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Why being the ‘difference makers’ still matters, Peter Howe
Why being the ‘difference makers’ still matters
Peter Howe celebrates a vintage year at UWC Atlantic
2019 marks a number of milestones in the storied history of UWC Atlantic. The College saw the 55th leavers’ group, and the 50th to be graduating as members of the United World College (UWC) movement, founded in 1967 under the Presidency of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma. This year also marks the 50th anniversary of women graduating from the College. So if ever there was a vintage year, this would be the one.
It is easy to forget the incredibly bold venture that marked the foundation of the College. Established at the height of the Cold War, The Atlantic College, as it was originally known, was imagined as a place where education could serve as the bridge to connect east and west, the ‘difference makers’ who could transcend the nationalism and militarism that was dividing the world. The world needed a rethink, and late high school education was seen as the starting point. This approach was based on the prescient ideas of German educationalist Kurt Hahn who believed that the promise of youth – regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or citizenship – was underestimated and that two basic insights must be imparted to students: (1) you are needed, and (2) you are able to achieve more than others think and than you believe yourself. He felt that if young people could be convinced of this, and live it through their experience of education, then the future was bright. As Kurt Hahn said in a speech a few years before his death at the age of 88, “I regard it as the foremost task of education to ensure the survival of these qualities: an enterprising curiosity, an indefatigable spirit, tenacity in pursuit, readiness for sensible self-denial and, above all, compassion”. From the radical beginnings of The
Atlantic College, described in The Times as ‘the most exciting experiment in education since the Second World War’, emerged the United World College movement in 1967 and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP), co-created by the College, in 1968.
When I arrived at UWC Atlantic just over two years ago, it was with the express intent of reclaiming our position as the flagship college of the UWC movement and as world leaders in experiential education; to re-imagine education for the 21st century and to become innovators once again. Along with our 17 sister UWC Colleges and the International Baccalaureate organisation, at the heart of this innovation is our reconceptualisation of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP). The 50th anniversary of the IBDP has come and gone, and that milestone has provoked a shift in thinking. Whilst the programme aimed “to develop young people … to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect”, the dynamics of that world have changed. Our world is more fractured and fragile than ever, with environmental, political, financial and social change deepening the chasm between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’. The challenges of the 21st Century – climate change, global migration, polarisation, extremism, inequality, natural resource depletion and the Fourth Industrial Revolution – demand young people with the courage, resilience and creativity to be able to negotiate this shifting landscape and ‘own’ the way forward, and to do so with an interdisciplinary, systems-thinking approach. That mindset has always defined our students and our transformational education, alongside a passion to serve society in a way that is bold, forward-looking and unrestrained.
Our reconceptualised diploma will enable students to pursue individualised programmes while giving them the opportunity to exercise autonomy, to develop mastery, and to feel purpose; three factors that are at the heart of intrinsic motivation (Pink, 2009). Through the holistic and ‘transdisciplinary’ education we deliver at UWC Atlantic, with service at the core, we are nurturing and developing young people with the ability to think critically, to communicate clearly, to work in teams, to take ethical decisions, and to contribute innovatively and with deep understanding across social, cultural and economic divides. While academic credentials may remain the currency of today, the habits of mind which sit alongside and complement these credentials
are not add-ons or ‘nice-to-haves’. They are a fundamental element of the ‘T’ shaped skills that the world and workplace of the future demand, and are also key to our approach; an approach that is less about ‘learning’ and more about ‘becoming’ (Prensky, 2014).
We provide an environment in which our students can become the best versions of themselves, with the knowledge that friendship, empathy and humility will carry them far and in a unique place where they embrace, and are committed to, UWC’s core values: international and intercultural understanding, celebration of difference, personal responsibility and integrity, mutual responsibility and respect, compassion and service, respect for the environment, a sense of idealism, personal challenge and action and personal example. Within the UWC movement, and certainly within UWC Atlantic itself, we know we must educate through these values, as well as build on what an
UWC Atlantic
IB Diploma can deliver, if we are to fulfil the UWC mission ‘to make education a force to unite people, nations and cultures for peace and a sustainable future’. We also know that change is hard, rarely linear, and will always include ‘could be betters’ and ‘try agains’ on the roadway to success.
Three pathways converge on this journey. Innovation focuses on the development of the IBDP, and UWC Atlantic students will be instrumental in helping to shape this curriculum, led by our newly appointed Director of Learning Innovation. Opportunity we know is critical, and we must increase our scholarship provision to guarantee the socioeconomic diversity of our student population that lies at the core of the UWC project. We must ensure that ability to pay is not a barrier to students of high promise and potential, and their access to a UWC Atlantic education. We have an exceptional group of individuals and foundations who already support a third of our students to receive full financial support. Our aspiration is to increase this to 50% within the next three years, and to 85% in the next 10. And finally, place, which signifies the magic that saturates the UWC Atlantic campus; our unique ‘Laboratory for Learning’. It means we need to revive and protect our campus assets, both the built and the natural environment. Our master plan will include the renovation of the seafront area, the reimagination and rebuilding of the academic blocks, a new STEM centre, revitalising the College’s ‘Green Heart’ and the commitment with our new curriculum to make full use of our natural capital: the valley, the farm and the woodlands.
I am very fortunate to lead a unique College community that aspires to imagine and reshape the IBDP, and indeed the world, as it ‘should be’. The experiment needs not only to continue but also to evolve. Aspiration and ambition are in our DNA, and we want to reclaim our leadership in progressive experiential education. And we have the ideal environment to do so – physically, culturally, and socially. For me, the most important element is the mindset: that we can and should be better, and that unless we try with a willingness to fail, then we won’t move forward.
I am grateful for the hopes, fears, sense of adventure and idealism, the critical minds and the enthusiasm brought to us by students from across the globe. The unique experience that is lived at a UWC hangs on their shared humanity, their trust in each other, their willingness to celebrate each other’s unique talents, and the support they provide to each other every day as they extend the limits of their comfort zones. Such a community is something truly special and is what makes attending a UWC so life-affirming and life-changing.
As the College looks ahead to its next big milestone – its 60th anniversary in 2022 – it does so with confidence. We remain one of the world’s most pioneering, engaged and impactful places of learning for 16 to 19 year olds, and in reimagining the IBDP, our relevance and resonance will continue. For as we all know, there remains an urgent need for capable, compassionate leaders to bring together local, national and international communities through a commitment to service and the common good. And our graduates will be there, ready to play their part, equipped and motivated to live meaningful, impactful lives and to be the ‘difference makers’ the world needs.
References
Pink D (2009) Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, New York: Riverhead Books Prensky M (2014) The World Needs a New Curriculum, New York: The Global Future Education Foundation and Institute
