erolz66 wrote:supporttheunderdog wrote:There is (I would suggest) a factor which may enhance the risk in the UK Private systems and that is boarding where both pupils and many staff will live on site, where, for UK Catholic schools, look at Ampleforth and Down.
That is a significant factor in terms of sexual abuse of children in schools. It is not the only factor imo in the wider of topic of do 'traditional British public Schools' on average subject children to greater risk of harm and damage, especially emotional, than state schools. Did you watch the you tube video ?
The boarding aspect of the classic British Public school system undoubtedly is a major factor in why there is a disproportionate incidence of proven child abuse cases at such schools compared to other types of schools. However I do believe that there is more than just this 'problem'. This focus on
sexual abuse of children was a result of the repeated calls on me to 'prove' my contention that there is a statistically greater risk that a child sent to a classic British public school will suffer the kind of harm that can effect them for years after and even their whole lives.
To try and expand and illustrate I am going to share one of my most vivid memories from my 3 years spent at Bedford school.
So it is sometime between 1979 and 1982. We, me and a series of other Bedford School pupils are on a 'games' period. It is cricket net practice. Now me and most of the other boys are 'keen'. We want to get our turn and as quickly as possible. To 'pad up' and bat or to bowl. There is one boy, his name was from memory Pinsker. In public schools back then and possibly still today in some or all only surnames were used, between masters and boys and boys themselves. For example I was not Erol. I was Ziya. Anyway Pinsker was not a 'sporty' boy at all by any description. He was a couple of years above me in age and I knew him principally from the 'Babbage Society', which was basically 'computer club'. There was no 'subjects' around computing back then and in my first year there was not even personal computers in the club. He was tall and gawky and walked in a strange pigeon toed manner. He was also from a family that was not 'super rich' but from one of those 'struggling to pay' families. He was not a boarder, that would have been out of reach for his family financially. I knew this because everyone knew everyone's place on the 'wealth pecking order' from super rich downwards to those on bursaries and scholarships, partial to full. He was a nice guy and intelligent guy and he tought me much about computers. He was however severely bullied as is the way with these things.
Anyway there is maybe 15 - 20 of us and it is time for the Master to chose who is going to go first, at batting and at bowling. Many keen and enthusiastic boys are vying for the slot, myself included. "Me Sir, Me Sir" is the cry from most. Not Pinsker though, he is trying to 'hide' in the background. Who does the master choose ? He chooses Pinsker to bat. Pinsker pleads with him to not have to bat. He offers to bowl. The Master is having none of it. So Pinsker 'pads up'. I can remember the fear on his face. I can remember him shuffling up to the wicket, padded up, in his shuffling pigeon toed gait. Who does the Master chose to bowl. The best 'fast bowler' out of the remaining children. The first couple of bowls Pinsker manages to avoid the ball, not by using the bat but just by getting out of the way. The third ball however, bowled at speed and with aggression hits him squarely in the nose. There was no face protection back then at this level of cricket. Anyone who has been hit by a fast moving cricket ball knows painful this is. Pinsker dropped to the ground and the blood spurting from his nose and all over his cricket whites and the ground was copious.
Now I am NOT saying that this kind of brutality and sadism by an adult Master on a child only happens at public schools and not state ones. I am suggesting that the chance of a child being subjected to such physical and possibly emotional harm is greater in a 'classic British public school' than in a state one.
Such schools were and to a material degree still are based on a 19th century idea that because when you subject someone to physical hardship it result in making them physically stronger, therefore if you subject them to emotional hardship it will make them emotionally stronger. The notion is by today's standards patently false. The system was created in the 1800 and 1900's to produce a 'manager class' to serve the needs of the Empire. To create and army of administrators and functionaries that would go out and run the British Empire. To create 'tough' and 'independent' individuals to be sent to far flung and remote places around the world. Places with extremes of weather and limited comforts. To create an administrator class that knew, that had been taught not only that they were 'better' than the colonial people they would rule over but also their own place within the the administrator hierarchy, from Governor General down to lowly functionary. That is how these schools were structured, by design. Boarding was an integral part of this structure.
This is why I contend things like 'we do not have to do this to our children any more'. Why I contend that such schools are statistically more likely to leave those children that pass through them 'damaged' than schools not structured in such ways. Why this not 'just' about boarding alone. Why I talk about things like 'structural brutality'.
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On the million to one chance that you ever come across and read this Pinsker, friend, educator, let me say Thank you. Your generosity of time and knowledge that you gave to me so freely in the Babbage Society has had a far far greater impact on 'making the man I am today' than anything Bedford School did. Let me also apologise for not showing or expressing then even an iota of the outraged that I feel today at what happend to you. What was DONE to you.
