Many arguments can be put forward against the continued existence of Public Schools in the UK, especially their encouragement of a sense of entitlement. Having said that, the
facilities that the top schools provide are often excellent and so is the standard
of teaching. Many schools also select students for their academic ability and this results in
classes where there is a strong sense of curiosity, contributing to
a good atmosphere for learning.
I have given talks in Public Schools and among the most memorable
was a visit to Winchester College. The Times had taken up an article
that I had written about The Great Plagues of Egypt [1,2] and I was asked to
give a lecture on the subject. Not only that, I was also entertained to dinner
by the scholars (an elite, elite group) and conversation was wide-ranging and
interesting. Earlier, I noticed that there was a display outside the lecture theatre
and this consisted of a description of the platypus genome that had just
been published in the journal Nature and there was also a stuffed
platypus and much general information about the animal. All very impressive, given that the
paper was so recent and one felt that the students of Biology were lucky to
have this stimulating input.
The most impressive example of the good fortune that
students in the major Public Schools receive comes from a school that I have
not visited, but which has an excellent website. The web page for Biology at Sevenoaks
School [3] gives a brief description of teaching in the subject and ends with
this quote from Robert Preston:
In Biology, nothing is clear,
everything is too complicated, everything is a mess, and just when you think
you understand something, you peel off a layer and find deeper complications
beneath. Nature is anything but simple.
It comes from Preston’s book The Hot Zone, The Terrifying
True Story of the Origins of the Ebola Virus and his sentiments have a wide
application in Biology. In my own research, I rapidly became aware that the
more I found out about life in water the less I understood how aquatic
ecosystems worked. I gave up practical research, as there
were far too many questions and I ceased to have the energy, or ability, to
pursue them. That was not depressing, but liberating, as I could then read widely and venture into other fields, while retaining a sense of wonder about Nature, something that all students of Biology develop. For some, this wonder finds
an answer in religious beliefs; for others in a deep respect for the world around
us and thus a sense that humans are just a small part of something much bigger.
I’m sure that Biology students at Sevenoaks School, in
addition to achieving excellent results in examinations (that we all know are important),
will leave with a much broader understanding than the content of a syllabus provides. Whether
they become lawyers, bankers, politicians, etc., their sense of wonder when
thinking about the natural world will be invaluable in the roles they play in planning
for the future. Do all schools encourage this approach?
