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The moral and spiritual climate in a boarding schoolMark Aitken, Headmaster of St Lawrence College, Ramsgate
The school you chose for your child will have a most profound effect on their life. It is the biggest decision you make for them. It has a much greater impact than just providing academic qualifications. There is no doubt that academic results are important, even vital, for the development of a successful career, but they are not what shapes, forms, creates the adult man or woman. Parents expect an independent school to provide their child with the best academic profile they can achieve, but anecdotal and statistical evidence suggests that parents are looking for much more than that when they select a school for their child. The moral aspects of schooling and the inculcation of values are high on the agenda of parents searching for the ‘right school’ for their child. Parents want a school that will provide a moral compass and create spiritual roots. Academic success can be measured, ranked and put into league tables. Although please remember that ‘value added’ statistics are a much better way of ranking the quality of a school’s teaching. It is, however, much harder to measure a school’s impact on the personality of a student. So what might schools be considering in order to produce a climate that develops this vital moral compass to chart a course through an ever more complex life? How can they help provide the spiritual roots that will allow a man or woman to stand strong on ground that seems ever changing? There must be concern for the spiritual growth at the very heart of the school. It is a real brute to define exactly, but spiritual development relates to the ‘inner life’ through which pupils acquire insights into their personal existence that are of enduring worth. It is characterised by reflection, the attribution of meaning to experience, valuing a non-materialistic dimension to life and intonations of an enduring reality. It is not the same entity as religion. Much of the drive that leads to a vibrant spiritual dimension in a school will come from the influence of ‘chapel’. However, for a lasting impact on the students this spiritual awareness must be quietly infusing every part of school life. For this to happen there has to be a particular kind of approach to people, to lessons and to the whole of the school. It will become clear in the way the head talks about the school, revealed in the demeanour, attitude and priorities of any pupil you meet, and should be sensed in any interactions between staff and pupils. I am sure that most parents can see how a set of values can be delivered in chapel, though that experience can vary enormously between schools, but how does this happen in other areas of school life? Let me give you some examples. In drama a pupil tries to imagine himself as another and, therefore, enters into the other person’s experiences of life. In mathematics, a teacher encourages the class not just to do the calculation but to consider its beauty. The geography teacher raises vital questions about inequality and injustice. The good historian demands that his pupils search for the motives behind the historical acts, which leads to insights into human nature. The biologist helps the class to ponder the origins of the universe and sends them off to religious studies full of questions. All these kinds of experiences encourage pupils to consider the world through other people’s eyes. To think about the nature of the universe, and the values by which people live leads almost imperceptibly to the creation of a value system. In a good school pupils ought regularly to sit silently in a lesson overwhelmed by the immensity, the beauty or the challenge of what they have just heard their teacher say. Teachers must always remember that, in the fullness of time, their pupils are more likely to remember more about the way they treated them than the exact content of their lessons. Relationships, inside and outside the classroom, are as much a source of the spiritual and moral atmosphere of the school as the courses taught. Although the moral code of a school will be defined in some document or other, it is the way the school lives together as a community that reveals its actual moral values. The overall standards set throughout the school, the quality of relationships between its members, the prominence given to the tutor–pupil relationship as primarily being one of support, the role of a prefect as being one of care as much as organisation and discipline, the attitude to winning and losing, are just some of the examples of the way in which the moral climate of a school is developed. No doubt as a parent you will be considering various schools for your child. You will have to make decisions about matching the academic nature of school to what you know about the natural ability and inclination to hard work of your child. You will ponder matters of location, the resources a school has to offer, the dreaded matter of fees will raise its head, but how will you judge the school’s potential development of your child’s personality especially in terms of the spiritual and moral dimensions? You are most likely to begin with prospectuses and websites. What do these say about the values of a school – both explicitly in their choice of words but also implicitly in the areas they have chosen to highlight or ignore? What is the balance between academic drive and pastoral care? All material produced by a school will have been pored over before being released into the public arena. It is, therefore, value laden even if not consciously considered as such by its writers. While reading it, ask yourself the question, ‘If my child went to this school what values would he or she acquire over their time there?’ Then visit to see if the day-to-day reality confirms or changes your view. What values do you think the head sets as the priorities for the school? Ask him or her. Hopefully, you will meet pupils – what might be the reasons if you don’t? What do you sense really matters to them? Do they feel as if they are part of a school that encourages a sense of respect for other people? Do you think they have had time to be still, to ponder values, as well as being kept active and busy? What opportunities have there been for them to consider specific questions about values and moral dilemmas. What kind of influence do you think they would have on your child either as a peer or as a person in a position of authority/responsibility? As you tour the school, what do you observe about the relationships? Do pupils, and pupils and staff, talk easily together? Is there a sense of openness that would allow awkward and searching questions to be asked? Always ask the pupil who they would turn to if they had a problem – it usually produces very revealing answers! A good moral compass and some deep spiritual roots are there to help us through the difficult times of life, but they grow in atmospheres where questions are encouraged and where people feel secure. So, ask yourself does the school seem a place where people smile easily. Certainly the moral climate of a school, the values it lives by and the sense of the ‘spiritual’ that it either does or does not engender, will have a lasting impact on your child. The world in which they will be adults will be more complex and demanding than we can ever begin to imagine. The best examination results will be important, but a good, reliable moral compass and some deep spiritual roots will be vital to their success, safety and sanity.  The Revd Mark Aitken has been Headmaster of St Lawrence College, Ramsgate, where General Lord Dannatt was formerly a pupil, since 2004. He had previously been at Sherborne School for 12 years as Chaplain. |
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