“The quiet transition from autumn to winter is not a bad time at all. It’s a time for protecting and securing things and for making sure you’ve got in as many supplies as you can.”
– Tove Jansson
It was an action-packed assembly in the Senior School this week with us celebrating academic achievements in maths, business, history and languages, reflecting on Anti-Bullying Week, promoting Toilet Twinning and having an update on the house competitions that have taken place. Congratulations to Aramis who are currently leading. I therefore had a mere four minutes to squeeze in the assembly’s traditional pause for thought.
This week I was trying to explain that Orwell’s vision of 1984 with its thought police and the inescapable presence of Big Brother has, in fact, got things wrong. We don’t have our thoughts watched, to a great extent we have outsourced our thinking to an ever-captivating, all singing and dancing set of algorithms that fill our time and more worryingly shape our opinions. Big Brother does not need to take over, we’ve given our attention away already, it’s in the hands of others. I was making the point that unless during our time at school and beyond we take time to read books, and books that have been well edited and fact checked, we can never be in a position to form what are truly our own opinions. Once upon a time I’d have included attention to broadcast media, but as a grumpy old teacher I’m not sure that I have much confidence in the independence of the fourth estate.
It gets more worrying. Increasingly we are seeing a trend among young people in adopting AI bots as both friends and confidants, sometimes with tragic results. In school we monitor, screen and filter all that goes on the devices that are on our networks. Phones, although not often seen in school, are also used. Much of what we do to prevent pupils slipping into such habits is reactive, but I’m pleased to see that when asked if they had a trusted person to turn to in time of crisis the answer was a resounding yes. As adults we should maintain a watchful eye on the sources of information and influence that are being used and nothing beats the conversation around the meal table about what has been seen, and how that has influenced thought. We can’t stop the tide, but we can ensure that our young people have the strength of mind and character to formulate their own opinions. Alongside Orwell, I also quoted Tove Jansson who, in the important text that is Moominsummer Madness, has the character Snufkin tell us that “The main thing in life is to know your own mind”. I wonder if we should give Jansson more attention in the Western canon?
I was, therefore, delighted to have the chance to speak to one of our older pupils who was keen to tell me about the five undergraduate-level texts that he was reading in order to be able to answer the complex history questions that he had set himself. His choice of subject was telling… authoritarian power.
Nicholas Hammond
Headmaster
