A proposal for a radical addition to education.

[With grateful thanks to Kurt Hahn & Gordonstoun School]

In researching deeper the philosophy behind quality education and especially, but not exclusively, outdoor education programmes some six months ago, I came upon this statement:

It reflects, exactly, how I feel about the wider picture of education. It is based on Kurt Hahn’s philosophy of education, and it was his outright passionate belief in outdoor education as one of the four building blocks of education that led me to lobby the then Head of The King John School, Ian Yeomans, in 1988 to allow an outdoor education initiative at the school.

However what I write about here is not exclusively outdoor education.

Virtually every aspect of my professional life both as a classroom teacher and in the major projects I run out of school is based on Hahnian philosophy – not because I have necessarily consciously and deliberately adhered to it but because it has been natural within me via my upbringing and education at the ‘old’ King John. Its threads are woven deeply through our planning, our delivery, follow-up, and development, and whether it involves ‘rebuilding’ a wayward tutor group, or encouraging pupils up a mountain, the value we put on holistic education can’t be over-emphasised – and neither can its results.

I am convinced that the structure of the different elements Hahn put into place when creating the Gordonstoun School model: Responsibility, Service, Challenge, and Internationalism can be for the most part repeated at any school. I am also convinced that assuming highly committed, expert, and visionary staff we can build alongside our academic success such groundbreaking ‘new schools’ that our young people will be transformed – education as well as being a preparation is also an experience to be appreciated, relished and enjoyed.

Quite obviously this addition and change is not going to happen overnight, or even in a year – or two. However if we have a staff with vision then we have the  wherewithal to bring this special but life enhancing change in the pupils’ wider curriculum to fruition. Given drive and freedom of empowerment this approach that states that pupils should not be satisfied with a standard below his/her ability – and that we should never have a  school having perhaps a corporate standard below its own corporate ability – however ‘successful’ at present and it is not allowed, we are not allowed, such self indulgence; and it is worth taking years to develop properly.

Thus I propose we strive to develop a new thread of education with self supporting strands.

The word ‘Responsibility’ sits uncomfortably with contemporary trends which fight shy of standing up and being counted. In fact we secretly ask the question of our pupils “Can they (ever) take responsibility?” Taking responsibility for one another may just be a way then of understanding the word – to take responsibility for themselves and for situation they find themselves in.

Here we need mature, charismatic, staff managing young people who can transmit the vitality of learning the value of other people. Exercising responsibility for others is the motivating and driving force behind this process.

Perhaps we need to target lower school pupils  who need mentoring to lead, those who need alternative education, those who need ‘deep pastoral care’, as well as a gifted and talented programme. This may seem divisive, even sectarian, but if our mission is to foster in young people qualities of skill, compassion, honesty, initiative, adventure, and a sense of service, where from the outset, they are equals working together and supporting each other on a challenging and exciting journey, then pupils will stand a greater chance of working together.

Service to the community was once very strong in schools. Back in the past (distant past) all senior upper school pupils did some form of ‘Service’ in their own time – over four months, covering a minimum of 20 hours. The project was as structured as Trident Work Experience is today, with staff and organisation.

Service involves young people demonstrating a willingness to give up his or her own time and effort in order to benefit another individual or group without expectation of return or reward; this can flow naturally from the experience of responsibility in the school and, in this aspect also, students learn about themselves and their relationships with society through doing, as well as listening, and following examples.

Young people are generally good at responding positively to a genuine request for help or a plea in time of need. ‘Service’ constitutes a significant passage in the journey towards that much bandied state of ‘citizenship’ – much bandied but nevertheless very real and necessary for the maintenance of peaceful co-existence. It is also a very valuable vehicle for fostering links with the local community.

The concept of ‘service’ and the development of consideration for others which stems from it must underpin much or all of what we do in schools. Note that this consideration for others must be developmental; it is not often already developed in our youth.

Kurt Hahn was a Champion of ‘Challenge’ and this gave birth to the Outward Bound movement.  Hahn’s Challenge was exclusively through the outdoors – the concept of challenging oneself to build on innate strengths and learning to address and minimise weaknesses.

Some of the element of Challenge is provided by tests of endurance, courage, and self discipline – always in controlled conditions and under appropriate supervision.

Many of life’s challenges arise from the need to communicate effectively and productively with others. Hence the development of interpersonal skills must and does run strongly through Hahn’s original, Gordonstoun’s and Outward Bound’s present, and eg. St Michael's [Leigh on Sea] current Outdoor Education and Challenge programmes.

The chief ‘work’ of these programmes is enrichment – helping people to have life more abundantly. Courses of Challenge actually mature people, but also paradoxically keep them ‘young’ so they retain their sense of wonder at themselves – thus they explore, ‘wide-eyed’, outward bound on a journey of discovery.

The major work about Hahn which changed the way I delivered education was called ‘Impelled into Experiences’. It is an apt title encouraging us – when we still fail – to bombard youth with challenges; they do need to know that there is always more in them than they previously believed. If ever there was one phrase that justifies, and sums up what I do it is the title of this book; I have taken 20 years to fulfil each tenet of Hahn’s challenge in the pupils that have come through my various schools' outdoor initiatives. I therefore know that the work with youth in this Challenge can be and often is hard work and long in years.

These ‘in-your-face’, long-term, genuine, real, challenges strip away the false and fake and create opportunity for re-building. From a personal perspective I commend this to you.

To think, believe, and act as an international citizen must be one of the fundamental objectives of 21^st century education. The school curriculum has a responsibility to reinforce this through formal subjects and life skills; through Geography and Religious Education plus Citizenship and others, an awareness needs to be fostered which equips youth with concepts and skills to understand his/her place in a global context.

[ For pupils in senior Schools this place in the world is enhanced if a project of international service is included in the school’s life – rather than ‘just’ travel, important though that is. Projects of a service nature might include conservation in Sinai, wildlife projects in Romania, assisting with disabled children in South Africa, or an environmental project in Botswana – (only examples of actual service). Through exchanges by our Yr.11 to Yr.13s with either a European or developing world bias, the impact this broader educational experience can have is often out of all proportion to the time spent.

The concept of ‘Service’ is thus not just limited to the school site of the local town. In terms of cultural awareness and understanding, working – and working hard – in a team alongside people of other nationalities in the latter’s own country towards a wholly worthwhile objective is an experience without equal.

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The value of this educational development, which must run parallel to the academic, is plain for many to see and when presented simply is frequently applauded.

However our challenge as educators is to be of service to youth in our schools by taking the risk to spend time and money to invest in a root and branch rebuild or creation of the Additional Curriculum. This is to sit alongside the Academic Curriculum.

Physical Education will need expansion, especially and urgently for the weak. Expedition and outdoor education needs expansion to foster the instinct for adventure to confront youth with exacting pursuits. Service: because we must impel youth into situations to bring out the embedded care that lies dormant from the earliest age – care within school and care for those in the wider community.

There is a danger. It is that the school develops this Additional Curriculum for itself, for its kudos, for its glory. There may be plaudits but these must be secondary or even tertiary to the primary reason – we will do this for our pupils, not for ourselves. 

There is at least one certainty. Those that champion this life-skills curriculum will make mistakes; for us this will be new ground.

There is nationally a head of steam building to develop meaningful and gainful but fresh and dynamic addition - perhaps and hopefully according to the Gordonstoun model - to our academic life. Where there is a will I believe we will find that there is always more in us ……to go now that one step and take on the challenge.

Barry Howard

29^th April 2005