Ms. J. E. RhyinsA Civic Space

A Civic Space - Ms. J. E. Rhyins

Consider where you’re most likely to bump into a friend, see a new piece of art, or perhaps meet someone new. Most likely, it will not be in your room.

Radley’s 300-acre site affords us space for both inward reflection and collective association. Friendships and conversation form naturally both in nature and indoors. Our year-round sportsmen create a plethora of social networks. In the coffee shop and the Science Lecture Theatre we hold events and share on subjects we are passionate about. These are public spaces, used by everyone, but also serve the more important purpose of being civic. These are places that set the stage for our day, as Radleians, as students and teachers, and as friends.

Aristotle, one of history’s greatest philosophers, and a perennial student said that “Excellence is never an accident”. Wisdom is cultivated between people. He continued “It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives – choice, not chance, determines your destiny.” Where we communicate is just as important as how. And often moving through these spaces can help us think things through differently and more effectively - ‘Solvitur ambulando’, or solve it by walking, as the Romans said.

These civic spaces are choices, positing thought in different ways. And they are communally maintained. Much like London’s St. James’s Park, or Blackwell’s bookstore in Oxford, somehow everyone who visits has similar activities in mind. We chat, think, and play accordingly. But none of these codes are written down. They are maintained through the social contract of respect and integrity.

Since your return from Leave-Away, you may have noticed renovations to a 50sq meter section of Queen’s Court. Located on the second floor, between Geography and Maths, before you enter the SLT, there sits a space wide enough to hold twenty-five people. This is known because a Shell Geography lesson took place there in October. Later that month the three American teaching fellows, myself, Sam Perdomo, and Justin Dorland, met with Dons from Geography, Physics, and Design, to consider how we might designate a new type of space at Radley. One that is both Public and Civic.

This Civic Space for Environmental Conversation is collaborative, sprung from ideas from your teachers, peers, and the people who keep Radley functioning logistically, maintenance. Various departments, Geography, Art, Design, Physics, alongside the fledging Environmental Society The CliMates, and the Estates team have all influenced what you see taking shape now.

I ask that you suspend judgment on the carpeting design (100% recycled) and colour scheme of the new paint job, to ask what you think a space like this could be for you. Radleians have arranged speakers, arranged debates, mock elections, book talks, and the like. But what if you came across something in your studies (or, for Dons, an outside opportunity) that you really felt passionate about and wanted to share in a way that required fewer formalities? Something that does not need to be booked in advance and is slightly off the beaten path. As a new Civic space, its aim is discursive, to be a place to foster relationships and ideas. Nothing is static: our community’s moral character and collective aspirations refine throughout the day in the alternate spaces we chose to inhabit. "Choice not chance, chooses your destiny".