This is an independent QBE Education Project
Founded by Will Sutherland and Aiglon Alumni
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ETHOS MATTERS
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WHAT IS THIS PROJECT AND THE DNA ALL ABOUT
We all have our different ideas and only Alumni and long serving members of staff know the makeup of the inner matrix of the original DNA. So we are listening to them and incorporating their ideas into this project.
If you have a point of view or an illustrative story, we would like to hear it and post it here on the website.
EXPLANATORY STORIES AND EXAMPLES -
Here's a tale about the student teaching the teacher: When I arrived at Aiglon College I could not ski. In fact learning to ski was my motivation for applying for the job out there. I arrived on the 2nd Jan. the school was coming back on about the 10th Jan and DB, Head of Expeditions, had me down to take my first ski expedition two days later. Needless to say it was a pretty steep learning curve, but I was determined to ski. After falling around all over the place for about three weeks, I caught a certain Junior Ski Racer committing an offence, breaking one of the fundamental ski rules by skiing alone without a group. He pleaded with me not to take him off skiing so I did a deal with him. He carried on skiing but he had to give me a ski lessons for a month. He had to agree to meet me every day after his training and ski me back to school. Sure enough he did and I learnt to ski. I learnt so much from him in the first three days that I was able to follow him down the “Populaire”, the 3 Km run to school, without falling once. This was a first for me. My colleagues thought I was nuts, and that allowing a student to teach me was lowering myself to their level and undermining my own position as a member of staff and my ability to keep discipline. I was lectured by a number of them in the Staff room and apparently I was letting their side down and should pay for lessons if I need them, or get another member of staff to teach me. Secretly I knew there was not a member of staff who could ski as well as the Junior. If I knew one thing from my sports master training, it was how to assess sporting ability! So I stuck to my guns and the youngster did a fine job, and I joined the Villars École Suisse de Ski as an instructor at the beginning of my 3rd season. This is a demonstration of experience power! It confirmed my theories on being qualified by experience. By the way I was 25 at the time and he was half my age, just 12 years old and we did a number of great expedition together and often raced down to school after lessons.
As for the cold showers – I was at St Luke’s Exeter where I did my teacher training (Although I have always felt my Mother taught me more about education than I learnt at college) and during my holidays I worked as an instructor at the local Outward Bound School. In those days, after the war, there was much talk about character building through hardship and experience. (I have a problem with some people’s definition of experience – The give the test before the lesson!) One of the things the Outward Bound students had to do was to get up at 06.00 and run across a field, wade the river Dart (usually up to your waist, sometimes neck), which was a freezing cold torrent we used as a white water canoe course, run across the next field and then run back through the river again and to the school. I used to do it and found it a loathsome experience. Until one day an 18 year old student collapsed and, despite all attempts to resusitate him, died. One of our anatomy, physiology, and kinesiology lecturers at St Lukes was a Dr Travers who was working very closely with Dr Griffiths-Pew on a study for the British Olympic Team on the effects of exersion at altitude and different temparatures, pre the Mexico Olympics. When he heard of the death he remarked that he was not surprised and that he was surprised there were not more. His study showed that early in the morning was when the body’s metabolism is at its lowest ebb and it was the worst time to be exercising, and certainly cold conditions would exasibate the situation. The extra pressure put on the heart and body survival systems which are trying to control body heat was inviting failure along the line somewhere. Certainly anyone with a slightly weak heart or who was not used to exercise and hence out of condition was at the greatest risk. Needless to say the cold showers and run in the morning were dropped by the Outward Bound school on the Coroners instructions.
I do not think what we were putting the Aiglon Students through when I was there was harming them in any way. Running through a tepid shower is very different to being totally imersed in a solid body of freezing water. I ensured the Prefects understood that it was a wake up exercise not an opportunity for them to be machocistic towards the students. So roll call was outside unless it was really freezing outside and in the dining room on these occaisions. The Prefect on duty had to be outside with the rest of the house and did the same exercises himself.
Incidently, since then I have had all this reiterated by the head Doctor of the research team at HMS Dolphine – the Royal Navy’s submariner and divers college. I attended a course on “Cold Shock” and its effects on sea survival and rescue, as part of my training for the Round the World Race.
I was only thinking of you the other day when I was listening to the radio and a most out of touch bunch of teachers theorising over how was the best way to motivate students in the classroom. Education in this country is very depressing. Exams are dumbed down to meet governement targets, and teachers spend so much time writing up lesson notes, then reports on how each lesson went, then interim reports and end of term reports, so they have no time left for all the other things you and I see necessary for the development of the “whole man”. Mainly because we have 5% of our teachers who are in the wrong job and have to be tested to prove to them they are not doing very well, and even then they are rarely moved on. If you are going to make a case you have to have written evidence, so everybody has to write reports and be tested. The government is wasting so much time money and effort on this, it is hard ot belive and I honestly think we are no better of than we were when I started teaching back in 1969. If instead, the money and time was spent on the students and helping the teachers with equipment and teaching materials, the world would be a far better place. More love and commitment needs to come to the fore. Everyone needs to know someone cares!
I am putting together a project at the moment which is going to develop into an opportunity for youngsters to use some initative and imagination to do research and do what they are interested in. I am basing this project on a historic design Pilot Cutter sailing boat as it is less expensive to do this than buy property and it will enable us to develop all the individual life skills and take on voyages of discovery.
My vision is an Aiglon on the Coast and to use the sea in the same way as JC used the mountains.
I am very impressed with Dennis Littky's school projects. I need to study them a bit more and and then would appreciate some discussion on the finer points of his operations. The problem we have here is that everything is committee driven, nobody is allowed to lead and invariably you set out to design a horse and you end up with the proverbial camel. So there really is a need for finding a way round these problems and giving good teachers the opportunity to teach and use a bit of flair, charisma and initative to allow their students to study things they are interested in. It is clear to me that unless something is done human progress and understanding will be slowed. I think to provide the sort of environment we are talking about will be difficult but it will be worth trying.
Will Sutherland:
April 2010.
Will was trained as a teacher at St Luke’s College Exeter, majoring in Physical Education, Maths and Education. Having played rugby at county level he played for the College during his first 2 years. He had sailed since he was 6, and annually competed with his Father in the Enterprise UK National championships. Being keen to get involved in outdoor adventure sports he spent the last year at college, white water canoeing, canoe surfing, climbing, diving and sailing bigger boats.
It was whilst learning to ice climb on Ben Nevis that he realized he had to learn to ski in order to access ice climbs in the Alps. He meet JC and hence ended up in Switzerland at Aiglon for one year to learn to ski whilst teaching maths and being responsible for Junior Expeditions. He eventually stayed 17 years, spending 6 years as Housemaster in Belevedere, and 10 in Alpina.
Not sure what to do when he returned to the UK in 1989, he decided there was no way he would be able to cope with the laissez-faire methods of teaching that were the vogue in the UK at the time.
For a short while he worked training young executive in situational leadership, team building, and problem solving, using a 40 foot sailing boat as a leveling environment.
During this time he achieved RYA Yachtmaster Instructor (Ocean) status with a commercial ticket.
He then was retained by Cardiff Bay Development Agency as their waters use expert and wrote the strategy that is being implemented today to regenerate the economy in and around Cardiff. He has continued this work, setting up his own business and working within a network of consultants on marine tourism and regeneration projects throughout Europe.
Will has also been working as a personal Mentor to business leaders and has kept his eye on educational developments whilst mentoring 6th form students during their ‘A’Levels and on through college, usually working very closely with the student, parents and college together.
He has recently opened a Sea School in Dartmouth, Devon, UK, and is also working on the development of new techniques for the use of IT in teaching and learning. Much of this work will be used in this “Aiglon Alumni Satellite Project.”