“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.” – Abraham Lincoln
Gradgrind, that most memorable school-based creation of Charles Dickens had a thing about facts. His version of education was based in a rigid understanding that the very best of learning came when brains were filled with facts, and emotional understanding and creativity had no value. “Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but facts. Facts alone are wanted in life.” He memorably opined. Mark Zuckerberg appears, judging by his recent actions, to value facts rather less than Gradgrind. Whilst the idea that his social media empire will manage and moderate itself seems somewhat optimistic.
Year 6 engaged with their annual newspaper day on Thursday and most impressive their work was too. They looked at the organisation of newsrooms, investigated and researched stories and spoke to British-based Guardian journalists who advised them on how to write stories and edit effectively. I was able to chat to these young reporters and editors and heard about their investigations into escaped tigers, wildfires and a mysterious egg. I was impressed with their approach to reporting, the importance of neutral, rational and unbiased reporting, and could only be struck by their maturity and integrity. A stark contrast to the aforementioned tech billionaire. It is experiences like this that give our pupils the chance to develop an understanding on the way that news is presented, and it is a skill that goes beyond the simple learning of fact. Their world is an ever more complicated one in which truth and objectivity can be in short supply. We need to teach them the skills to develop the correct critical faculties and give them the courage to use them. They will perhaps understand what Timothy Snyder meant when he wrote that “to abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle.”
There is one headline that I have yet to read but one I fear will be written in the future concerning an accident on Rue de l’Ecluse. This week we were visited by the Maire, M. Davin who, along with members of his team, came to look for solutions to the congestion and subsequent danger that plagues this road each morning and at the end of the school day. It will take time for any of their ideas to bear fruit, so can I please ask once again that car drivers do not drop off in front of the Senior School gates, in an ideal world we would follow our own one-way system (see page 5) and in doing so improve safety enormously.
That is not only a wish but would be a fine New Year’s resolution.
Happy New Year.
Nicholas Hammond
Headmaster
