There is a recurring dream I’ve been having for 34 years. It is the last term before my A levels and I am trying to revise Geography but, horrifyingly, I have done none of the course work. Not a single essay. I move from classroom to classroom, fearful of what and who will be behind every door. To quote the great Martha Reeves, there is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Now I’ve spoken before about my general anxiety, but this is very specific: Geography makes me anxious.
So, last week I met a Geography teacher. Remarkably, I didn’t panic. I’ll call him Graham (for that is his name). Graham has spent his career explaining glaciation to young people who probably didn’t always do their homework and, as a head teacher, explaining the disciplinary consequences to students who never did.
But what was clear was that for Graham, discipline was never the only issue. And nor was glaciation. When he spoke about education he used words like ‘social’ and ‘emotional’, ‘restorative’ and ‘justice’. He knew that teaching means more than providing a clear and accessible handout on features of the alpine landscape.
He knew that it means helping students learn to deal with each other and with the world – and with themselves. To have empathy and to be resilient. To value others and work in a team. To take responsibility for their actions and not just feel blamed.
Jesus was a great teacher, and he taught those things too. That when we are cared for and valued we are stronger – and we learn how to care for and value others. That when we mess up, justice shouldn’t only be about punishment – it must also be about restoration and forgiveness.
Now, my friend Graham is helping establish a school where young people in trouble can be taught, not just Geography, mercifully, but also some of the skills they might have needed to stay out of trouble in the first place. Because he has learned that it helps his students just as much to be emotionally and socially smart as to be A* geographers.
I reckon that’s a great way to think about learning: teach people to be whole, not just clever. They’re safer that way. And in a complicated, chaotic, broken world, whole people are what we need to help put things back together.
The principles of restorative justice and its potential as a mechanism for rehabilitation, reconciliation and inclusion in education were introduced to me by Graham Robb and my friend Paul Chambers. You can read more about it on the website of the Restorative Justice Council.