Robert Stewart Culbard

Perhaps the most amusing part of David Cameron’s speech to the October Conservative Party Conference was when he said, “I went to a great school and I want every child to have a great education like mine. I am not here to defend privilege… I am here to spread it.”

Cameron said this with such conviction that he was almost to be believed, until he went on to laud a school that keeps having privilege spread over it and its former pupils at a cost to those less fortunate – less privileged. “Privilege” means to give an advantage to a person, or a class of persons, to confer a special benefit or honour, or even to allow a monopoly to an individual or group.

So, by definition, privilege means benefitting  a few to the cost of the many. To spread privilege will bring about its demise. If everyone is privileged, then there will be no one with any advantage over anyone else. No one will then be privileged. Did Cameron really mean what he said?

The school to which the Prime Minister referred was, of course, Eton. It is sobering to consider that this bastion of institutionalized privilege not only has produced the current Prime Minister (Cameron himself) and Deputy Prime Minister (Nick Clegg) of the UK Government, but also has produced the sitting Mayor of London (Boris Johnson), a probable future monarch (William Windsor) and, most recently, the incoming Archbishop of Canterbury (Justin Welby).

That is a scintillating establishment line-up, but it does not finish there. Apart from the the fact that 19 of 53 Prime Ministers have been Old Etonians, what about the multitude of those who cry “Floreat Etona” who are or have been government ministers (12 in the current administration), members of the judiciary, military leaders, diplomats and the myriad of civil servants who support these. Does David Cameron really wish to put a stop to this process?

If so, then how is he going to go about changing what has been described as a ’21st. century renaissance of privilege’? What will Cameron do to ensure that all boys have the genuine opportunity of a world-class academic education, access to sporting and artistic facilities that are second to none, as well as having successful teachers attracted by impressive salaries. Add the fact that the students are surrounded daily by a community entirely directed to helping them progress and shine. There again, will this access and entry to a privileged education, indeed, a totally privileged lifestyle and developing world of opportunity, be open not only to all boys but also to all girls?

One suggested government plan is to use the costs of a state school education as a voucher for meeting the costs of private education. That will mean giving each student around £150,000 to enable them to complete five years at Eton! Another idea is to ensure that all secondary schools are given the resources lavished on Eton. Surely, this is to dream the impossible dream, not to mention the unwinnable fight that would ensue. One right-wing newspaper even suggested that a lottery should be held among state secondary schools, with the winners getting scholarships to Eton.

All of this may elicit some popular appeal but, spreading privilege along the Cameron lines, I think not.

So, when the likes of David Cameron talks of his pride in wearing his old school tie and how much he would like all students to be able to wear it, it would seem that he is intent on spreading something, but it certainly is not privilege. It would also be of great egalitarian interest to enquire if Cameron would include female students in his largesse.

I am further reminded that it is only a few short years ago that government was talking about the advantages of state schools, primary and secondary, becoming ‘Academies’. Was this movement in education seen as the advancement of privilege for the mass of students, or simply an attempt at appeasing those who demanded positive change in the state system? There was much talk and promises given about how academies would advance the educational enterprise by providing greater and more secure finances, freedom from the bureaucratic control of Local Education Authorities, more scope for advancement in the teaching profession and a plethora of other propaganda.

A substantial number of school leaders (who may have mistaken short term gains for long term consolidation), if not by all who worked in state schools, took hold of these ideas with some relish.

As is now becoming clear, the reality is somewhat different. The financial gravy train that benefitted early academy applicants is beginning to dry-up. Bureaucracy has not withered on the vine – it has merely re-sprouted within school governors and senior staff members.

State schools are now more responsible to the Minister for Education with the consequent diminishing of democracy within education. State schools are deprived of the supportive services that LEA’s provided, or else acquire these services at substantially inflated prices from private organizations. The status and freedom of staff within government schools is being lowered and squeezed. So too, the interference by government in the running of state schools seems constant.

Within education, change is a constant.

It is more than a matter of teachers foregoing salary increases, paying more into pensions for less in return, working for years beyond the current retirement age and being expected to be the whipping-boys (and girls) for every child and youth ailment experienced in schools. Government funding is being poured into private education as privileged schools, such as Eton, continue to receive government subsidies with their charitable (sic) status and the so-called ‘Free’ schools’ movement gathers adherents.

There is the blatant contradiction that some, mainly private, schools can and are encouraged to hire teachers who do not possess formal teaching qualifications, whilst there is the lament that teachers generally are ill-equipped for their task.

Inconsistencies abound. Yet, in all of this bubbling broth of cant, hyperbole and hypocrisy, we are asked to believe our Prime Minister when he says that he is not defending privilege, but spreading it; we can all be Old Etonians, we can all aspire to grace Eton’s hallowed halls and playing fields. Now we can all wear the old school tie – if, of course, we wish and can afford the privilege to do so!

Wait a moment – is that a mob of pigs that has just flown past my window!

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The issue of Palestine has, once again, made the headlines during the past week. More specifically, in response to Hamas, the ruling order in the Gaza Strip, firing its rockets into Israel and the consequent loss of lives, the Israelis have not only fired their own rockets into the congested urban area of Gaza City but also mobilised their military forces in readiness for a threatened invasion of the non-Israeli occupied Gaza Strip.

There are those who believe that the Israeli response to the actions of Hamas, with the considerable loss of lives in Gaza City, is disproportionate to the original provocation. The Israelis reply that the stated position of Hamas, that the State of Israel has no right to exist, is a legitimate warrant for protecting its citizens and ensuring the continuance of the very existence of the nation through whatever military action is required.

As previously, the international cry goes out for the cessation of hostilities and the settlement of the long-running dispute through peaceful negotiations. Such cries have been heard in the past  but, regrettably, without the required peace and political negotiations taking place or realising any significantly successful outcome. The focus seems to be on the immediate, as if the present circumstances hold the key to the solution of this problem, one that has ramifications far wider than the territorial boundaries of Palestine.

This writer would argue that, no matter what else is required, there is the need to understand history and the story of what has happened over time in this part of the world.

The State of Israel was established on May 14, 1948, following decades of activity by the Zionist Movement and, following World War II, an international move to seek reparations for the Holocaust and provide a homeland for Jewish people, ensuring that the words associated with the Jewish memorial at the former Nazi  death camp of Sobibor, “NEVER AGAIN“, became a reality. This was an understandable and desirable action.

What is perhaps not so well known is that the foundation of the State of Israel was accompanied by terrorist activity carried out by proponents of  a separate State of Israel in Palestine, popularly presented in the Leon Uris novel “Exodus“.  There have been many atrocities worse than the destruction of the British-owned St. David’s Hotel in Jerusalem, but in its day it was far from being an insignificant terrorist activity.

From a traditional Jewish/Israeli viewpoint, the Jewish people are the rightful occupants, if not owners, of the land of Palestine – a position argued from the perspective of the religious history of Judaism and the Jewish belief that Yahweh, the God of Israel (and, in Jewish religious belief,  the only true god), had promised this land to his ‘chosen people’ in perpetuity.

(Interestingly, a similar line of argument would later be reflected in the development of another Semitic religion, Islam, as it presented itself as the one, true, universal way of religious belief and practice and,  with the accompanying use of violence, sought to project and protect itself and its lands from the political, cultural and religious incursions of the Christianized and democratized nations states of the western world.)

The implications of major aspects of Jewish belief are significant. These include the devotion to an ancient tribal god, a god who rewarded conquest, including wholesale slaughter of non-military personnel, in his name and whose promises were supposedly given to the priests and prophets, scribes and monarchs of the people who lived in obedience to the unchanging laws (the ‘Torah’) of this god.

The religious beliefs and rituals associated with this exclusive god, for whom the use of the male gender is apposite, were then inscribed in this religion’s sacred literature and demanded to be followed in perpetuity and, by implication, without  acknowledgement of any other religious order or authority. Judaism became the first religion to make exclusivist claims. It would not be the last.

It is relevant to this discussion to note that this religious history became the basis upon which Christianity was later founded and developed.

The Christian faith was loosely based on the reformist teachings of a Jewish rabbi, Jesus (who lived and taught in pre-Christian times), redacted and institutionalized by an evangelising Jewish Pharisee with a knowledge of Greek mythology and philosophy, Paul (who was also a Roman citizen), and adopted as a more or less fully-formed institution for social and political reasons in the period of the late Roman Empire under the Emperor Constantine.

These links with Judaism, and especially the sharing of a distinctive portion of each faith’s sacred literature, could well be an explanation as to why, generally speaking, the Christianized countries of the western world are sympathetic to, if not overtly supportive of, the Israeli position.

Moreover, when the chosen people of the religion of the promised and, by implication and popular acclaim, “holy land” of Israel came into the contemporary possession of their supposedly god-prescribed territory, a possession eloquently defended with the words of their religious tradition and bravely and resolutely protected in a series of protracted territorial wars with their neighbours, they were not content to limit their existence and movements to their circumscribed territory – a major proportion of the land of Palestine. They began a systematic aggrandisement of the territory of the non-Jewish section of the population, that in which the Palestinian people lived.

So began the Jewish settlement movement and this process continues and expands to this day. The situation has become a major thorn in Palestinian flesh and a major reason for the position of Hamas and its belligerence with respect to the existence of the State of Israel.

It is recognised that there are Israeli citizens who are of Palestinian origin and that the State of Israel has a mixed ethnic and religious population. So too, it is a fact that there are dissident voices being raised in Israel with respect to its government’s policies, including the voice of left-wing intellectuals and the national newspaper Haaretz.

The issues being raised by the these sources include, for example, the expansion of the settlements into Palestinian territory and the removal of farming land from Palestinian hands; the building of territorial walls that  divide and disconcert; the limitation of travel for indigenous Palestinians within their own recognised borders through a system of road checkpoints; sanctions against the residents of the Gaza Strip and the use of disproportionate violence in retaliatory military action to settle disputes.

It seems the case, nevertheless, that the further development of Israel as a territorial, social, cultural, political and religious entity is being driven by those who are persuaded by the religious interpretation of its history, and especially its ancient roots.

The rockets of Israel are no different in effect from those of Hamas – the launching of these instruments of war, no matter how ‘targeted’, results in indiscriminate death and destruction – euphemistically known as ‘collateral damage’. Cessation of this activity is right for its own sake.

However, the solution to what has been called the “Palestinian Problem” will not be found simply in the cessation of mutually violent activities. History needs to be re-visited and re-examined, attitudes and practices must change, national and religious history cross-examined and critiqued, beliefs opened to the scrutiny of rationality and common sense, similarities given equality with  differences, and genuine respect afforded to what it means to be human.

The solution to the “Palestinian Problem” may be found in the establishment of a single nation state – unlikely but not impossible; it may be found in the creation of two nation states – likely but not, it would seem, in the foreseeable future and not without the above-mentioned changes occurring over a substantial period of time.

The solution, however, will not be found in a continuation of the presently unstable and highly dangerous situation, something that friend and foe together need to realise or re-discover.

History has a habit of moving on and waiting for no one, even if there are those who prefer to linger with or live in its past.

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As we all are aware, every word from John Perkins’ mouth is sincere – whether on this occasion they are true, or not, I will leave others to decide. It has been a privilege, and at most times a pleasure, to work with John and other members of the Humanities Faculty over the past fifteen years.

It has been most satisfying to be a part of the development of a Religious Studies Department that, fifteen years ago, was somewhat of a Cinderella set-up. I doubt whether anyone today would similarly describe it as such (there are no “ugly sisters”, probably no “Prince Charming”, perhaps a pre-occupation with shoes, but we have had a bit of a ball).

For the previous fifteen Summer-term holidays and end-of-year lunches, I have sat in this centre and wondered what it would be like to have to respond to a farewell from the school. Now I know!

A couple of weeks ago I had a conversation with a colleague, during which she asked me if I had, already prepared my leaving speech. I answered in the negative. The colleague then proffered me the advice to “keep it light” (note: she did not say “keep it short”). Obviously, this colleague has a keen awareness of character.

I am not too sure Ruth if I can easily “do light”, but I do trust that what follows will not be too “heavy”!

Those of you who know something about me, other than what you have seen and experienced at school, will know that I have had the required three careers:

1. I began my working life as a servant of the Australian Federal Government – working with telecommunications (I believe I am on the records of ASIO – the Australian Secret Intelligence Organisation).

2. My middle working life saw me being a servant of the Christian Church. I was an ordained Minister of Religion – a priest, a vicar, a clergyman, pastor, a “reverend person”.

3. In 1996 I started my third career as a servant of the British Government’s Ministry of Education, as a teacher at Campion School. The very day I started this third professional phase, I “defrocked” myself, dropped the “Rev.” and became a plain and simple “doctor”. As such I have been known to successive staff and students of this school – except maybe Alan Hackett who, occasionally, calls me “Rev” or “Father”. The temptation has been to reply, “Yes, my son?” Our traditions, if not our ages, hold a strong influence over us.

I have sometimes been asked if “I have ever missed the Church?”

Now, I might have missed the Class A social status of being a vicar, the opportunity to harangue a silent congregation for twenty minutes on a Sunday, and to have every Monday away from the office. However, I have never missed the subsistence level salary, the guilt of perhaps misrepresenting the Christian Deity with what I said from time to time, or the need to always vicariously strive to please those whom I was meant to be serving.

But, the answer to the question “have I missed the Church?” is an emphatic “No!” Why would I miss the Church when I have had a church right here at Campion?

The largest ever single church congregation over which I exercised a leadership function was in the Central Baptist Church in the City of Adelaide. It was 200-300 strong. But…I have taught around that number of students every year at Campion and, if desired, I could harangue them every lesson! At this school, in this church, we have a total staff and student membership of around 1600, which is large enough to not even begin to feel guilty about not having pleased everyone.

There have been special moments which have brought together my previous and present roles. Sharing the lives of staff and students is much the same in every walk of life – even if the counsel or solutions are seen to be different. A couple of examples may be illustrative.

1. Several years ago, I received an award from a Year 11 Tutor Group. They called it the “Teacher-Preacher Award”. Apart from showing the wisdom and taste that can sometimes shine through with a Year 11 group, it also possibly indicated to me that “You can take the boy out of the Church, but not the church out of the boy”.

2. Following last year’s Creativity Week here at Campion, I received a letter from a Year 7 student in which he commented on one of my lessons. He considered it to be the best of the week for him. He felt that the lesson was fun; had taught him many things about the Olympic Games, with videos, pencil drawings and the laminating of pictures – clearly good teaching methods!

He finished his letter with the words “Good day mate, thank you for your lesson.” Apparently, I have had a least one successful lesson in sixteen years!

As I leave this school and the RS Department I feel sure that the Christian God did not take offence if, every now and again, I have mentioned Mohammad, Guru Nanak, the Buddha or Abraham, instead of just focusing on Jesus; or, perhaps, not having spoken about any of these at all, just concentrated on the philosophy, ethics and practicalities of preparing the lives of young people to live in the contemporary world. Teaching these things today in a secular school should not be that different to raising contemporary issues of faith and religious awareness.

So too, as I leave the teaching profession it is comforting to realise that the Teachers’ Pension will certainly be more adequate than the pension of a superannuated “servant of the sacred”.

Let me press the analogy between a school and the Church (with thanks to Isobel for her counsel, with apologies for possibly misusing the C of E as a reference point). Like the Church, Campion has a Synod (the Governing Body) with a Bishop in charge who is responsible to the Synod and to the people of the Diocese. We have our own Bishop, “Bishop Bob”.

Those who are familiar with the BBC sitcom “Rev” will be aware of the nature and importance of the Archdeacon – he, or she, who scurries around the Diocese, making sure that the diocesan clergy are following the Synod’s policies and the Bishop’s directives. At Campion we refer to such figures collectively as the Senior Leadership Team (the SLT) or the Assistant Head Teachers

In between the Bishop and the Archdeacons, we have a Suffragan Bishop, the Bishop’s right-hand person – you see, Louise, I have not forgotten you! I could not forget this position for a number of reasons, including the fact that when I worked professionally in the Church I actually ascended to the heady heights of the equivalent position you occupy in this school as the Deputy Head-teacher.

STORY:

When I lived and worked in Melbourne, I was for several years in an appointment known as the Regional Minister for Inner City Baptist Association of Churches (ICBA). As such, I was referred to as the “Baptist Bishop for the Inner City (BICBA)”. Belonging to the Free Church Baptist Tradition I never got to wear the episcopal purple and white collar. The only collar I wore was white and grey – and only one shade of grey at that! 

During the period of being the “Baptist Bishop” I had a professional link with the Anglican Suffragan Bishop of Melbourne, Peter Hollingsworth.  Around the time I came to England to be WVUK’s Manager for Domestic Programmes (1991), Peter was becoming the Bishop of Brisbane (a high-ranking bishopric in Australia). Around the time I was starting as Head of RS at Campion (1996), Peter Hollingsworth was on the way to becoming the Governor General of Australia – the Queen’s representative down under and second only in public importance to the Prime Minister.

I never found out if Peter Hollingsworth ever envied me!

To continue with our analogy, we next come to the fire-fighters, the healers, the coal face workers, those whose major task it is to work selflessly, tirelessly, if not effortlessly in the school, as a Teacher, a Teaching Assistant or an Administrator. These are the Priests-in-Charge, the Vicars, Parsons and Parish Workers. This is not to suggest that the other officers I have mentioned do not take part in the teaching function. It is, of course, a matter of time and degree.

The place of teaching in a school is paramount, for it is in the classroom that we primarily exercise the role for which we have trained. As a Minister of Religion undertakes the discipline of academic and professional training to serve a church congregation as a leader, teacher, pastor and an administrator, so a teacher does the same in order to be able to serve students and colleagues.

As a look around this gathering (congregation?) today I see people who are carers, pastors, teachers and role models, leaders by word and deed. I see trainers and administrators. I see colleagues who will continue to give to Campion its respected place in the community of Northampton schools.

With every beginning Year 7 class I have been given at Campion, I have shared something of the background as to why I came into teaching. I do not go into a long-winded explanation or an analogy similar to what I have shared this afternoon. I simply share with the students the words on a small picture that hangs in the ground floor “loo” of my home, a picture that shows a small boy, hands in his back pockets, looking over a lake. Underneath the picture are the following words that face me at the relevant moments of awareness and contemplation:

“A hundred years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove… What will matter is that the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child.”

Give or take a few changed words, therein lies the reason I first went into the ministry of the Christian Church, undertaking youth ministry, Christian education, urban ministry and then into a late career as a schoolteacher. My professional involvement with both has, with today, come to an end. I count myself fortunate in having been what I have been; having done what I have done and for being with those with whom I have done it.

So too, and finally, I thank you for being part of my journey for these past sixteen years. It has sometimes seemed like a “road less travelled”, but, by every measurement, it is one that has been worthwhile, and I further commend it to you.

In the words of the only non-English language I have ever spoken publicly (Welsh):

Diolch, a mae’n amser ffarwelio

Thanks, and it is time to say goodbye.

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When I worked as a schoolteacher, I became well known for sending memos to colleagues. This was in the pre-laptop computer days. When my school, Campion Academy, Northampton, introduced laptops for each member of staff, I graduated to sending emails.

Obviously, I enjoyed writing the emails and, inevitably, some of them contained personal opinion on a variety of topics, expressed in several modes – including poetry and prose, brevity and longevity, humour and the utmost seriousness – and not always to do with school-based matters!

Therefore, on my retirement from teaching, it seemed a natural step to continue these writing practices with a blog. Further encouragement came from my son, Glenn, who gave me a birthday gift of a blog address – something that was different, timely and challenging.

The general purpose of the blog is to provide a personal site for the examination of and commentary on life and times. It is hoped that its scope will be wide – including articles on politics and social awareness, religion and culture, sport, and personal observation.

It is also hoped that, in due course, I will be able to contribute comments and articles to other blogs, even as I give time and space to their considerations.

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Welcome to my world.

I trust that it will be a world in which you may find careful thought, relevant topics, reasoned opinion, and discussion. May it be a world that links and resonates with the one in which you move and have your being.

Turn to the next post to find out why I started this blog and what is planned for it.

Happy blogging!

Robert Stewart Culbard