Comments & Editorials 15
Voluntary Service (1966)

One of the accusations levelled at schools is that they do not seriously attempt to prepare their pupils to take their place in society. It is alleged that they are almost exclusively concerned to raise the academic sights of their charges and ignore the obvious fact that academic distinction cannot operate In vacuo but must be exercised in relation to society as a whole. Many teachers share this disquiet. From the moment the child comes to the school he is led to believe either by direct exhortation or by the general atmosphere of the place that his concern is personal success. If he does well we praise him; if he does badly we urge him by methods ranging from gentle coaxing to the ultimate sanctions to consider his true intereses. This is necessary and inevitable in our kind of institucion. However, a point may be reached where concentration on the individual becomes positively harmful to his future happiness as a member of society if at no stage in his education is he brought face to face with that society and its needs. Of course, most subjects in the curriculum do impinge upon society. Its aspirations and achievements, but this is an intellectual involvement rarely enlisting the pupil's entire being in its many facets. It is when he is confronted with real people in real need that he ceases to regard himself as the focal point of existence and begins to see his position in relation to the wider community.

There is a tendency to believe that in the outer suburbs no real human need exists. The argument appears to be that as the State has taken over responsibility for the material welfare of its citizens there is little opportunity for personal initiative in voluntary service. Doubtless, in comparison with the slum areas of our big cities, the problem is far less urgent; none the less, the anonymity of suburban life, where to know anyone but the family next door is unusual, presents problems of its own. There are old people in Ruislip Northwood who are in a quite desperate plight. They never advertise their needs and this makes it difficult for voluntary agencies to know about them. But, equally, there are so many calls for help that the manpower resources of the voluntary agencies cannot cope with all the requests made. The view that "the State of Borough will provide" is naive even in spheres where they have accepted responsibility. Saints are required to undertake difficult work at low salaries and saints were never In liberal supply.

Presented with this need in society and being aware of the tendency of the educational system to concentrate on the individual to the exclusion of his responsibilities to society. Many schools have challenged their senior pupils to consider their social responsibilities and organise some kind of voluntary service scheme to the community. Last year St. Nicholas entered this field and P. Hildyard and C. Miller were asked to plan the entire venture. A group of senior boys offered advice on the form of service the School should operate and it was decided to concentrate the effort on the needs of the aged and St. Vincent's Orthopaedic Hospital for Children, later, work was undertaken at St. Michael's Spastic School. Offers to help were received from a hundred and fifty boys: a very encouraging start.

Although no request for help has had to be refused, many more offers of help are needed to replace the boys who are leaving. If we are to keep up the commitments already undertaken. It would be tragic if we had to tell an old person or the matrons at the school and hospital that we can no longer help because of lack of interest among the boys. Any boy who volunteers his services, even for the minimal period of one quarter hour a week, can be certain not only that he is helping the community but that, through the broadening of his understanding and the deepening of his sympathy, his own life is being enriched.

D.D.