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special effort to do so, for they are
wonderful. This week has been a week of
academic sciences with some extraordinary
presentations from the Shells and some
seriously dangerous rocket cars in the Quad
on Wednesday. All of these things add huge
value to the lives of our pupils and help to
make them far more impressive young men
and women for the future – this is certainly
part of what Howard Gardner was talking
about in
Five Minds
- but we know that
when these pupils are in their twenties –
when they are 25 years old – it is their sense
of moral value and ethical duty alongside
their ability to deal with people that really
will matter.
On Saturday evening the boys of Tilly’s
slept rough for our charity, SeeSaw (so far
nearly £30,000 has been raised by the
School this year). This whole week we have
been hosting Bongai Mwanesa, Nikki
Tambirayi and Caston Nzvenga who are
being sponsored by Henry Chitsenga’s
Such
Hope
charity (which we supported last
year). A few weeks ago, Rev Tom Shaw
organised an event in which 150 of our
Fourth and Sixth Form pupils joined others
from MCS and Cherwell to celebrate
reading, and to encourage primary school
pupils from Blackbird Leys to enjoy books.
The event
Readers Make Leaders
was utterly
inspiring for all and well worth watching on
the pupil video channel –
Teddies on
Camera
– created by Celia Hodgson and
Casper Sunley in the Lower Sixth.
Here at St Edward’s, our pupils, our staff
and our parents – all of us here in this Big
Tent – should and do value each other as
people for what we can each do… and we
believe absolutely that we can all do great
things. This is what the School is all about.
As it is the 4th July I would end with an
American story to illustrate the point I have
been making. It is the true story of Bishop
Bromley Oxnam of the Methodist
Episcopal Church who was giving the
annual Memorial Day address at the
National Monument at Gettysburg. He
ended his speech by reciting Lincoln’s
famous address. After he had finished the
words, which he thought he had done well,
an old man made his way forward and said:
“Son, you made an awful mess of Lincoln’s
speech.” The Bishop replied “What do you
mean? I didn’t miss a word of it – look at
my notes.” The old man replied “I don’t
need your notes; I know it by heart because
I heard it the first time round.” The old
man had obviously been present when
Lincoln originally delivered the famous
address. Slightly nonplussed the Bishop
wanted to know what had been different
– why he had made a mess of it – and the
old-timer explained it this way: “Abe put
his hands out over the people like a
benediction and said, ‘That the government
of the
people
, by the
people
, and for the
people
, should not perish from the earth.’
You got the words right, son, but you
missed the message. You emphasized
government; Lincoln talked about people.”
At the heart of any school – and at
the heart of this school in particular –
are the people.