Should schools shelter snowflakes?
Forget ‘safe spaces’. Pupils in Kent can now debate extreme views and read Mein Kampf, says Guy Kelly
How can we create leaders without exposing them to difficult ideas?
Over the past few years, it has proven nigh-on impossible to escape the intense debate surrounding “safe spaces” in relation to our schools and universities – so much so that we could have done with some kind of cosy refuge to get away from it all at times.
On one side of the argument, the term represented a commitment to making marginalised students feel comfortable being themselves, without running into discrimination or harassment. On the other, safe spaces were just another sign the “snowflake” generation was being shielded from any view or perspective that might remotely challenge theirs.
Given these opposing sides, it wasn’t a great surprise that reports this week of a school in Kent creating a deliberately “unsafe space” – where pupils would argue the merits of feminism and study Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf – caused outrage on the internet.
Simon Langton Boys’ Grammar School in Canterbury, which accepts girls from its sister school in sixth form, plans to run regular, optional classes for 17- and 18-yearold students that will include the study of extreme 20th century political texts, speeches from known inflammatory figures and debates on controversial news stories. According to pupils, the first of these sessions will look at a memo sent by a fired Google employee in August, which claimed women “have higher levels of neuroticism” so cannot handle high-level jobs.
“My school is bringing in an ‘unsafe space’ where people can be as racist/sexist/xenophobic as they like,” tweeted Sarah Cundy, an 18-year-old student at Simon Langton Girls’ on Monday, alerting social media to the new programme.
“They think it makes them libertarian but it’s just legitimising fascism,” she went on, before stating that “as a woman, I feel completely unwelcome [at the school] and I have no idea how unwelcome minorities would feel.” Cundy – who is the chair of Canterbury’s branch of Momentum, Labour’s pro-jeremy Corbyn grassroots movement – received support from her Twitter followers and some other students, who argued the school was doing nothing but inspiring a dangerous new generation of bigots.
Yet many teachers have been exasperated by the reaction, as have many parents, who are now taking to their Facebook group to vent. To them, it’s been a mixture of overreaction and misunderstanding.
“The phrase ‘unsafe space’ is a bit of a misnomer,” says Ken Moffat, the head of school, who probably regretted the title as soon as he announced it. “We believe in our responsibility to challenge our brightest students. We are very cognisant of our responsibility to uphold the fundamental British values and there is no tolerance of homophobic, xenophobic, racist or sexist views.”
Most of the attention has centred on the inclusion of Hitler’s autobiographical work, but as Moffat points out, the classes will also take in The Communist Manifesto, Mao’s
Little Red Book and Lenin’s What Is to Be Done?
“These are not texts we wish to protect our students from but help them to consider, with proper academic guidance, as ways in interpreting and understanding the 20th century. The agenda is neither Right- nor Left-wing, simply freethinking.”
Simon Langton Boys’ includes among its alumni Denis Lemon, the founding editor of Gay Times who was jailed for blasphemous libel when he published the poem The Love That
Dare Not Speak Its Name in 1977, and disgraced Right-wing incendiary Milo Yiannopoulos. Last year some people criticised the school for inviting Yiannopoulos to speak at a current pupil event, forcing the talk to be cancelled.
Louise Green, whose 17-year-old son is in the sixth form at the school and an enthusiastic debater, says the vast majority of parents are in favour of Moffat’s approach. “I’m delighted with the school doing whatever it takes to produce students who are naturally questioning,” she says. “To think they’re going to be brainwashed by exposure to these subjects insults the students and the teachers.
“The fact there’s a fuss is fine, and the girl who complained is proving she has a strong voice. That’s great, and exactly what the school wants everyone to have. But my son is not a racist or anti-lgbt. He’s embracing all aspects of the UK, and incensed about comments that suggest that. They’re just challenging ideas that exist. How can we create leaders without letting them take on difficult ideas?”
Another parent, Kerry Maloney, has a daughter who travels from the girls’ school to the boys’ specifically to join in with the debates offered there.
“She loves the open forum and I love that she goes, it makes her a lot more confident. People these days are afraid of not saying the right thing, so they just exist in an echo chamber and don’t hear views that might help them make sense of theirs for when they leave school,” Maloney says.
The school has no plans to cancel anything, though don’t be surprised if they change the trigger-point name. The debate may rage on Twitter, but the Langton parents’ Facebook group are of one voice. Yesterday, Maloney posted a link to a news story about a crime-ridden park in Canterbury. “This is a real unsafe space,” she wrote.