After the riots: The role of schools in healing our communities

This has been a dark and deeply painful few days for our country. In making sense of them and their impact on our role as educators, I have been buoyed by some words from Tolkien’s Lord of the rings:

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it, there are many dark places; but still, there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.” 

We have seen mindless attacks on the homes of those seeking refuge in our country as well as on mosques, businesses and community venues.

We have heard threatening, hateful and intolerable abuse directed towards refugees, people of colour and Muslims, as well as others of different faiths.  

Most egregiously, we have witnessed deplorable violence on defenceless people peacefully going about their lives, simply because of the colour of their skin and how they choose to worship – and on the police officers dedicated to protecting them.   

As someone who works in education, what has been particularly distressing is to see some children and young people on the streets taking part in the ugly chanting, mindless looting and awful violence on others.

Meanwhile, most will have witnessed these horrible scenes on TV and in their social media feeds – traumatising, triggering and perhaps even radicalising them.  

Our children are our future. They are our best, last hope to address the wicked problems and the seemingly intractable challenges of our time. The values they hold dear, the causes to which each of them dedicates their life and the levers they choose to pull to secure the change they wish to see will determine how and if our country remains the hopeful, inclusive and tolerant society that we all call home.

In this noble effort, to educate our children and imbue them with the compassion and character needed to forge a better world, our role as teachers, educators, and leaders is crucial.   

If our work is about developing their minds, then we must also appeal to their hearts and souls

When they return to school, we will need to make time to have meaningful conversations with our pupils. We have to let our young people talk about their feelings and emotions: how what they have seen and experienced has affected them and the way they see themselves and their place in our society and the future of our country. 

Such conversations can be uncomfortable – particularly for our pupils of colour or those of other minorities – but we will need to make our schools a safe space where our children can be honest about their anxieties so that we can provide the guidance and reassurance they need.

Furthermore, through their lessons and the wider experiences we offer, our schools should equip our young people to be critical consumers of the information they come across online; to be literate, articulate and numerate; and to secure the skills and qualifications to have a plausible stake in the economic prosperity of our country. 

If that is about developing their minds, then we must also appeal to their hearts and souls.  Let’s ensure they have an understanding of people and communities very different to them and an empathy for those who are the most vulnerable in our world. 

It is crucial to teach our children about the abject poverty and hopelessness that blights our working-class communities of all colours and backgrounds. It is also important that they learn about the struggles of the most helpless on the margins of our society: refugees desperately fleeing war, the elderly suffering from loneliness, those ravaged by drugs and mental health crises.

Perhaps most importantly, as Tolkien alludes, we will need to remind our children of all the love they saw this summer and the light that came through the darkness. 

We saw people coming together to sweep up the debris and make their streets safe again, the simple kindness of strangers repairing looted shops and the courage of those who stood silently and stoically to protect the homes and places of worship of others. People who are driven not by hate, but love – love for their fellow human being, love for everyone in the community and a zealous love for our country.  

This is the true character of our nation, the tightly woven, rich tapestry that makes our communities the vibrant places they are. That is the beautiful promise of our great land.  

We have long known that our schools are microcosms of wider society, reflecting the ills and challenges of the communities we serve at any given time.

However, we should not fall into fatalism after these events. Our schools are also drivers for change, the pioneers of a better future, and the hope of a more peaceful, more caring world.