Equality and education

Jeff Beatty writes about a gathering of Friends in Yorkshire

For more than a hundred years Yorkshire Friends have joined together over the Easter period to enjoy each other’s company, to worship, to learn and, more recently, to appreciate the spacious comfort and gardens of Cober Hill in Cloughton, Scarborough, purchased by Arnold Rowntree in 1920. This year the welcome for the Easter Settlement was extended to Friends and friends beyond Yorkshire. The theme for the 2017 Easter Settlement was ‘Towards Quaker views of education’. Over sixty people, young and not so young, gathered at Cober Hill from 14-17 April.

Some were old hands and regulars, but others were new to the experience. Whilst the focus of the weekend was primary and secondary education, activities were varied – physical and mental – for individuals, but always developed through a deep sense of community and friendship towards one another. Each day started early for some with Tai Chi, poetry reading and, on the Sunday, with Easter hymns. The days finished late with entertainments provided by the Settlers that included community games, singing, dancing and bring-and-share entertainment. There were poetry readings and musical interludes, some of which were totally unexpected and captured the ‘can do’ approach of the whole weekend.

The serious bits concerned education. There is no doubt that Friends can take pride in our reputation as educators. We have shown considerable concern for the education of the children of Quakers right from the outset of the movement when George Fox founded two Quaker schools – Waltham Abbey and Shacklewell. Today there are nine Quaker schools on the Quaker education website, including two in Ireland – one in the north, Friends’ School in Lisburn, and another in the south, Newtown School in Waterford. The two in Ireland are non-fee paying, with Newtown School recently becoming a free school in the Irish system. There are other schools associated with Quakers, but one immediately comes to mind, which is the William Penn Primary School in Coolham, West Sussex. This is a wonderful small primary school. It proudly displays at its entrance gate: ‘Welcome to the William Penn School, Society of Friends.’

Opportunities

When I started to write this piece, at the back of my mind was the debate that some of us have experienced for at least the last sixty years, which concerns private education. Paul Parker, the recording clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting, in his introduction to the weekend’s theme, spoke about the paralysis in our Society over the issue of independent and maintained schools, which has meant that Friends rarely explore our educational insights further, through, for example, our testimonies. Paul described how his experiences at school and elsewhere helped to shape his life. Principally these were finding Quakers and the opportunities created by getting involved in music and drama, and through them to become more self-aware. Paul continued: ‘The need for our school days to allow space and time for spiritual needs, exploration and experience [is vital]. I’m not sure that it has to happen in schools, but I do think it has to happen in adolescence, and as much of our adolescence is spent in schools, then maybe there it stands the best chance of happening, for most people at least.’ He said much more on issues such as equality and peace education, quoting from Quaker faith & practice: George Gorman on equality (10.20) and Eva Pinthus on peace education (23.84). As Quakers we have a great deal to offer on these and other issues in society in general, but where better to offer them than in schools?

One way in which we reach schools is through peace education initiatives, including the Journeymen Theatre Company. In the play Over the Top, written and performed by Lynn and Dave Morris, Kathy Wooton, a mother, war hero’s widow and peace activist, is horrified to find that her son has been coopted into an adventure challenge with the army through the advocacy of the school. She takes this up with Dr Roberts, headmaster of her son’s school, who is both a pragmatist and an ardent supporter of all things military. The sorts of educational ‘opportunities’ now on offer, including the formation of combined cadet forces, are both enticements to adventure for young people and to schools for additional funding. The armed forces currently make 11,000 visits to secondary schools and colleges annually.

Positive ideas

The first session at Cober Hill, on Quaker concerns in education, tapped into a rich vein of discontent with the current system, with two main issues emanating from the question: what are our concerns about education today? These were inequality, whether through access for vulnerable groups to education per se, or to an appropriate curriculum, which requires a conference of its own, and peace education.

Resulting from this session, Friends chose separate clusters during the afternoon of the second day, which included peace education, special education needs and Quaker schools. The peace education group produced lots of suggestions that might help to combat confrontation in schools and the ever-present invitation to militarise them. The special education needs session was much more downbeat, considering the injustices that persist for those with learning difficulties and for parents seeking help.

The Quaker schools’ session generated both positive ideas and some misgivings, mainly about the expense that prohibits many children of Friends from attending. The following positives were expressed: the student journey, which includes a passion for deep learning; the sense of equality; the development of confidence; our greatest outreach opportunity – Meeting for Worship – the quiet start to the day, which is supportive to students; lower levels of hierarchy than elsewhere; student independence and harmonious living through the expression of differing views and the emergence of unity; and friendliness and kindness. Ideas for the future included: more joint working among the schools, more involvement with the state sector, expansion of sixth form provision and an extension of the Quaker label into the current state and academy sectors. Is it time to live adventurously and can we think of an alternative, or indeed should we?

Already there are groups working for change, including the Friends’ Schools’ Council (FSC), whose objects are wide ranging; one is to encourage the expression of Quaker faith in action and the interpretation of a Quaker vision within Friends’ schools. Within the FSC there is work being undertaken to encourage greater collaboration among the schools, involving the heads, bursars, clerks and chairs. There is another group called Quaker Values in Education, which arose from a special interest meeting during the 2014 Yearly Meeting Gathering at the University of Bath. It grew in August of that year at a threshing conference at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham with the publication of the booklet Every person is precious – a foundation for Quaker action on education. Both groups will be represented at the 2017 Yearly Meeting Gathering at the University of Warwick.

In the introductory paragraph, I wrote about Friends young and not so young, and so far I have not mentioned our young Friends. One highlight of the weekend was the dramatisation by the Journeymen Theatre Company of Kathryn Cave’s book Something Else, for young Friends. This is about tolerance, about being different and about outsiders.

Where better to end? We may have different views about our Quaker schools and on other issues concerned with education, but we have much more that unites us. We can cooperate together and formulate a vision for our contribution to education in the twenty-first century!

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