BROCKWOOD PARK SCHOOL

Parent’s Weekend – 24th & 25th of March

Laurent Lafaye, Parent

I would like to thank all the school for

this wonderful Parent's Weekend which took

place the 24th and the 25th of March 2012.

We had the chance to share with all the

staff, teachers and students the life of the

school for two days. It has been an

opportunity for me to touch this special

atmosphere which one can feel there and to

ask some questions about the school. And

what a chance to have had two sunny days

with so warm temperature for early spring!

I would like to mention an extract of

the published report of the inspection about

Brockwood Park School, which took place

this year, in order to describe this special

atmosphere: “Relationships between adults

and pupils are excellent, both in school and

in the boarding provision and pupils’

behaviour is outstanding.”

We talked a lot about some thefts

which took place during the previous terms

and how difficult it was to solve the issue,

meaning finding out who was the author of

the thefts. Some students said that the

whole agenda of the school was completely

stopped until the thief was found. The whole

community was disturbed, and the whole

school talked a lot about the issue at that

time. And we also talked a lot about it in the

weekend: at Supper, at Parents and

Students Meeting and during Inquiry time

with the whole school.

During Inquiry time we heard an

extract of a dialogue between Krishnamurti

and students where he talked about disorder,

authority and responsibility. He said that the

one who is in disorder creates an authority: if

I don't wake-up on time, I create the

authority who will tell me to wake-up. He said

also that authority comes from “author”, the

one who originates, and that authority as we

know it now starts when one copies or

imitates the one who is original, who

originates (the whole business of religion).

And we talked also about responsibility, which

means to respond adequately to a challenge.

What is the right response to the

challenge of these thefts taking place at

Brockwood? What is the right action? Is the

response of the past, the reaction I have

which comes from my personal experience, or

the instinctive reaction I have coming from

my culture, my tradition the right response,

the right action: finding the author of the

thefts? Can a limited response coming from

me as the center of my memories, personnel

and collective, be the right action? Should not

each one of us in Brockwood Park School feel

this tremendous responsibility we have to live

in a community where education is the

central intention? What is this feeling of

responsibility?

"It seems to be one of the most difficult things in life to live completely totally - not

fragmentarily but as a total human being - whether you are in your office or in your home, or

whether you are walking in a wood. It is only complete action that brings about intelligence:

total action is intelligence. But we live in fragments: as a family man opposed to the rest of

the world, as a religious man - if one is at all religious - having peculiar theories, ideas,

separate beliefs and dogmas. And one is always struggling to achieve a status, a position, a

prestige, whether that status is worldly or saintly. One is always striving, striving. There is

never a moment when the mind is completely empty and therefore silent. And out of silence

action takes place. We are no longer original. We are the result, as we have said over and

over again, of our environments, of circumstances, of the culture, the tradition in which we

live, and we accept that. And to change always demands a great deal of energy. - Collected

Works, Vol. XVII,119,Action"