Thirty years of hindsight, together with my observations of to-day's youth, have made me think about the whole concept of education. Most schools, and Wennington was no exception, have high ideals of forming pupils in cultural and spiritual values - and not just programming them to pass examinations. Unfortunately, in the early 1970's, most of these ideals were presented in a pompous and patronising way that none of us would take them seriously - or in any other way than sanctimonious and hypocritical banter. I know what I'm talking about, being a churchman!!!
The post 1968 era took its toll, and the children of to-day really do give more than cause for concern. I find that the whole concept of education is in a state of crisis, far worse than Wennington in its final days. We had no knives or guns, still less the thought of using them. We had some respect for authority, little of it, but some. Kids now are absolute anarchists, and we are heading for a lost generation. A solution? I am certainly not for bringing back the cane and a lot of the hypocrisy to which we were subjected, and to which children and adolescents are so sensitive. It is a problem of society, not just of schools: the anonymous bureaucracy of European politics, the breakdown of families, and so the list goes on. Perhaps the ideal education would be based on the ancient Greek model of a boy being educated by his own master in a dialogue setting.
I know little about Kenneth Barnes, but I should read his book to learn something of his philosophy that didn't interest me as a small boy. There are so few men of vision in the world of education and youth work. We must keep the memory of Wennington alive - a school that corresponded with a precise need in a precise era, but an ever-present reminder that educators of vision are more and more sorely needed.
The trip down "Memory Lane" as I discovered the Wennington site has helped me tie up a few last "short ends" and get to the bottom of a few mysteries that have dogged me over the years. There must be quite a few hundred men and women, each with the secrets of their experience, who feel just the same. I visited the building in 1995 (as I drove up towards Whitby to see my brother) and was so saddened by its state of delapidation. I felt like a character out of Brideshead Revisited, or perhaps La Traviata. The Wennington experience is a lesson to us all, whether or not involved in education.
The Wennington experience made me no less anti-authoritarian, and this has caused me many difficulties with authorities in the Church, especially the Roman Catholic Church. My critical attitude was my undoing at seminary, and I was always unable to fit into a mould. I don't regret this, for - as Oscar Wilde said - there was no more of an individualist than Jesus Christ. We need to be ourselves and learn to live with it.
May 2001
Montmorillon, France
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