willing to make sacrifices to serve others.
If such an objective is to be achieved in a tough world it will be through challenge, commitment, courage, self-discipline and an understanding that parents and educators will support young people but that the world does not owe them a living. This need not entail a puritanical philosophy but it does involve the development of a moral code as a foundation for bettering themselves and the world in which they live.
I find myself wholeheartedly in agreement with the authors of a national curriculum document published by the Department of Education and Science in 1989, called "From Policy to Practice". In the aims of education are defined as "promoting the spiritual, moral, cultural, mental and physical development of pupils at the school and of mental and physical dev- Society, and preparing such pupils for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of adult life". Hear, hear and in that order, too.
Finally, and implicit in these thoughts, is the belief that education should combat the rampant, uncompromising materialism of contemporary society. There is a personal aspect here. I do not believe that this can be achieved with humanism alone, for "do as you would be done by" can all too easily descend into subjective hedonism. Let us rather, through teaching and example, encourage our young people to look beyond the secular and the temporal to the spiritual dimension of their lives.
Let us hope that 1993 will be a year when educators lead those in their charge enthusiastically and successfully in their quest for truth, and may they find it in the God of peace and love.
______________________
Then there were occasions when one was momentarily on the defensive -- defending the cause of rectitude of course but facing all manner of slings and arrows from foes and supposed friends alike. Such a situation arose in 1996 in the wake of Channel 4 producing a warts and all documentary of a school in transition. The storm was not long in abating and interestingly the demand for places rose markedly in succeeding years.
In the eye of the critical lens
Mark Pyper, Gordonstoun's Headmaster, on the fly-on-the-wall film of his school.
[ Published in The Times on 27 September 1996 ]
Was it an act of courage or one of folly? The reference is not to Napoleon's decision to march on Moscow but to the policy of an independent school allowing television cameras to cross its threshold.
True Stories: Gordonstoun, the two-hour full-length documentary on Channel 4 in July, did at least provide a little holiday digression, fuelling the fires of Common Room and dinner party debate more even than the cricket results, early jitterings about league tables and the cost of the school tracksuit. It was open season and battle was enthusiastically joined.
What was it like at the time? We are a year on from the television focus and in the middle of an HMI inspection. The atmosphere is less strained and important aspects of education are scrutinised openly and sympathetically -- a marked change from the intrusive camera and microphone being thrust in the direction of unsuspecting mortals whatever their line of business.
We never allowed the hunted feeling to get the better of us and, even if we reached the state of scanning our most private rooms for hidden devices, we remembered that the world into which our young are moving is thickly populated with paparazzi, musing perhaps that preparation for this is an essential life skill. They -- the young rather than the paparazzi -- came across in a most reassuring way with a strong relaxed and reflective confidence.
Some of our pupils were able to transfer their acting talents from the life-and-flesh environment of the stage to the small screen with comfortable deftness. Many who had recently been involved in a school production of Macbeth showed themselves and their wares with rare aplomb.
The camera team filmed -- one cannot be quite sure why -- hundreds of hours of many pupils following a challenging and inclusive curriculum. The director was apparently enthusiastic about the balance of a strong academic programme and Gordonstoun's philosophy of overall personal development. Meanwhile, a few of the young were tempted to assist the TV crew in their search for items of tabloid interest. Initiative and resourcefulness are important qualities to develop at school and, with the cameras in their midst, some energetic students were able to take these skills forward to first-class degree standard without difficulty. The television folk could also be useful in terms of providing information.
Was it all successful and worthwhile?
The answer is that there must be a specific objective for opening doors to television cameras and a risk assessment carried out in advance. Gordonstoun was keen to divest itself of an image and a reputation -- ill-founded and inaccurate -- that its environment was both 'spartan' and exclusive. We calculated that, even if the film makers did their best -- or worst -- to sensationalise in a highly selective way, myths would be dispelled and some of the School's strengths would shine through.
Three months later success becomes more measurable. A major step in removing folklore has indeed been taken, while the film's undue dwelling on some superficial juvenile behaviour has not influenced mature and perceptive viewers. As one headmaster colleague said to me 'If that's all they could find in your school after fifteen weeks, your pupils must be saints'.
While the film did not, as expected, do our promotional work for us, investigate our philosophy or analyse our practices, it did not on the other hand attack the core of our ethos, and the lasting impression seems to be one of normal, spirited youngsters receiving a very sound education with a range of unusual and exciting experiences.
Recruitment was not a primary objective in admitting the cameras. we have a full school but interest in Gordonstoun has been further stirred; we have put ourselves on a different plane for the next stage of our development. Inquiries about the school from prospective parents have already increased. Honesty and boldness with a reasonable measure of confidence inevitably win through in the end.
So back to the inspectorate. We are awash with performance indicators and up to the gunnels with quality assurance but quietly suspect that what they will really want to discuss will be 'the film'. The search for truth goes on.
_______________________
The holding of the annual conference of Round Square schools, all subscribing to the ideals of Kurt Hahn, at Gordonstoun provided a further opportunity to proclaim the merits of holistic education.
Putting ideals into practice in Moray
MARK PYPER explains why next week's gathering of Round Square schools will celebrate the work of the educationist Kurt Hahn
[ Published in the Scotsman on 4 October 2006 ]
A REMARKABLE gathering of more than 400 young people from five continents will take place next week in Moray. It is the annual conference of Round Square, a movement based on the theories of the educational philosopher Kurt Hahn, whose birth 120 years ago will be marked at the event.
Most people reading this may not have heard of Hahn and would be surprised at the influence he has exerted on our world. Yet the worldwide growth in the number of Round Square schools, linked by a belief in the practice of Hahn's educational thinking, shows his philosophies provide an answer to the vital question those of us responsible for preparing the young for today's world are continually asking: "What are we going to do for the young of today?"
The major educational projects initiated by Hahn are still going from strength to strength, and influence educational thinking today. He founded the Duke of Edinburgh's Award in 1956, originally started in 1940 as the Moray Badge. He established Outward Bound in 1941, United World Colleges in 1962 and Round Square schools in 1967 - quite a legacy.
Round Square has become a world leader. It is now so large that this year's conference may be the last when all the schools can get together, as there are a limited number of schools in the world where this number of staff and students can be accommodated.
Students will meet at Gordonstoun next week for a packed six-day programme. George Reid, the presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament and for 12 years the director of public affairs for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent, Olympic medallist Kriss Akabusi, and mountaineer Jamie Andrew now disabled after a climbing accident - will each give a talk to generate ideas and encourage fresh thinking on the development of personal potential and good citizenship. Students will take part in discussions and activities based on the Round Square 2006 theme: "There is more in you than you think".
Hahn used this phrase to sum up his educational programmes. His ideals and precepts seek to achieve a holistic development in the education of each individual. He considered his ideas were not original but drawn from many other great thinkers. It was the "living" of ideas, of experiencing and implementing them oneself that was important to him.
"IDEALS" provide the initial letters giving Hahn's six principles on which the Round Square movement is based: Internationalism, Democracy, Environment, Adventure, Leadership and Service. These principles are just as relevant today as they were when Hahn formulated them more than 60 years ago. Those of us who advocate his ideals do not undertake mainstream education by putting these areas of learning and experience on the timetable as "optional extras". They are fully and comprehensively integrated into the curriculum of each school.
At Gordonstoun, we put students to sea in a sailboat during mainstream curriculum time; mountain rescue training is scheduled in the main timetable; fire service training is given during the core school curriculum (we have a fire engine and equipment based at the school for use in the district). Students train in living and working together. This is different from non-Round Square schools, where such training is voluntary or put in with the cadet activity.
What of internationalism? As Hahn explained: "An eminent man challenged me to explain what sailing in a schooner could do for international education. I said in reply we had at that moment the application before us for a future king of an Arab country who was about to enter Gordonstoun. I happened to have at the school some Jews. If the Arab and one of the Jews were to go out sailing in our schooner, perhaps in a north-easterly gale, and if they were to become thoroughly seasick together, I would have done something for international relations."
Before the days of television, public relations and sophisticated marketing techniques, Hahn created these innovative projects and made sure they were put into practice, not only in Britain and Germany but across the globe. I never met him, but can appreciate what an expert publicist he must have been. His networking skills must have been honed to work with politicians to obtain influence. He developed connections with the British royal family so their children went to Gordonstoun.
Hahn believed passionately in education that developed the deepest qualities of character and compassion. He viewed the decline of compassion as one of the greatest ills of modern life. Today we are confronted by a progressive inhumanity in the society in which we live. It is no wonder the banner of the Round Square IDEALS is waved by today's educationists.
People still associate Gordonstoun with a harsh regime of cold showers, physical exertions beyond normal bounds and general discomfort. Yet this was equally true of most independent schools in the first part of the 20th century. One has only to read autobiographies of great men who attended other well known British schools at that time to learn about accepted educational practices then considered "normal" but today would make headline news. Perhaps what led to this reputation of harshness at Gordonstoun was Hahn's emphasis on personal learning experiences. He did not particularly like team games: activities inclined to be elevated to iconic status in other British independent schools. He believed in the need for real, hands-on, practical challenges for the development of character. He considered his students learnt better by individual experience. Hence the Gordonstoun motto: Plus est en vous (There is more in you).
Prince Charles, The Duke of Rothesay, when asked on TV earlier this year what was the inspiration behind The Prince's Trust, said: "I think it was partly probably my education. The thing about Gordonstoun, the school I went to in Scotland, was it basically tried to encourage people to take the initiative and not to sit around expecting other people to do everything. The main principle underlying the school was that in order to be able to help with the transition from childhood to adult- hood you needed to give young adolescents responsibility."
This international gathering next week at Gordonstoun gives us the opportunity to implant a cascade of Hahn's beliefs among young people: all human beings are intrinsically worthy, and we are proud of our own identity and appreciate other people's.
________________
Sometimes it was helpful to state very publicly the nature of the School's policy on contemporary issues affecting young people in society. My views on drugs were not universally appreciated at the time but may appear rather run of the mill twenty years later.
Weaning teachers off zero tolerance of drugs
An uncompromising stand by schools on drugs is unjust and doomed to failure, says Mark Pyper, the head of Gordonstoun
[ Published in the Sunday Times on 27 October 2002 ]
The government's downgrading of cannabis from a class B to a class C drug has been viewed with alarm by some head teachers, who worry that it may make it more difficult for them to keep schools drug-free.
I do not believe that it will make any difference as long as schools have the right policies in the first place. At Gordonstoun we abandoned the "zero tolerance" policy automatic expulsion for a single drugs offence in 1996, recognising that it was unrealistic, unreasonable and unhelpful.
Zero tolerance policies were tried in our schools from the 1970s to the 1990s and were found wanting, not least in practical terms. The possibility, particularly in a boarding school, of a sufficiently large number of students being discovered with cannabis and facing expulsion that the school would perhaps have to close through a sudden fall in revenue might sound fanciful but is within the realms of reality.
Nowadays, in mediating between parents and pupils, head teachers have a useful role to play in the drugs debate. Parents need to be guided away from the syndrome of hanging and flogging towards a policy of reasonableness and empathy that their children will appreciate also.
In bridging the yawning divide between the generations, teachers should start by leading parents into the world of potentially unwelcome reality. Parents need to appreciate the nature of the drugs threat: the names of drugs, both official and on the streets; their composition and possible effects, physiologically and psychologically; the symptoms displayed by users; the legal position; the assistance that is available to all parties.
In achieving this, parents are not only increasing their understanding, they are coming to terms with a phenomenon they will then not automatically reject in fear but over which they will have control.
Both pupils and parents need a policy that is absolutely clear and uncompromising but which has an awareness of the world and an empathy with the young at its core. That is why many schools changed their policies in the mid-1990s and why government reclassification, under which cannabis is still illegal, is not really a relevant issue for schools with such policies.
There is an immediate moral shortcoming to zero tolerance and enforced immediate departure for every single drugs offender. Parents who will subscribe only to a school that is "clean" in drug terms should consider the case of the student who has been at a school for 4½ years and is within months of taking her A-levels. She has been a model pupil -- industrious, co-operative, responsible but then, almost unwittingly, makes a minor error of judgment and consumes a microscopic amount of cannabis - perhaps just one puff of a cigarette passed to her.
Where is the morality in requiring such a girl to be excluded immediately and permanently from the school without consideration for past record, future prospects or comparison with alcoholic misdemeanours?
A successful drugs policy will emphasise prevention through education and cure rather than trading in peremptory exclusion. On the sanctions side, it will have to under- line that some offences use of category A (hard) drugs or trafficking merit instant expulsion.
However, for a single use of a class B or C drug such as cannabis, there may be an opportunity to learn. The policy will insist on a period of suspension from school, followed by periodic drug testing when the pupil returns for the remainder of her career. A positive test, pupil and parents have to agree together, will mean her leaving the school. The test may be taken at any time and, as cannabis can stay in the bloodstream for three to four weeks, the student has to think carefully about her behaviour, even in holiday periods.
Students as well as parents need education. They also need a policy that is clear but reasonable. (This, incidentally, can involve informing the police of all drug incidents, provided the young know this will happen). Above all, they need an environment that fosters informed discussion on a difficult topic.
This is where zero tolerance is so damaging and frequently serves to increase the amount of drug-taking in a school. In making a taboo of the subject, a school will drive drugs even more into the shadows where they flourish more profusely while the innocent, the ignorant and the potentially vulnerable have nowhere to go for help and advice. A more reasonable approach opens up and increases the likelihood of the topic being openly and effectively discussed by students, staff and parents.
Young people in the alternative, supportive environment I advocate will openly ask for a drugs test to establish innocence when an accusation or suggestion of drugs involvement has been made. Stu- dents can, and do, approach school staff, in the most genuine manner, to express concern about the possibility of a friend consuming some- thing illicit, knowing that the matter will be properly dealt with.
It is possible to create a school environment where the pupils will not want drugs to be prevalent or even present. The good school will offer its pupils a positive ethos of challenge and controlled risk taking, an alternative scenario to the supposed verboten delights of the underworld.
28th August 2023
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