The Muscles of Friendship

Valedictory Speech by Jocelin Winthrop Young

Founding Director of Round Square

On the occasion of his retirement October 1992

At Bishop’s College School,

Lennoxville, Quebec.

This valedictory address ought to thank and pay tribute to all those who have helped Round Square during the past 26 years. Were I to attempt to name all the scores who have done so, or to give brief accounts of each of the 25 conferences and the many projects – then we should be here for a good 3 - 4 hours. Instead I can only give you an impression, and that a subjective one, of our history.

In 1953 two events occurred which seemed to me of great significance: Kurt Hahn retired as headmaster of Gordonstoun, after a serious illness at the age of 67; and from August 12th to 14th 1953 a devastating earthquake struck the Ionian Islands off the west coast of Greece. There were thousands of casualties. King Paul of the Hellenes immediately visited the islands with Queen Frederika and her brother Prince George of Hanover, then headmaster of Salem. Prince George resolved to initiate a building project involving students from different countries to help reconstruction on the island of Cephalonia. This we discussed on his return to Athens, where I was head of Anavryta School. Contacts were made with the member schools of the Conference of Internationally-Minded Schools, an organization to which both Salem and Anavryta belonged.

In the event a team of 120 students, from 8 countries, left by air from Munich on the 20th July 1954 and were joined in Patras by a group of boys from Anavryta. From there the group went to Argostoli on the island of Cephalonia. Under the inspiring leadership and example of Prince George a home for old people was built, and the experience has remained a highlight in the lives of all those involved. The Gordonstoun party was led by Roy McComish then a housemaster at Gordonstoun.

The success of the Argostoli project coupled with Hahn’s retiring, led me to believe that co-operation between our schools was imperative if the principles and practice of the founder were to survive. His dominating personality had carried the movement so far, but even he was not immortal. We had organised some activities between Gordonstoun, Salem and Anavryta – including a simultaneous athletics competition – as early as 1952.

On the 21st April 1955, the heads of Salem, Prince George of Hanover and of Gordonstoun Robert Chew, met with me in Athens to establish a structure for co-operation. The venue was the Canadian Embassy and I had asked the Canadian Ambassador Terry MacDermott, former headmaster of Upper Canada College, to chair the meeting; an auspicious start, but it got nowhere.
All three schools were much too tied up in their own problems – we had the Cyprus crisis – and I had not thought out how to maintain co-operation during the gaps between projects. Another opportunity did not occur until eleven years later, after my return to Salem.

During this interval there was time to analyze what had gone wrong and to think out a workable scheme. Nevertheless the failure of the first foundation left scars, that are easily traced in the plans for the second attempt.
I considered that getting headmasters together once a year would enable discussion and planning to take place. But the Conference of Internationally-Minded schools had taught me how dull and esoteric such meetings could be. Therefore, why not have a kind of grid conference? The horizontals being the different nationalities and cultures and the verticals the four main groups concerned: the heads, the governors or trustees, the staff and the students? It ought to work but the first failure had made me cautious and, in the event, the suggestion was for bi-annual conferences and then only for heads. But it seemed to me that, “once aboard the Lugger” both problems might solve themselves. If it caught on; then annual conferences would be seen to be necessary. If we got the governors to come as guests, they might stay; and if the conferences were always held in schools, then the presence of staff and students should follow in due course.

The principal objective would remain projects of all possible types from further Argostolis to classroom co-operation. Hahn’s colours were to be nailed to the mast. The necessary criteria for membership would be taken from his principles. The organization would be run by letting each school take over an area of administration, or the running of specific programmes. This should keep the expenses to a minimum.

In 1964 I returned to Salem and informed the Board of Governors that in addition to the work agreed to in my contract, I intended to build up a documentation of all Hahn’s activities; this has now become the Kurt Hahn archives. And that I intended to try and found an association of the schools started by Hahn himself, his colleagues or his pupils.
While we are only concerned with the association, the archives are complementary and you could hardly have the one without the other; if Hahn’s ideas were to survive, then it could not only be by legend and hearsay; but by collecting all the documents relative to himself, and his work. The Governing Body agreed to my proposals and I would like to record my gratitude both to the Board and the Direction of Salem for allowing me to travel and build up the conference in addition to my responsibilities in the school.

On the 5th June 1966, Hahn’s 80th birthday was celebrated at Salem and Prince Max of Baden sent a special invitation to the Headmasters of Gordonstoun, Louisenlund, Anavryta, Battisborough, the Athenian School, Box Hill and the Atlantic college to discuss, I quote: “The setting up of a Hahn schools conference”. The chair was taken by King Constantine and, in a meeting lasting not more than 20 minutes, agreement was reached on naming the conference “The Hahn Schools” and Mr. Brereton invited the heads to hold the first conference in Gordonstoun in 1967.

In his address on that day Hahn referred to this meeting and said: “I have been made happy by Jocelin Young’s plan to have regular meetings between the allied schools. That is the best way to avoid two very different dangers; resignation and complacency”. Hahn was to attend the first two meetings in 1967 in Gordonstoun and at Box Hill in 1968. At the first he fought for three days to have his name removed from the association, as he felt it might later inhibit suitable schools from joining. Eventually the meeting accepted my alternative of “Round Square”. At Box Hill in 1968 we discussed “co-education” as the first of the sequence of conference themes. Hahn remained silent until the final plenary when the chairman persuaded him to say a few words. Hahn began: “Co-education breaks out after supper!
But to return to the Salem meeting; this was followed by our first disappointment when the Atlantic College refused to join; I still hope that the future may bring the two groups closer together.

Was it all Hahn? Well – no. There were two themes I wished to develop that were not his. Hahn believed that if students of different nations co-operate in acts of service for those in need or distress, this will be especially effective in removing national prejudice. Of course I believed in this too, but I also wanted students to learn to understand their differences and gain enrichment from their varied cultures and mentality. Bishop’s found the correct formula 25 years later naming their conference: “Celebrating differences”.

Secondly – no doubt over simplifying, - I believed in discussion and Hahn believed in persuasion. Dr. Meissner – the man who knew him best – writes to him: “You are always trying hard to convince and, you do all the talking. Whoever does this will, often, not know what the other man is thinking”. Confrontation and arguments seemed to me essential in an international association; it is not appreciating the counter arguments, that court danger.
We are all prejudiced by our environment whether we like it or not. At the age of six, I remember happily reciting, from Robert Louis Stevenson:
Little Indian Sioux or Crow
Little frosty Eskimo
Little Turk or Japanee
Oh, don’t you wish that you were me?
Over the years there have been a number of incidents which have been brought to me at conferences, in which national pride has been, unwittingly, offended. This shows that Round Square is doing its job. In one case I was the offender.

Let me say a few words about the pioneers of Round Square; they were a remarkable group and each played a significant part in creating the association.
Without Robert Chew’s backing there would have been no beginning. From before the first meeting in Athens, his quiet support gave me the confidence to go ahead with the foundations in both 1955 and 1966. His early death was a great loss to the conference.

Henry Brereton had supported the idea in its embryonic stages. We had discussed the details when he visited Salem in 1965. Most important of all, he undertook to draft the paper of principles, which was approved in Box Hill in 1968 and has served us well for so many years. He, it was, who persuaded the members to accept the name “Round Square” when I proposed it in 1967.

John Corlette of Aiglon was our most powerful personality and he was the only one to own his own school. He was urging expansion and development long before I felt we were ready for it. He insisted that there must be an association journal but it was not until 1982 that the enthusiasm and driving energy of Margaret Sittler got “Echo” going. John was an original and this showed itself in his creation Aiglon and its most characteristic custom: the morning Meditation. He collected art and had a weakness for Jaguars (petrol driven). He was a master of publicity and used this much to the benefit of his school. During the first American conference at Athenian in 1972, Aiglon gave a reception in San Francisco and a very fine film of the school was shown with a commentary by the best of the B.B.C. announcers. It began with the camera swinging through the arc of mountains between Aiguille Verte and the Dent du Midi. Then it swept down into the Rhone valley and one saw the distant road zigzagging up towards Villars. A small object driving up the road grew into a familiar streamline shape and the voice of the B.B.C. chimed in: “John Corlette had a dream”. There was a chortle of joy from the assembled Heads, which John took in good part.

In 1963 I had borrowed an old car and driven myself to and fro across the United States. One important reason for this, was to visit Dyke Brown in Oakland. A former pupil of Hahn’s in Germany, he was about to start a school at the foot of Mount Diablo. I considered it vital to get him to join in order that our association should be seen, from the first, to be larger than European. Dyke is a creative educator and a man whose wisdom has been invaluable to us over the years. He came to the first conference in Gordonstoun in 1967 and gave a fascinating account of the problems in American schools at that time. After it was over Robert Chew who knew me through and through, came over and said: “Don’t imagine that it will be possible to hold a conference in San Francisco, there won’t be the money”. This was a very characteristic challenge.
A year later Chew retired and was succeeded by John Kempe to whom we owe the creation of R.S.I.S. John, a member of the Alpine Club, enjoyed travel and adventure and joined me in the search for schools in Australia and Africa. In India with Shomie Das and Gulab Ramchandani and another fellow mountaineer Joe Nold, he initiated our projects. Pip Sharpe succeeded him, and it must remain for them and others to record the many varied and highly successful activities of R.S.I.S. in four continents.

Also with us here today is David Byatt, then Head of Battisborough in Devon and now, still active as the Warden of Gordonstoun. This school was a model of what a Hahn school should be, but unfortunately too small to survive financially. No other school I have known was so dominated by a sense of service. On my first visit to Battisborough, David and I were sitting, in the evening, in his office looking out over the cliffs towards the Eddystone light, when he picked up the phone and reported, in a quiet matter-of-fact voice, a ship on fire giving distance and bearing. I thought this too good to be true but in fact it turned out to be a French fishing vessel in distress.

Finally Roy McComish, without him Round Square would not have survived. To explain why, I must go back to a serious miscalculation in my original plan for the conference: the administration and organisation were to be undertaken by different schools and thus infrastructure would fall away. But it just didn’t work out that way. Heads were too busy – and rightly so – dealing with their own schools. I was handicapped as I was unable to find a secretary who could write English and take dictation in that language. Therefore I had to do all my own correspondence, and this continued for 20 years until I finally became emancipated with a P.C. Throughout these years Box Hill was the centre of the association and Roy’s team of David Larg as treasurer, and Kay Holland as secretary to R.S.I.S. provided the administration. The McComish’s small drawing room became our headquarters and with Barbara McComish providing a bottomless tin of digestive biscuits and necessary relaxation by playing Bach to us on the piano, we got ahead. Roy is a Scot, an artist, a former Seaforth Highlander and a romantic who retired conveniently close to an English Golf course and with a view over fields to the ruins of Fotheringhay Castle where Mary Queen of Scots was executed.

He pioneered all our main undertakings in India, Africa and the Middle East. He is an optimist and I a pessimist, if I may steal someone else’s definition: “One who has a pessimism of the intellect but always tries to hold on to an optimism of the will”. Roy designed our logo and his sketches of Hahn are unique. The most loyal of Hahn’s supporters, for years he used to propose at the conferences that the name revert to the original “Kurt Hahn” conference. However, he would not like me to treat him too seriously, so let us go back to that Box Hill co-education conference. At the final plenary Roy summed up in the presence of the delegates and Upper School and I quote: “ In Box Hill we have a good co-educational tradition and you will never see boys and girls walking in the school grounds hand in hand”. There was a joyous roar of laughter from all in Upper School; quite undismayed he added: “Well, not when I’m there!”

The first constitution of the conference was based on the personal membership of each headmistress or headmaster and this ensured the interest of each new head joining Round Square. Each member had a vote in the A.G.M. and Honorary Members were co-opted to inspire and run the association. The governors had insisted on their right to attend meetings after the first conference, and their contribution grew over the years, partly I think, because they felt they benefited so much from the opportunities of contacts offered by the presence of the four tribes at conferences.

By 1977 I had understood that the ideal of distributing the conference administration and organisation among the schools, would not work. A final appeal along those lines at the Salem conference that year failed of its purpose and from then on criticism of the directorate grew. In 1980 at the Box Hill conference R.S.I.S. was founded and King Constantine attended for the first time since 1971 and I quote his words: “There were only eight of us sitting round the table at that first meeting in Salem. And I asked each headmaster in turn if he wished to join. Each immediately replied affirmatively. ‘Get on with it then’ I said. Now look at the R.S.C. as it is represented here tonight – and what a successful enterprise it is”. By then we had doubled the original number of schools to twelve.

In 1981 at the Athenian school, criticism was voiced by the governors. I quote: “The governors were concerned about the apparent lack of forethought, by the members, to the business items on the agenda”.

In 1984 in Lakefield King Constantine was asked to become Patron of the conference. He accepted. “Provided he could speak his mind”. He has kept his promise. From this time on a standing committee, consisting of all heads and governors who wished to attend meetings in London, helped to plan and run the association. However, the committee only had an advisory role and the final decision still rested with the director.

1985 brought the next step at Gordonstoun: Lord Leven, chairman of the governors, proposed that each school should appoint a governor to share the responsibility with the head. On the 11th October 1986 in Salem, the following resolution was approved by the A.G.M.: “That membership of the Round Square conference be by schools; that schools be formally represented at the A.G.M. by their heads and a nominated governor. Each school would then have one vote”.
On the 9th October 1988 Democracy finally prevailed, and at an extraordinary meeting of the members at St.Anne’s, a governing body, later named the Council, was appointed to: quote: “Take any executive decisions necessary to implement agreed Conference policy”. This structure has proved of great benefit to the association, particularly as it has included elected members from the principal regions. While the transfer of power was not always painless, in general, the new structure has worked admirably. This, I believe was, in part, due to the chairman of the Council and the director having co-operated together, in one way or another, for the past 44 years.

The conference grew slowly in the first fifteen years, then in March 1983 I heard from Dyke Brown and Terry Guest that a presentation about Round Square at the annual meeting of the North American Independent Schools in Anaheim, California, had resulted in many schools showing interest. They were therefore inviting all these schools to be represented at a meeting in Colorado from 24th to 25th September that year. We met at the Okanela Lodge near Glenwood Springs. 12 schools were represented there; three of these were already members of R.S.C. With great enthusiasm the new schools wished to join the conference, as a group, and they clearly wanted an immediate answer. This, I was not authorised to give, so I suggested that they start a project in North America and set up a temporary association, while I reported back to the R.S.C. They agreed and I suggested the name of Okanela in the hope that nobody would want to keep that for long! The first two projects were with the Naskapi Indians in Schefferville, Quebec and with the Flathead Indians in North West Montana. Further meetings were held in New York 1984, Arizona 1985, Boston 1987 and Washington 1990. These were the most complex negotiations and I greatly added to the difficulties by insisting that there should be no members of Round Square who would wish to limit their active participation to their own continent.

The final success of the negotiations was largely due to the wisdom of three North Americans: Peter Tacy as President of Okanela, Terry Guest as the senior Canadian member and Dyke Brown as the senior American member. Okanela having served its purpose and carried out most successful projects, was dissolved finally in 1990. The highlight of Okanela was undoubtedly the conference here at Bishop’s from January 24th to 27th 1986. Thhe subject was “Winter in the Northland” and in addition to an admirable programme David Cruickshank arranged for suitable weather with sunshine and snow blizzards.

The Kurt Hahn lecture was given by John Bayly a lawyer from Yellowknife, he quoted a popular modern song by Vigneault which, I thing, gives a marvellous picture of Canada:
Mon pays, ce n’est pas un pays, c’est l’hiver
Mon jardin, ce n’est pas un jardin, c’est la plaine
Mon chemin, ce n’est pas un chemin, c’est la neige.
Mon pays, ce n’est pas un pays, c’est l’hiver.
What a fortunate country to contain two such great cultures!

It is a happy chance that enables a Canadian to take over as director in Canada. When I first visited Terry Guest in Lakefield, the wiles of the weather allowed me to obtain an insight into his gifts; we were all having supper in the dining hall on my first evening, when I saw a magnificent sunset framed through the great west windows. The sky was yellow melting into gold and dark red, the woods, across the lake, provided a jagged black edge to the base. I saw Terry get up from his table and go to the door and switch off all the lights: “Just look at that sunset” he called out; and we all sat silent for a few moments. I thought of Kurt Hahn and his ability to communicate a sense of wonder. Indeed, as those who knew him will remember, his favourite adjective was “wonderful”. Here, I thought, was another with a touch of like metal.

The rate of expansion in the other continents varied. The ripples caused by a Round Square can only be calculated by applying quantum mechanics. In India the progression was steady after the Doon school and Lawrence Sanawar joined in 1981. All four Indian schools have organised most successful projects and most of us are still under the spell of last year’s conference at the Doon school.

In Australia John Day brought in the Southport school in 1975. John Kempe and I, despite a number of visits over the years, were unable to add further schools until Peter Harris joined with Billanook in 1991 and now there are other schools interested. I am greatly looking forward to the first conference on that fascinating continent and there is already discussion about a first project.
In Africa there is also growing interest after that remarkable school Starehe joined. Previously Roy McComish and I had spent a week working in the school and that was a most interesting and impressive experience: this was ‘Education for Responsibility’ at its highest level.

Each school that has joined has contributed to the sum of similarities and differences. Each conference has contributed its own individual character. Each project has given more students the chance to experience the fulfilment that I first recognised at Argostoli. It has been a long haul and I should have liked to have closed with a quotation from Wordsworth:

“Enough if something from our hands have power
To live, and act, and serve the future hour”.

But I seem top hear Hahn’s deep voice prompting me: “Have YOU joined the secret and powerful union of the peace-of-mind preservers?” It is a timely warning. Not so long ago a distinguished member of the conference wrote: “To someone outside the organisation Round Square must look, at best, conservative, amateurish, self congratulatory and self-centred.” Let us look at our failures or – to be more tactful – at mine.

There is the failure to penetrate into the classroom. The possibilities of co-operation in many subjects, have never been realised. With modern media and a questing mind, many teachers could contact and develop programmes with schools in other countries or continents. Very little use has been made of the possibility of staff swapping homes for holidays. This ought to be of benefit, both to the staff families and to their schools. As a result, when visiting member schools, I sometimes find the common room friendly but disinterested.
There is the failure to encourage foreign languages. In the beginning I had fondly imagined that conferences would include committees and small groups working in French, German and Spanish or Italian. In fact we have merely followed the unfortunate trend of the last quarter century and have accepted English as the Lingua Franca. It is my impression that in the conference as a whole, less students are now taught foreign languages. We, the English speaking peoples, should never forget that languages are a vital means of acquiring culture. In my lifetime we have also, to a large extent, lost the direct contact to Latin and Greek and we are, no doubt, the poorer for it. There has been a running controversy over the years as to whether the encouragement of foreign languages should be included in the Round Square criteria. I have always supported this.

The white handkerchief waved at the beginning of each conference to remind us that there are always delegates present to whom English is a foreign tongue, failed of its purpose and could well have been interpreted as a sign of surrender. But – even if we fail to make the effort – we should express our appreciation to all those whose native language is not English and who have come to conference after conference and had to listen to a stream of different English accents, only rarely reduced in speed for their benefit. Their patience and tolerance have been exemplary. O Si sic omnes!

There is the failure to realise in full the pediment of Roy’s Temple of Hahn. When he first drew it I suggested Politics as the legend. Kurt Hahn was, throughout his life, engaged in politics in one form or another and he took this from Plato. However, the wording was altered to: “Political and racial tolerance.” I still believe that the job of the conference is to encourage the discussion of political affairs and to expose the differences of opinion and not plaster over them. All of us who were there will remember the most moving session at the Abbotsholme conference after the fall of the Berlin wall, when each German delegate told us what the reunion of his country meant to him. The same interest applied to the witness of the dramatic changes in Russia during the visit of Madam Alla Khvostova to Aiglon.

But there are other events which must divide rather than unite the members; these we have, too often, failed to tackle. Where was the great debate on: European union or not? On the issues of the disputes in Gatt? On the Falklands war? On the Gulf war? On the many crises between Arab and Israeli over the years. These and many other issues which you may think of, should, in my opinion, be part of the a la carte menu offered by Round Square. We are a very varied group of people and we should use the variety more.

Finally, there is my own particular failure to live up to the original concept: the failure to arrange co-operation with the other Hahn foundations: The Outward Bound, the United World Colleges and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. It has not been for lack of trying, but that is no excuse.

I have talked for long enough and it is time for me to stop and go. Every limit is a beginning as well as an ending. The future looks promising and exciting. It begins in the New World, and Round Square – the ultimate oxymoron – having completed its first stage, is now going into orbit. Let us wish it well and all who travel with it. For myself I shall conclude with a very short poem by Emily Dickinson:
In this short life
That only last an hour
How much – how little – is
Within our power.