May 28

Honesty in sport: a value at the heart of our society

A new book is due out in June – ‘The Dirtiest Race in History’, by Richard Moore – which deals with Ben Johnson’s victory in the 100m men’s finals in the 1988 Olympic Games, and his subsequent disgrace when he was discovered to have been taking drugs. To this day, I remember that race well – it was the summer just before I went up to Oxford – and I cannot imagine that I am alone in this memory. I remember the exhilaration and then the disbelief and the disappointment when this hero turned out not to be as we had thought. It made an enormous impact on me.

To understand the build-up to the race, you have to recall some of the background. The great names in the men’s 100m sprint at the time were Carl Lewis and Ben Johnson, and their rivalry was captivating, because it reflected the striving to beat the 10 second mark in the 100m. The first man to run 100m in less than 10 seconds was in fact Jim Hines, who broke the existing world record with 9.99 seconds in Sacramento in June 1968, and then ran a race of 9.95 seconds in the Olympic Final at the 1968 Mexico Olympics in October, but the intense competition between Johnson and Lewis made for exciting viewing.

It was in 1985, after seven consecutive losses, that Ben Johnson beat Carl Lewis, the giant of the running track, for the first time. The 1986 Goodwill Games were even more remarkable – Johnson beat Lewis, running 9.95 seconds for first place, against Lewis’ third-place time of 10.06. He also won Commonwealth Gold at the 1986 games with a time of 10.07. By the time of the 1987 World Championships in Rome, Ben Johnson had won his four previous races against Lewis and in Rome, he beat the world record, with a time of 9.83 seconds. He was the fastest man on the planet.

1988 was not though a good year for Johnson; in February he pulled a hamstring, and in August, when he faced Carl Lewis again, Lewis won in 9.93, while Johnson finished third. But then came the Olympics, and on 24th September 1988, in Seoul, Johnson beat Lewis in the 100m final and beat his own world record too. 9.79 seconds: this was how long  it took him to run the race. It was astonishing – a race replayed again, and again and again on the television. We were seeing history in the making – the fastest man in the world coming back from injury to become even faster. It was just amazing. Usain Bolt may now have run 100m in 9.58 … but back then, this was amazing.

And then … Ben Johnson was tested for drugs, and his urine was found to contain steriods. He was disqualified three days later and Carl Lewis was awarded the gold

It is hard to communicate the intense sense of disappointment which heralded this news, not least in Ben Johnson’s home country of Canada, but in fact around the world, from ordinary people just watching the race and caught up in the excitement of the build up and the competition. Ben Johnson later admitted having used steroids when he ran his 1987 world record, which caused the IAAF to annul that record as well, and which just added to the despondency. We had all thought that we were seeing something special, something incredible – testimony to the powers and endeavours of mankind – when in fact all that we were watching was actually a form of deception.

Doping in sport rears its head regularly, and is rightly condemned. As one of our national sports organisations puts it, “Doping is cheating: it fundamentally harms the essence of sport – enjoyment and fair competition. It is crucial to the enjoyment of sport that all individuals participating in sport also condemn doping in sport to ensure it is eliminated from the sporting environment. We want to promote the best athletes: athletes who have worked hard and who have got to the top without taking drugs to cheat.”

All those years after Ben Johnson’s false victory in Seoul, the memory lives on – a lesson to us all not to take values and integrity for granted. We should strive to succeed – but we should do it with honour.

May 26

A hero among heroes to lead the Jubilee pageant: Major Kate Philp

The announcement last week that a group of British heroes will lead the Queen’s Jubilee pageant on the Thames on Sunday 3rd June, sailing in the Queen’s rowbarge Gloriana, at the head of the fleet, was greeted with pleasure at St Mary’s Calne. Among the number of servicemen and women chosen to take part – all selected because they had shown great courage in battling adversity – was Major Kate Philp, who came to speak at one of our regular lectures last year, and who impressed the girls with her humility and no-nonsense approach to life. Her ‘get-up and go’ attitude was evident, and her courage in the face of personal hardship was remarkable.

Major Philp was the first female British soldier to lose a limb in combat, when, in November 2008, the Warrior tank she was commanding in Afghanistan ran over a 50kg Taliban bomb, and exploded, killing one of her team and injuring three others. Her leg was shattered in the explosion, and initially surgeons thought that they had saved it, but it soon became clear that she would have a better chance of regaining mobility if they amputated. When she discovered that with a prosthetic limb she would be able to learn again to run, play tennis and ski, then she did not hesitate, and gave the go-ahead for the operation.

Amazingly – and impressively – she said she felt (and continues to feel) very lucky. Everything was put into perspective, she said, when she encountered other soldiers with far greater impairments and far more life-limiting injuries. Her determination to make the best of life – and not just for herself, but for others, in the work she is now doing to support organisations who look after injured service personnel – was inspiring.

Gloriana will be rowed by an 18 strong crew of Olympic and Paralympic champions and hopefuls, celebrating our great rowing tradition and success. The Jubilee pageant will be a sight to behold. And Major Kate Philp most certainly deserves her place aboard.

 

May 23

Why GCSEs have had their day

John Cridland, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, is reported in today’s Daily Telegraph to be critical of GCSEs. Young people are, he says, being “failed by the system”, as growing numbers do not develop a fundamental grasp of the 3 Rs, and are leaving school unable to function effectively in the workplace. While there are many reasons why so many teenagers are not ‘work-ready’ – not the least of which is their pre-school experience and family support, which successive studies have shown to have a central importance in their subsequent educational attainment – it is also clear that our outdated examinations system shackles young people, stifles their creativity, and attempts to corral them and confine their learning to that – and only that – which can be tested. I spoke out about this in December 2010; former Education Secretary Estelle Morris said the same in January 2011. The GCSE system is, quite simply, no longer working.

Our children are over-tested. By the time teenagers leave school they will have spent literally months of their life either explicitly preparing for or taking national public examinations. There is no time for our young people to breathe. It is no wonder that teenage anxiety is on the rise. For many, the pressure starts to build in their early secondary school years, when they see the school completely physically reorganised for examinations twice a year, and when well-meaning teachers start to talk about GCSEs, preparing their charges for the onslaught of pressure that will come soon. In practice, GCSE courses usually start; many examinations and controlled assessments take place in Year 10; Year 11 is a year almost entirely dominated by examinations; and the pattern continues into Sixth Form. As the school leaving age rises to 18, there is simply no need for this deluge of examinations, all of which take valuable, precious time away from genuine learning, and the space to develop curiosity, creativity and critical thinking.

One size does not fit all. GCSE was intended to ensure equality of access to all, with grades running from A (now A*) to G. In practice, no-one pays any attention at all to grades below a C, with the result that (so as not to face an embarrassing situation where half the country repeatedly fails a public exam) the bar needed to reach to gain a C has progressively dropped over the years. Grade inflation is a recognised fact – Glenys Stacey, Chief Executive of Ofqual, admitted as such earlier this month. The annual rise in GCSE grades has become increasingly hard to equate to a gradual decline of the UK’s position in the international PISA education rankings. Around 40% of teenagers do not meet the Government’s requirement for 5 A*-C grades at GCSE, including English and Maths, a statistic hidden for years by the shameful practice of entering pupils for soft – and, quite frankly, practically useless – GCSE equivalent examinations, simply to maintain school standings in league tables.

We are educating for the 21st century, not the 19th. The system was to blame for the obfuscating tactics used by schools – the incentives were there for schools to meet target numbers, and not therefore to think creatively about the people coming through the doors. Our education system was set up in an industrial age, to prepare our young people for uniformity; today, we should be preparing our young people to be individually responsible citizens of the world, able to ride the crest of the information age. They will each bring something individual to the table, but we need to help them find their own individuality. When children come to school, we should be spending much more time assessing their own particular needs and planning programmes for them which stretch and challenge them to be extraordinary, as well as to have basic skills for life. We need to free ourselves of the industrial conveyer belt of age-related schooling, where children are pushed through schemes of work at uniform speeds. We need to talk about work and life from an early age, and excite our young people about their futures. They need to learn, retain, reproduce and use information, as exams require … but they – and we – need to remove the expectation that exams are the goal, rather than a step, a check, on the way to a goal.

Across the country, thousands of teenagers are sitting exams this week. I take my hat off to them – they have worked hard and are (for the most part) obediently doing what their country is asking them to do. We are the ones who have got it wrong. When are we going to put it right?

 

May 21

A little national pride goes a long way

London is looking amazing at the moment. Union flags are everywhere: all the way down Oxford Street, Regent Street and all the main thoroughfares, and Jubilee is in the air. The Jubilee pageant on Sunday 3rd June promises to be spectacular, and I shall be watching it with my family and lots of girls from my school on one of the bridges, as part of the Plan UK contingent. The Countdown Clock to the London Olympics, which is ticking away in Trafalgar Square, is adding to the excitement and anticipation. 2012 will be a great year for our Queen, our capital and our nation.

And Calne in Wiltshire, home to St Mary’s Calne, is looking pretty amazing as well – red , white and blue bunting has been going up over the past week, in honour of the Olympic Flame, which touched down in the UK on Friday and which will pass through Calne on Wednesday. We will all be out there along the route, waving our flags and cheering the flame on its way across the UK as it heads eventually to London and the opening ceremony of the Olympics on 27th July at the Olympic Park.

An igniting of national pride from time to time can be a really good thing: the feel-good factor it brings reminds us of the importance of togetherness and shared values. And I am not detecting any sense at all of the negatives that can easily accompany this national focus – a superiority over others, for example, or sneering about other nations. Instead, we are all, quite simply, feeling good about being human beings. We are honouring a great woman who has given 60 years of service to the UK and to the Commonwealth of Nations, and we are looking forward to honouring the great athletes – representative of nations from all over the world – who will descend upon London shortly, if they are not here already.

When we feel inspired and uplifted, anything can seem – and, I believe, is – possible. Immerse yourself in red, white and blue, marvel at the achievements of the human race, and let your imagination run free as you seek – with us all – to make this world a better place. A little national pride could take you a very long way indeed.

 

May 18

Teach boys to be positive about their identity

A pithy comment piece by Richard Godwin in this week’s Wednesday London Evening Standard, ‘Forget about sexism – we’re all victims now‘ draws its inspiration from Professor David Benatar’s new book ‘The Second Sexism: Discrimination Against Men and Boys’, which looks as though it might be worth a read. In it, according to Richard Godwin, Professor Benatar explains that women are not the only ones to suffer from sexism in our society. Stereotypes – prejudices – about men are as embedded as those about women, and this has resulted, he claims, in discrimination in, for example, child custody cases, or in the media, where men are routinely depicted as “idiots”.

Godwin, while agreeing with this – and there is most certainly truth in it – takes it further and highlights what he sees as the real issue underlying these claims of sexism and discrimination, namely the fact that we live in a society where anyone, at the slightest provocation, can claim to be “uniquely wronged”. This leads to a litigious culture, and a selfish indignation on the part of the individual, for whom it is inconceivable that he or she might be incorrect in an assumption of innocence. As a result, “…it is victimhood, rather than sexism, that is the definitive modern disease”.

He is right in many respects, of course, although we shouldn’t entirely overlook the need for us to unearth gender-based prejudices – both male and female – and do something about changing how people perceive and react to one another. Richard Godwin is, however, effectively asking us to grow up, to stop blaming others and to get on with – quite simply – doing the right thing. “I am troubled”, he writes, “by the assumption that men are emotionally illiterate and lazy. But to challenge it we need to teach boys to be positive about their identity. We shouldn’t fret about ‘the trouble with boys’, creating a narrative of failure, and we certainly shouldn’t encourage a victim mentality. That not only trivialises genuine victims of prejudice – it is quite literally self-defeating.” Straightforward, clear, and excellent advice – and it goes for girls too. We need not to project the negative on to boys – or girls – but instead we must focus on the positive, on encouraging our children to develop a strong sense of self-worth, and a healthy regard and respect for others.

Just think what would happen if we did.

 

May 15

Refreshing views on female appearance from Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton – or more specifically Hillary Clinton’s appearance … or more specifically still, Hillary Clinton’s appearance without make-up – was a focus of attention in last week’s Daily Mail, and it was refreshing to hear the US Secretary of State herself say that she had given up trying to look “immaculate” in public, and that she felt “relieved” not to have to put her lenses in and style her hair just to walk out of her front door. She was putting “comfort” and “practicality” first, and she was happy to do so.

Quite why this revelation necessitated a flurry of activity at CNN, who raced to capture her thoughts after pictures of her without makeup had surfaced in the press, is – on one level, at least – quite perplexing. Why on earth does it matter what a senior politician wears; surely substance speaks louder than superficial appearance? On another level, of course, the elevation of Mrs Clinton’s actions (or non-actions) to serious news status is entirely understandable (if rather depressing to those of us who fight hard to orientate discussion of women towards their achievements rather than how they look): our society is currently obsessed with superficiality, and has developed a distorted idea of how women in particular should present themselves, to the extent that this approach dominates the majority of media coverage of women in powerful positions. Rare is the article or news report which does not comment on appearance; and if it doesn’t, then it can pretty much be guaranteed that online commentators will fill this gap.

And so it was with Hillary Clinton and the “story” of her non-make-up. When you read the coverage and the comments, you would be forgiven for wondering whether the Secretary of State’s role was anything other than to model styling products, but, thankfully, in and amongst the remarks made, are strong and sensible comments about how we should just move on as a society and stop obsessing over women’s appearance. Mrs Clinton’s assured and relaxed performance on CNN was a powerful statement, too; here was a woman – one of the most powerful women in the world – who really couldn’t give two hoots about how she looked, but was instead far more interested in what she was doing to make the world work more effectively.

Quite right too. We could do far worse than to encourage our daughters to emulate her, and our sons to admire her.

 

May 12

Upside-down management and giving back to society: the message of John Timpson

At last week’s Boarding Schools Association conference in Bristol, I was privileged to hear one of the key-note speakers, John Timpson, Chairman of Timpson – best known as the ubiquitous shoe repairers. I had heard him speak many years ago at a similar conference; if anything, he struck me as having even more energy and fervour now, and his message was inspiring.

His message for organisations is about how to effect what he calls “upside-down management”, where the customer is at the core of the business, and everything must be done to support that customer. In schools, this is of direct relevance – it can be very easy for bureaucratic structures to grow up which make life easier for the running of the school, and yet do not make life easier for pupils or parents. One of the challenges we face in schools is to spot this when it happens, and then to find creative ways to do something about it.

John Timpson’s personal message – about how he has run his life – was, however, yet more compelling. Between them, he and his wife have fostered over 80 children during the past three decades, and the stories he shared with us were in parts heartbreaking, but ultimately uplifting. All sorts of disasters and difficulties hide around the corner in our world, and when they happen, children in families are often the most harshly affected. Children need love and stability in a family unit if they are to learn – at a very deep level – that these are the bedrock of all family lives, and if they are to have the chance to replicate these in their own families in due course. Foster families offer children a second chance when circumstances make it impossible for them to be cared for sufficiently well in their own families. When children learn what love is, society benefits and grows, and there is greater hope for the world. For John Timpson and his wife to have fostered over 80 children – and to have kept in touch with many of them – represents an enormous commitment on their part to the future of our world. They – and their firm – are active in raising money for charity too. I was full of admiration, and hold them up as an example.

It takes only a single step from each of us to start to make a difference in this world. We should remind ourselves of this each day. And do something about it.

 

May 08

Decoding Your 21st Century Daughter: An Anxious Parent’s Guide To Bringing Up Your Teenage Daughter.

As you may have seen in this Sunday’s Mail on Sunday – (which led to a follow up commentary in Melanie Phillips’ column in Monday’s Daily Mail, and interviews on Radio 5 Live Breakfast and BBC Radio London’s Vanessa Show on Monday, as well as an article in today’s Daily Mirror) – I have written a book based on my experiences as a Head of girls’ schools for the past 12+ years. I decided to call it ‘Decoding Your 21st Century Daughter’, as I have been struck most over the past decade by the significant differences that exist between the world in which our teenagers live now, and the world inhabited by their parents. Parenting has always been challenging – no-one is ever really prepared for parenthood! – but it has been brought home to me on innumerable occasions just how challenging the process is at this moment in our history. Never before has it been so hard, nor have the stakes been so high. If we don’t get it right with our teenagers, we will not solve the massive issues facing the world at this present time.

And it is especially hard for girls. Teenage girls today are bombarded with often conflicting messages about what they should do, how they should behave, and what is expected of them. They are part of an evolving social history, as our drive towards greater fairness and gender equality continues to unfold, but they are, too, just trying to be ‘them’, to find out who they are, and what they want to be, and we should never underestimate what is involved in this process.

Given this backdrop – and given my role in education, during which I have seen and helped guide the development of thousands of young people, particularly girls – I wanted to share the wisdom I have accumulated, which I share with parents at my school at every opportunity. It is important that we listen to others and learn from others; how else does the human race move on in its understanding? I wanted too to give some practical solutions, and to offer reassurance and guidance. Teenage years are such turbulent years that they can take even seasoned parents by surprise, let alone parents who are experiencing this for the first time.

I wrote most of the book over Christmas, and have been revising it since in the odd moments I get in between all the other glorious happenings of my life. The process was a demanding one, but a satisfying one; now, the future of the book lies in the hands of publishers. Watch this space!

May 06

What can we do to promote a culture of kindness in society?

If you read my comments in today’s Mail on Sunday – “Top headmistress says social networking and public rows between celebs are causing a generation of mean girls”, you will see that I am warning against the culture of nastiness that often pervades our online (and real-life) world. Why this is aimed more at women than at men – women’s appearance, women’s life choices, women’s relationships – is an unfortunate and depressing indictment of the state of our society today, in which there are still strong undercurrents of misogyny, sexism and chauvinism (witness the debate on girls’ schools which raged last week in the national press – see The Times and The Daily Telegraph, but also see my blog on the subject, which received hundreds of visits).

Depressing, yes, but there are positives. We must remind ourselves sometimes that we are still in a period of social transition, and that we have not yet, for instance, reached the 100 year anniversary of women (some women) gaining the vote in this country. Vast changes have happened in the past century in women’s education, women’s rights and gender equality in all aspects of our world. Yet changes of this nature take time to embed, and it takes imagination and determination to alter mindsets – both our own and those of others. This is happening – bastions of male privilege are dying out, and women’s mentoring schemes are blossoming, to give but a brief overview. There is much still to be done to address gender pay gaps, the dearth of women MPs, the number of women in senior positions … but we are moving in the right direction, and at least the legal and regulatory frameworks are in place (though not, as yet, in many countries in the developing world).

And many schools – and many parents – are playing their part. If you read beyond the headline in the Mail on Sunday, you will see that I emphasise that schools teach about “give and take”, which is one of the fundamental principles upon which societies are founded – tolerance of others, and the acceptance of difference, as well as kindness and generosity to others and the acknowledgement (put into practice) that we are bound to act not just for ourselves but for the good of those around us – locally, nationally and globally. This is how societies work; these principles will ensure our survival as a human race. Schools and families are crucial to the embedding of these values.

What makes it hard for schools and families is a powerful and pervasive backdrop in the world around them and their children that presents a culture that is at odds with the culture we need to move forward successfully. Societies work because they seek to overcome and guard against selfish impulses of individuals. We are all prone, of course, to bouts of selfishness, of regressing to our baser human nature; what makes it difficult for young people in particular as they grow up is if they see this sort of behaviour glorified by the false gods of our society – the rich and famous, the celebrities and those with a strong public presence in the media. When this is coupled with the features of the online world that have yet to be properly regulated – its capacity to bombard us with a stream of untempered messages, and its perceived anonymity – then we have a toxic mixture that is both seductive and overwhelming. No wonder it is hard for parents and teachers to get their messages across.

So … we have to continue to work hard to get this balance right. We need to recognise what messages are being sent to our young people, and we need to highlight the effect that this is happening. “Moral vacuum” is not too strong a phrase to use in many instances. And then we need to work with a passion to compensate for this, to make sure that our young people receive the strong messages they need to be able to make a positive difference in the world.

And we need to be doing this now. For one day we will discover that tomorrow will be too late.

 

May 05

The preciousness of life

I have just returned from the annual UK Boarding Schools Association Heads’ Conference in Bristol – conveniently close to home, although it was a delight to meet two of my new Australian fellow Heads, for whom it was not particularly close, but who had made the effort to come and connect. The opening speaker was Libby Purves, the broadcaster and writer, who has experienced boarding from a number of different perspectives, as parent and child, and whose book ‘Parenting the Boarder’ is an essential read for parents whose children are headed to the great world of boarding school.

At one point in her talk, which was – as you would expect – full of amusing and pithy anecdotes and thoughts on the life of teenagers in general, she mentioned Stephen Spender’s poem, ‘I Think Continually of Those who were Great’, and these words stuck with me:

What is precious is never to forget
The delight of the blood drawn from ancient springs
Breaking through rocks in worlds before our earth;
Never to deny its pleasure in the simple morning light,
Nor its grave evening demand for love;
Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother
With noise and fog the flowering of the spirit.

In the midst of our busy lives we often forget to stop, look up and around, and to value the breadth, and above all depth, of our world and our existence in it. We can find ourselves so caught up in daily activity and so enmeshed in our ‘to do’ lists that we overlook some of the most precious parts of our life. This poem – these words – remind us to stop, take stock, and breathe in the air around us. As we move on in life, we should experience a flowering, a blossoming, an enrichening – not a smothering … but unless we are careful, this is exactly what happens.

So … a simple, mindful task today: stop and breathe. Feel the joy of life. And then teach this to others.