Class Of 2008- (5) Valete!

Headmaster Mr John Watson adds his farewell thoughts for our Class of 2008 in his weekly bulletin to parents, saying:

'I am very grateful to the parent who called school earlier this week to praise one of our Upper Sixth Formers. She had witnessed him acting very politely and diplomatically when suffering some unwarranted abuse from a member of the public over car-parking. She was very impressed and said she hoped that her children would grow up as nicely as this young man. I am always delighted and very proud to receive such feedback, and the boy’s mother was justifiably very pleased when I picked up the phone to convey this news. 

Today is the final day for our Upper Sixth before they embark on examination study leave. Many have worked very hard and deserve to reap the rewards of their efforts. Above all, we hope that they leave us as generous young adults whose actions in life (such as those of the boy above) are a credit both to their parents and to the school. In our final gathering, I shall remind them of their first Shells’ assembly when I welcomed them to the school and told them a story which I had also shared with the rest of school. I had been inspired during my summer holidays by reading the novel 'Human Traces' by Sebastian Faulks.  

It is about two young and idealistic doctors, one English and one French, who are determined to find a cure for madness. Part of this quest is born out of personal experience, as the Frenchman’s brother suffers from a psychological illness which leads him to be ‘locked up’ in an asylum. Caring for ‘mad’ people was hardly a glamorous occupation a hundred years ago, as society preferred them out of sight and out of mind. But Thomas and Jacques work tirelessly, study the latest European thinking on psychological illness and open a clinic in Switzerland where they care for their patients in a humane way. Jacques brings his brother with him, and Thomas brings two of his patients from the English asylum in which he has worked to be part of the staff; one of them had simply been locked away because she was blind. Each of them is determined to make the breakthrough which will transform medical thought and practice. And, of course, both of them are faced with bitter setbacks, and, in their lifetimes, do not find the ultimate solution after which they have striven. Thomas, suffering from loss of memory in his old age (or a disease which is just beginning to be known as Alzheimer’s) says to his gathered family and friends: 

“As a doctor, I have achieved absolutely nothing. Nothing at all, though God knows I tried. But in love I have been rich.” 

Mary and Daisy, the two patients he has rescued from the English asylum, know that his life’s work has not been a failure, that he has in fact been very successful, although not in the way he has judged. Daisy comes to see him the next day: “Think of all the people you helped. You took us from out that place. It was a prison. You gave us a life, me and Mary. It was like being born again into a different world. Don’t you see how we worshipped you? You were our god. You saved us. Maybe you didn’t cure all the lunatics, but maybe no one ever will. Maybe there are some things that men will never know. But don’t you see the size of what you did for us?” 

It’s a great book. However naturally gifted we are, success only comes through hard work and self-discipline. Sometimes, we shed bitter tears when, despite all our efforts, the success and the glory don’t come to us, and might actually go to someone else. But we can always learn from those apparent failures, as we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down, and keep striving, although perhaps in a different way, for the goal ahead of us. We see the bigger picture, failures become opportunities, we grow stronger as a result of our mistakes, we can show greater understanding for others in a similar situation, and we can move forward positively. And very often, others will judge us differently; because success can’t always be measured or quantified. As in the case of Thomas, they will judge us according to how much we improve the lives of those around us. 

That is my wish for our leavers, whatever the outcomes in August – although I actually hope there will only be tears of joy!'

Photograph shows U6MGAW/LA, one of our nine U6th tutor groups.