In the following text Barry Hugill reports on Gordonstoun, a public school in the north of
Scotland. In a recent interview Prince Charles revealed that he hated every minute of his stay
there.
| 1 | 1 | The founder called it 'Platonie'; the present he ad prefers 'Hahnian', Both mean the | |
| 2 | sort of education on offer at Gordonstoun. Seventeen-year-old William puts it more | ||
| 3 | simply: 'Being here means you spend weekends up mountains buried in snow ... it's a hell | ||
| 4 | of an experience.' | ||
| 2 | 5 | When not up to his neck in snow, he is on compulsory sea rescue duty or 'serving the | |
| 6 | community' in a wide range of demanding ways. Gordonstoun is a public school in the | ||
| 7 | north of Scotland - a fact known to almost the en tire population of the UK and much of | ||
| 8 | the rest of the world, because last week Prince Charles revealed that he cried himself to | ||
| 9 | sleep at night th ere, driven to despair by bullies. | ||
| 3 | 10 | The school does its best to show its caring side. Mark Pyper, the head, insists that | |
| 11 | times have changed: 'Some of the more vigorous physical activities have gone . .. but we | ||
| 12 | have not gone soft. And we are certainly not soft on bullying - we have expelled people for | ||
| 13 | it .' His words could be seen as an attempt to limit the damage done to Gordonstoun's | ||
| 14 | reputation. | ||
| 4 | 15 | Kurt Hahn, a German lew, fled Hitier in 1934 and set up the school. Taking his lead | |
| 16 | from the Greek philosopher Plato, he pushed children to the limits of their physical | ||
| 17 | capacities so they could discover themselves. | ||
| 5 | 18 | Mr Pyper says the philosophy remains essentially the same, although more stress is | |
| 19 | now placed on the academie - most pupils get good A-levels and go on to university. But | ||
| 20 | you cannot visit Gordonstoun without being struck by the physical. if it's not mountains, | ||
| 21 | it 's the sea and the rugby, running, tennis, climbing, swimming, soccer and almost any other | ||
| 22 | sport you care to mention. And this is north-east Scotland, where the wind tears at the | ||
| 23 | innards and the skies are grey for weeks on end. | ||
| 6 | 24 | Discovering yourself does not come cheap - f12,000 a year, although the school | |
| 25 | prides itself on a scholarship scheme for poorer families. For the cash , pupils experience | ||
| 26 | what Hahn called the 'moral equivalent of war'. | ||
| 7 | 27 | This sounds rather militaristic, but Mr Pyper doesn't see it that way: 'It means that | |
| 28 | the pupils learn to serve the community with the same heroism and commitment th at | ||
| 29 | soldiers need to show in a war'. | ||
| 8 | 30 | It also sounds quite brutal. Same of the school's 453 pupils must be unhappy | |
| 31 | freezing on top of a mountain. 'Of course, some don't want to go. But 1 can guarantee they | ||
| 32 | all come back having had the time of their lives,' says Mr Pyper. | ||
| 9 | 33 | We spoke to about 15 pupils, all of whom were happy and said that the mountain | |
| 34 | expeditions and seamanship had done them good. This is 17-year-old Emma: '1 was | ||
| 35 | terrified at the prospect of the boats . . . but once I started, 1 loved it. Maybe the only way | ||
| 36 | to find out is to be told to do it.' | ||
| 10 | 37 | Or William: 'You don't want to spend a weekend up a mountain in the snow. But you | |
| 38 | are glad later, and you wouldn't have done it otherwise.' | ||
| 11 | 39 | They insisted that smoking does not take place and denied illicit drug taking. Bath | |
| 40 | activities are banned. Gordonstoun places great emphasis on trust - teachers don't enforce | ||
| 41 | rules, but trust pupils to follow them. Yet the biggest growth rate in smoking nationally is | ||
| 42 | among teenage girls, of whom there are more than 200 at Gordonstoun. Either the pupils | ||
| 43 | are not telling the truth or they are amazingly obedient. | ||
| 12 | 44 | Evidence that the latter might be the case should be seen in the uniform. Many | |
| 45 | schools have uniforms but pupils almost always get round it. But not at Gordonstoun. | ||
| 46 | Many parents will say that alone makes it worth paying f12,OOO a year. | ||
| 13 | 47 | The Gordonstoun board is studying a plan to widen the intake and allow 'more | |
| 48 | young people from underprivileged backgrounds to benefit from a Gordonstoun | ||
| 49 | education'. But two children will not be enrolling. Prince Charles is determined th at his | ||
| 50 | sons should escape the Hahnian experience - he wants them to go to Eton, where the | ||
| 51 | mountains are few and the snow infrequent. |