Martin Reader, Headmaster of Cranleigh School (pictured), reflects on the stories of children and how we, at Cranleigh, can change the narrative arc for the better for those children beset by misfortune.
I have spent a life in stories. Those I was read until I could read for myself; those I studied and later taught; those I was told and tell. As children, my brother and I would sometimes run ahead of our parents on a walk, then sit, wait and create an imagined life for those who passed us by. And day by day, the stories I encounter, perhaps play a minor part in, are the very real funny, joyful, painful, tragic, ordinary lives of children and their families.
…we have been able to author so many future plots to engineer our happy ending
As our memories re-trace the written pages of our lives or ponder the blank ones to come, we recognise opportunities missed or seized. For those of us whose openings were filled with love, comfort and security, the blessing of place, whose colour or sex or religion were not considered less – well, we have been able to author so many future plots to engineer our happy ending.
Yet in this living library there are stories that do not begin with such hope, such advantage. And we know, even if we dare not ponder the irony, that as we think we create our pages yet to come, we do not write alone. There may be a twist or turn that we would never have scripted for ourselves.
…we can, if we choose, help to give someone else a better direction. And in doing so, we co-write a more hopeful story for us all
Yet the marvellous thing is that our story is so intertwined with others’ that we can, if we choose, help to give someone else a better direction. And in doing so, we co-write a more hopeful story for us all. Why else would we invest in our own children’s education?
The joy of being in a School is we help each person in our care to write a future for themselves and the world that is better. That is our purpose – it is certainly what keeps me writing here. We do so one by one, and one by one we will make a change. That is why the Cranleigh Foundation is so important and why we are so grateful for the gifts we receive.
I think deep down we all want to influence the world and find meaning in our autobiography, to know that our eulogy will show we crafted more than a catalogue of achievements quickly skimmed over.
I have known children beleaguered by grief, frightened of rejection, having to care for the sick, relatives who have been blinded physically and mentally by domestic abuse, they have been moved from house to house, carer to carer
Just as we edit the chapters we choose to publish to others, it is not for me to tell individual stories which are very real. But I can testify that I have known children beleaguered by grief, frightened of rejection, having to care for the sick, relatives who have been blinded physically and mentally by domestic abuse, they have been moved from house to house, carer to carer.
I have seen these children go through School, feeling safer, having the same opportunities as children with sweeter openings. I can testify to how they begin to write with a more confident hand and leave equipped with quills now sharp and ready. And I know how they in their turn have touched the lives of those around them.
To say we aspire to raise £10 million pounds to fund 10 Foundationers in perpetuity is an arid plot. Imagine instead the stories that could be written for children whose lives have not had the best of introductions.
To quote Samwise Gamgee in ‘Lord of the Rings’ one of those stories I loved as a child:
It’s like in the great stories, Mr Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going, because they were holding on to something. That there is some good in this world, and it’s worth fighting for.