being. I brought up my family here and that learning process has been a very fundamental part of my life. How has Dulwich changed during the time you’ve taught here? For the better, I hope – I feel very optimistic about the future based on several things. Pastoral care is in a better place than when I arrived: it was quite a tough school, quite harsh. I am now delighted to see that homophobia is on the retreat, which is a major move, I think, over the last seven or eight years. Also, the number of female teachers has risen from five to 55 and that has been a major change in terms of, as you would expect, making the place perhaps kinder, more forgiving and more open to other influences that weren’t here to a great degree when I first arrived. You must have witnessed some amusing incidents in your time at the College. Could you tell us about any story in particular that sticks out? There are so many. One I would like to leave behind as a sort of legacy is really told against myself. As an English teacher, I’m always delighted to talk to any boy about literature and I remember also feeling that literature was a very good way of dealing pastorally with people, because it was about life in general. And I remember quite a difficult boy – let’s call him Richard – who came to me and asked me if I knew the novel Pride And Prejudice by Jane Austen. I told him I loved it and thought it was one of the most remarkable books. He then asked if I could tell him something about one of the characters, the Reverend Collins. I launched into what I thought was a pretty good analysis of Collins, as being obsequious, a parasite, certainly a misogynist and rather obnoxious. He appeared very pleased to hear this, and when I said, ‘Why do you ask, Richard?’ he replied, ‘Well, at a party last night, a girl said I was just like Collins’. The literary doesn’t always help with the pastoral, I suppose. What defines a Dulwich Boy? They are very difficult to define! But if you look at how they develop – and sometimes when they arrive we don’t know how they’re going to develop – towards the end of their time here, I would say that their common characteristics are that they’re confident but not complaisant, and very few are cynical or sceptical, which means that they have a good outlook on the world. They are capable of walking into any office in the world and not having any difficulty socially, which is a huge advantage. They are obviously bright and they are also humorous. Has your love of poetry changed your perception of the world? It continues to do so but you’ve got to work on it. I love finding new poets and rediscovering poets that I have left behind – I studied them once and thought I knew them, but find more. It is like good wine: the best will stay and the rest
will disappear but the best is always rich – the best poetry has a rich vein of observation about the human condition. What I love is its precision, its concision as an art and how close it gets to articulating life through language. Are there any particular poets you feel communicate that idea in their works? Recently I gave a talk to the Dulwich LitSoc on Larkin and Hardy, both of whom, I’d say, are top drawer. If you count Chaucer as a poet, I would put him there, too. It continues – I’d hate to define all my favourites in one sentence as I’m forever looking at new things. What made you want to become a teacher? It was in the blood – my dad was a headmaster. I tried to fight against becoming a teacher but eventually succumbed. I tried to test myself by going to teach in the wilds of Africa, in Kenya, hoping to get rid of the blood, but I came back. In the end it comes down to your love of subject and you have to love your subject – and people, particularly young people. You have taught ‘Domestic Survival’ as a course to Upper School boys – what do you think Dulwich boys need to survive in the modern world? I’d say kindness – don’t be mean-spirited or in any way prejudiced. Survival is based on positive things. But also be creative – my Domestic Survival course was about using your hands in a positive, creative way: cooking, ironing, mending plugs, fixing wheels, building tree houses for your children when the time comes – never forget that side of education. You also survive by avoiding the things that can tear at you, such as drugs and excess of anything, and, most recently, social media, which can be destructive to young lives. Although it has many positive aspects, I worry about the influence it can have on destroying relations. What’s your advice for the new Deputy Master Pastoral? Be brave under fire; keep calm. Carry on the good work you’ve done – try to see the good in every boy, although some will cause difficulties. Forgiveness is still a very important part of this community. If you were in charge of national education policy, what is the one thing you would change? I’d hope to pay teachers better – if they grumbled less. More seriously, I’d like to see much more vocational courses that are both challenging academically and provide the basis for a job in the future. I worry about universities still being the only option that people will consider. Finally, what will you most miss most after leaving Dulwich? The community at large, in all its aspects – the buildings, the fields, the spiritual aspects, friendships, relationships, connections.
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