Headmaster's Newsletter Friday 6th May 2022
Dear Parents,
Over Easter, I took advantage of my first trip abroad since Covid began to indulge in some of my historical nerdiness, by visiting the study once occupied by the sixteenth-century French essayist Michel de Montaigne. This study is on the top floor of a medieval tower just outside St Emilion in a conveniently excellent wine-growing region near Bergerac. For those of you who haven’t spent a few hours in Montaigne’s excellent company – he is frequently lauded as one of those authors with whom you’d like to have a drink – his essays are a brilliant series of musings on everything from smells to idleness, liars to physiognomy. He also wrote astonishingly perceptively about education.
Montaigne appreciated that the bringing up and education of children was and is ‘the most important difficulty known to human learning’. Montaigne had little time for those who consider that education is simply for the pursuit of money. ‘So abject an end’ he considered to be ‘unworthy of the grace and favour of the Muses’. In contrast, children should be educated to be ‘inwardly enrich[ed] and adorn[ed]’, not cynically to engineer future professional or economic advancement. This education should not happen, for Montaigne, through teachers telling their pupils a collection of facts, before the pupil repeats them exactly as they have been told. There are occasions when it is appropriate for the teacher to direct the learning from the front, but there are also times when the pupil should ‘do it all on [their] own’, or the tutor should ‘listen to [the] pupil talking’. Importantly, the tutor should also adapt their pedagogical approach and the level of difficulty of the work to suit the pupil(s) in front of them. There is no point in a learned mathematician or philosopher holding forth in front of a group, if only one or two of that group have a clue what the tutor is talking about. Montaigne was also enlightened in his view of violence perpetrated by teachers. He saw that ‘violence and force ... stultifies and bastardizes a well-born nature’. In its place, Montaigne advocated what he called a ‘severe gentleness’ – a will of steel cloaked in a gentle demeanour – and a learning experience that is ‘enjoyable’.
For Montaigne, proper education came not from the indiscriminate learning of facts passed down from on high. A good memory is of no particular use, if pupils do not assimilate their new knowledge and apply it to their everyday lives. Pupils are to apply their knowledge to different situations and subjects. If all they can do is regurgitate facts, it is ‘evidence of a failure to digest and assimilate’. By being exposed to a diversity of opinions and ‘drinking their humours’ rather than just ‘learning their precepts’, pupils are enabled to apply their learning to unfamiliar situations. They also recognise that there is not just one answer, that it is perfectly okay to doubt and to question: ‘Only fools have made up their minds and are certain.’ Once pupils have encountered a variety of thoughts and opinions, they are to come up with their own ideas. They should not hide behind the views and maxims of their tutors, but instead put their own ‘achievements on display’. Montaigne likened pupils to bees who ‘ransack flowers here and flowers there: but they make their own honey.’ When conversing with others, whether it be among familiar company or friends from new cultures, Montaigne was adamant about the direction in which conversation should go. It is important for pupils to listen and learn about others, rather than talk all the time and tell the world all about them. They should not boast about what they have achieved and they should suffer in dignified, polite silence when others foist upon them boasts or tall tales. They should also admit when they discover they are wrong, whether it be through their own private meditation or through the intervention of others.
Private meditation, for Montaigne, came in large part through acute observation. His essays are, after all, a series of observations. To observe well, pupils should be encouraged to forgo sitting in the front row, watching instead from further back. The front seats, Montaigne thinks, are normally taken by those who discuss issues as superficial as ‘the beauty of a tapestry or the bouquet of the malmsey’. By eschewing the front row or the top table, pupils are able to discern the background of each member of their diverse company and they are exposed to a variety of qualities of behaviours. In turn, they can ape that which is desirable and shun that which is not. Indeed, a large part of learning how to live, for Montaigne, was learning how to live among others. He was deeply sceptical about over-bookishness, solitary over- intellectualising. He also saw it is important to avoid peculiar behaviour that impaired one’s ability to live harmoniously among others. The point at which peculiar wrinkles in behaviour should be ironed out, he argued, is in childhood, during education. Montaigne recounted tales of adults whom he had known to ‘fly from the smell of apples’, or were ‘terrified of a mouse’, or had vomited ‘at the sight of cream or when a feather mattress [was] shaken up’. It is the duty of the teacher, then, to discourage their pupils from faddishness or quirks and quiddities that might alienate them in future company.
There is no point, Montaigne argued, in producing pupils who just carry vast quantities of knowledge around. It is more important to encourage pupils to study and to enjoy their study, ‘otherwise you simply produce donkeys laden with books’. Knowledge is different from memorisation. Facts deduced from books should not be the basis of education, but embellishments. It is counter-productive to ‘imprison’ pupils, to ‘torture’ them by making them sit hunched over their books for 14 or 15 hours a day. Not only does it alienate them from society, it turns them off the joys of learning, gives the wrong impression of what true learning really is, and it makes them miserable. The point of education, for Montaigne, was to learn what ‘knowing’ actually means. It is to learn how to think, thereby how to live. Pupils learn how to live by learning about courage, justice, self-control, worthwhile aspirations, freedom, virtue, and how to achieve real happiness. This will come from the study of, say, history – but not just so pupils can tell you who reigned during which dates, but what those monarchs did that teaches us about courage, justice, self-control, and so on. By looking at others around them, both in the past and present, pupils get a clearer understanding of themselves. Pupils should then demonstrate their learning through their deeds, not just their words.
We, too, want our pupils to do the right thing, rather than disguise bad intentions with gilded words. We want them to demonstrate what they learn by living happily and well, instead of just regurgitating a bunch of facts. We want them to enjoy learning, instead of being miserably buried under a pile of books. We want them to function well in society, instead of impairing their futures by alienating others. We want them to learn by subtly observing those around them, instead of talking about themselves the whole time. We want them to accumulate factual knowledge, but in the process to hone their thinking skills. We want them to think for themselves and to know that there is not always an easy right answer, not just to be reliant on teachers crow-barring information into their heads. For all of these reasons, Montaigne has a lot to say to us about the fundamental principles of modern education, even if he never stood in front of a class, and even if he said it half a millenium ago in an ivory tower in the French countryside.
Have a great weekend,
Matt Jenkinson
Good luck to all those running on Sunday in Oxford's Town and Gown event! Good luck especially to Alexander, Didrik, Thomas, Jacob, Victor, Nathanael, Felix, Eli, George, Finn, Monty, Eddie, Herbie, Jack, Yoav and Noah who will all be running in the 3k race at 9.15am. The teachers - Mrs Usher, Mr Young, Mr Morrison, Mr Hanson and Mrs Hayter - are also bravely running in the 10k at 10am. Do come and support! Thank you to all those who have donated on the NCS page; if you would like to do so, please use the following link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/newcollegeschooloxford
It was wonderful to see so many families at our pre-prep’s 20th birthday party in the Founder’s Library in New College. There was a lot to celebrate, especially marking 20 years of a highly successful part of the school. As I mentioned on the night, it may seem odd to celebrate 20 years in the context of a school that has been around for about 640 years. But it is impossible to think of NCS now without the pre-prep as its very firm foundation. Thank you to all those parents and colleagues who made the effort to join us to celebrate.
Bike Oxford will take place on Sunday 3 July 2022 at Oxford University Rugby Club on Iffley Road. The event, now in its 9th year, aims to attract up to 1000 riders and comprises marked rides of 25, 50 and 80 miles, including a 2 mile stretch around historic Oxford. The 2022 event is supporting a number of worthy causes including Helen and Douglas House, Wheels for All, Active Oxfordshire and is supported by the Cowley Road Condors Cycling Club. Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council have committed their support and the event is seen as promoting active lifestyles and encouraging sustainable travel. The rides are designed to appeal to all ages and abilities, in particular the 25 mile ride will appeal to prep-aged pupils. Everyone will experience a day in the beautiful Cotswolds, get an event medal and enjoy the post event festivities on offer at the rugby club afterwards. The organisers encourage supervised groups to enter where ratios of adults to students must be a minimum of 2 adults : 10 children. Riders can register via the Bike Oxford website www.bikeoxford.co.uk and view a short showreel, which may be of use if you are unfamiliar with the event. You can register as individuals or contact the office via info@iconiccylingevents.co.uk if you would like to enter a team as there are team entry options available.
I’ll regret tempting fate by saying this, but the weather seems to be picking up a bit over the next week or so. Please could boys bring in sun hats and water bottles for break times? It would also be a good idea to apply sunscreen to exposed skin before the boys arrive in school, especially on those days when the sun is forecast to shine. Many thanks.
Upcoming Events
Monday, 9 May 2022
9.45-11.45 Year 7 Science visit to Botanic Gardens
14.00 U13 Tennis vs d'Overbroeck's, away
19.00 NCSPA Committee Meeting, Hall
Tuesday, 10 May 2022
14.00 U8&9 Cricket vs CCCS, home
Wednesday, 11 May 2022
8.00 Orchestra rehearsal (Sports hall)
9.00 Chapel. Speaker: Samuel King, NCS Old Boy
14.30 U10 A&B Cricket vs MCS, away
14.30 U13 A&B Cricket vs Bruern Abbey, home
18.00 VMT Parents' Evening (on Zoom, appointments only)
Monday, 16 May 2022
National Walk to School Week
9.00 Whole School photo
Tuesday, 17 May 2022
16.00 U13A Tennis vs Cranford House, home
Wednesday, 18 May 2022
8.00 Orchestra rehearsal (Sports hall)
8.15 School Council Meeting, library
9.00 Chapel. Speaker: Dr Zoe Waxman, Faculty of Oriental Studies
14.30 U13A & U11A Cricket vs Summer Fields, home
14.30 U13B & U11B Cricket vs Summer Fields, away
Thursday, 19 May 2022
All day Zoolab animal handling (Years 3-8/8S on rota)
14.00 U9 A-C Cricket vs Summer Fields, away