Hope and imagination
Michael Goodwin, head of Sibford School, looks at what Quaker schools have to offer
According to Quaker faith & practice 23.85 ‘the two qualities which are most important to children of today are hope and imagination. Hope to believe they can change the world they live in and imagination to find ways to do so.’ The truth of this statement was brought dramatically home to me recently by two coinciding events. One was the horrific case of the young boys in Doncaster who brutally tortured two of their peers. And the other was a letter from the grandmother of a former pupil who had been involved in a tragic accident in which two people died.
Dubbed by the media as ‘devil boys’, what those children in Doncaster did was, without doubt, inexcusable. However, there is an overriding sense that the perpetrators had been let down by the system. Monsters are not born… they are created.
Which brings me to the letter. ‘My grandson dropped out of state school with low self esteem, lack of confidence and poor academic achievement,’ writes Clare. ‘Sibford turned that young man’s life around, giving him back his self-respect, developing his true potential and making him happy. It is a real vindication of Quaker schools and it is certainly in part due to being at Sibford that he has dealt so maturely with the consequences of the accident.’
There is, inevitably, tension between Quaker Schools and some members of the Society. As Clare herself writes: ‘it is but a privileged few who can attend’.
But that’s not our fault and surely it’s better to offer hope and imagination to those we can rather than to none at all.
As a Quaker head of a Quaker school I am delighted that this issue of The Friend is giving so much coverage to Quaker education and I trust that those Friends who brand us ‘elitist’ will be prepared to cast aside prejudices and take this opportunity to celebrate our successes.
Michael Goodwin is head of Sibford School
