CONFLICT & RESOLUTION
Alleynian Editor Joseph Giles (Year 13) reflects on the tricky task of juggling the curricular and co-curricular demands of a Dulwich education, and asks: how can pupils be enabled to thrive academically, making the most of all that Dulwich has to offer in the sporting and cultural arenas, while remaining happy and healthy Balancing acts
C onflict always hits hardest when it affects us personally. However horrific we might find the news reports from Syria or Myanmar, few of us in Britain have had exposure to such global crises, and hope that we never will. Indeed, any first-hand experience of conflict, an argument amongst family or friends for example, hurts us far more, however trivial it is in comparison to true disaster. There are of course those who have witnessed real horror: Ammar Al-Kahachi (Year 12), whose heartfelt article reflects on the war in his native Iraq, is far more qualified to discuss international conflict and resolution than I am. But there is an area of conflict in 2018 which I feel qualified to write about, one which I am sure most Dulwich boys and almost all parents will relate to. Now more than ever, many of us are simply too busy. There is an unspoken culture at Dulwich; we admire those who succeed in numerous curricular and co- curricular ventures, especially when the boy in question displays as little visible
stress as possible. In a school which offers so many diverse opportunities it is inevitable that students are encouraged to take advantage of the outstanding sports, music and drama facilities. Many boys straddle all three fields and do so extremely well. Dulwich has produced more than a handful of fine sportsmen, musicians and actors in the last 10 years alone. And yet it is difficult not to speculate whether this number would greatly increase if only the emphasis on multi- tasking was somewhat scaled back to allow for a more specialist approach, thus catering for the needs of far more students. Demanding sustained success in both academia and other areas of college life is unrealistic and can lead to a sentiment of low self-worth for those who do not achieve it. For the few that do, the stress of identifying priorities or simply feeling overworked takes its toll sooner or later. The problem of course is that for an educational institution, academic performance will always take
precedence. Dulwich is neither a rugby academy nor a music college, but a school in which the ‘primacy of the classroom’ is adhered to. In Year Seven, one is presented with a plethora of activities, and many inductees answer the call, becoming examples of that happy-go-lucky Dulwich boy who can dash straight from the sports pitch to the concert hall, pausing only briefly to swap boots for bassoon. By the Upper School, however, with the looming threat of life-defining exams drawing ever closer, the reality is somewhat different. A very close friend was recently required to drop various non- academic ventures in a bid to improve A-level results. A pragmatic measure perhaps, but one which has deprived school sports teams and orchestras of a phenomenal talent. The final year is undeniably a deeply stressful period but forced removal from the co- curricular scene hurts both the school and, more importantly, the boy who loses something he held dear.
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