Robert Owen Was Ahead of his Time
A few years ago I had the pleasure of visiting New Lanark in Scotland, approximately 25 miles south-east of Glasgow on the banks of the River Clyde. Recognised as one of Scotland’s six UNESCO World Heritage Sites of ‘outstanding universal value’, New Lanark is a former 18th century cotton spinning mill village and I was there to aid my history teaching and further my knowledge of the Industrial Revolution.
Working mills and factories in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were tough places, especially for children. Young boys and girls could be working from the age of five for nine hours a day with barely a break. Being small and nimble they were often tasked with crawling into the machines to repair a part while it continued to function, risking life and limb in the process. In the hot and stuffy conditions it was not uncommon for children to fall asleep on the job with painful or even fatal consequences. And there was no legislation to protect their childhoods and restrict the hours of work.
At New Lanark, however, under the leadership of Robert Owen it was different. Owen, in 1800, was years ahead of his time. He was, essentially, a social reformer whose ambition was to create a community around the working mill which was efficient, harmonious and morally strong. Not only did he set about reducing the length of the working day and improving living and working conditions, but he also built a nursery so that the mothers could return to work and he then developed a school.
Owen believed that every person had a right to an education and recreation and under his management, children who would previously have worked in the mill were sent to school and received structured full-time education. He believed in sport, fresh air and play for the children; he expected lessons and the teaching environment to be interesting and stimulating; he introduced music and dancing and he ensured the children learnt about nature, history, geography and art; and perhaps most interestingly, he titled his school the ‘Institute for the Formation of Character’.
It was not until 1870 that the first piece of legislation was introduced to deal specifically with the provision of education in Britain and although it showed a national commitment, it was nowhere near as detailed or effective as Owen’s vision. Indeed, when I consider the purpose of our own education here at St Andrew’s, and we have, as a community this week, been reflecting on why we come to school, the formation of character is high up there. Developing strong morals alongside intellectual curiosity is at the heart of our ambition and it is visionaries like Robert Owen that we have to thank for blazing the trail.
Today marks ‘National Numbers Day’ and pupils in all year groups have been tackling fun numerical challenges ranging from shape and sequencing puzzles to sudokus and brain-scratching logic problems.
Last night, another delightful Richardson Recital had the virtual audience tapping its feet and humming along as performers played …… Bravo everyone – a lovely event!
Well done to our cricketers who performed so admirably on Wednesday. Out of twelve matches for the boys and girls, we won ten and the two we lost were only by one run and eight runs respectively. Impressive!
Supporting the pupils with their wellbeing is of utmost importance to us as a school as proven by some of the events we have laid on already this term. Next week is ‘Mental Health Awareness Week’ and so our spotlight on this important area will continue to shine brightly. The theme this year is ‘connecting with nature’ and that ties in with much of our curriculum already. An example of this in action was the rather brilliant ‘heart of pebbles’ beach art that the Pre-Prep created in support of the Captain Tom Foundation while down by the sea last week. Inspired by the artist Andy Goldsworthy, it was an inspiring piece of creative collaboration.
Activities are on as normal tomorrow. Happy weekend everyone.