Opinion piece written by Tish Feilden, Co-Founder and Director of Therapeutic Education at Jamie’s Farm
At the start of a new academic year, schools could be great places to heal divisions and build compassionate communities.
If you put a pot of discontent on the stove and turn up the heat, with the flames of social media to fuel it, no matter how hard you try to jam on the lid with law and order, it will still boil over.
We saw this discontent come to a terrible and ugly head through the riots over the summer. Amongst other complex factors, it’s likely that the cocktail of the past years of austerity, the Covid pandemic, a lack of social opportunities for children, bombardment from social media of inflammatory hatred, all contributed to fueling these divisions.
After the destruction witnessed through the rioting, many communities across the UK responded with compassion and solidarity. Nevertheless, the underlying unrest, the memory of the aggression towards parts of our communities, the messaging that some people are unwelcome in our midst, has a lasting ripple effect.
Children (and adults) of ethnic minorities have felt under threat, and the language and acts of hate and violence cannot be easily forgotten. Given safety is a core foundation of wellbeing, it is tragic that this has been disturbed but let us hope that we have had a resounding wake up call to the need to prioritise building tolerance, understanding and compassion in our communities.
Schools are melting pots and hubs for the communities they serve, they have an opportunity to be places that celebrate the positives of difference, rather than highlighting divisions; the places that bring adults and children into connection. As attendance is obligatory in schools, they are rare places where showing up is mandatory, where the largest part of children’s waking hours are spent, where there is so much potential for impact, but also there is so much need. It seems madness not to resource and support schools as a highway into helping reduce the divisions of our society, places to build bridges of mutual respect, places of positive relationship, places that build hope and tolerance. We can support reprioritising the value of school with the fresh start of a new year, a new government, and reconnecting with schools as places where human values are crafted and everyone’s potential nurtured.
We can all work together to help create a better sense of tolerance, understanding, community and kindness. It seems to me there are so many wonderful organisations trying to fulfil these functions, I wonder if school can invite them in and create partnerships. When my children where at primary school I felt welcomed through the school gate, had opportunities to get involved, take part in ways the school was at the hub of the community. On starting secondary school this felt much more difficult, understandably as bigger institutions, with massive pressures, and I felt intimidated and could interpret this as being unwelcome. But I do still wonder if parent support and partnership might still have value to enrichment for students. Parents can support with post school activities, learning support, fundraising, and creating opportunities for celebrations of being a community. Some schools are extending their reach into the communities and maybe we can all share and learn from other’s successes.
Stemming the tide of extremism, division, intolerance and seems to me to be a role we all need to take part in to help this generation and will take us all working collaboratively.
