The inspectors who visited Bembridge on behalf of the Oxford
and Cambridge Examination Board in 1928 found that ‘the curriculum seems well
balanced upon modern lines’, the extra time in the timetable allotted to
‘manual work of various kinds’ being accounted for ‘by the bold excision of
Greek and German…altogether’ (despite Whitehouse’s avowed preference for modern
languages the only one taught was French, and this remained the case until at
least the end of the 1960s).
During our stay the ‘school exhibition’ was in progress, and
we were greatly impressed thereby. It consisted of specimens of the boys’ work,
done in their spare time, in model-making, wood-work, illuminating,
boat-building, painting, pottery, wood-cuts, even sculpture, and the like,
together with examples of their school-work, note-books, translations, etc.
‘It not only reflected great credit on all concerned, but was
a welcome indication of a varied and keen interest in creative work’.
Furthermore,
It is to be noted that much of the actual work about the
school, the building of a new pavilion, fittings in the dormitories, the
printing of the School magazine (an excellent production), and so on, is
carried out by the boys themselves.
By the turn of the decade and the arrival, in 1932, of the first
government inspectors, the arts and crafts identity of the school, centred on
the growing Ruskin collection, and kept well in the public eye by Whitehouse’s stream
of published commentary, was firmly established. A certain disparity of
provision didn’t escape notice, however. With regard to the school premises as
a whole, the report remarks that
In comparison with the fine art galleries and the school
museum the classrooms seem rather cramped and in the inclement weather which
obtained during the week of the inspection they seemed inadequately warmed.
Many of the staff were found to be academically
underqualified, though ‘they are earnest and sincere people’. The exceptions in
terms of attainment were the science and arts and crafts teachers – Baggaley
and Muirhead – who are specifically praised by the inspectors, having produced
much ‘enterprising and successful work’. And more generally ‘though the
requirements of external examinations are treated with no great deference the
actual results in most subjects are quite satisfactory’. Only the achievement
in French and Latin was found to be mediocre.
There are a number of references to school printing in the
1932 inspectors’ report. The introductory observations note that
In Form III and upwards all boys give three periods a week to
Manual Instruction and two or three to art. Gardening, Script Writing [i.e.
formal handwriting or calligraphy] and Printing also appear on the timetable,
while out of school hours boys are constantly occupied in practical pursuits.
The work produced independently in woodwork, however, ‘does
not seem to reach the same high plane as the out of school work in the Printing
room’.
There is a detailed appraisal in the body of the report, under
‘Art and Craft’. The achievement in wood engraving is commended, and
the School is most fortunate in possessing an admirable
building with equipment for printing. [Forms] IIA, III, LIV [Lower 4th]
and Shell have one or two periods assigned to this subject in their curriculum,
and the craft has proved to be very attractive to a number of boys who spend
much of their spare time printing a variety of matter from notices and
programmes to the School Magazine and some small books, many of these with
woodcut illustrations. The enthusiastic Master in charge should be able to
develop this craft further, specially in the direction of experiments in good
design. The addition of some new faces of type, when possible, would clearly be
a great help in that direction. [This would take some time.]
It might be observed…that a more systematic planning of the
Art and Craft work on a progressive basis, with the closest collaboration
between the various members of staff concerned, should add to the variety of
the types of work that could be done, and should lead to some remarkable
results in a school where Art and Craft receive so full a share of sympathy.
Nonetheless, it was noticed that ‘a larger proportion of boys
from this school have passed on to well known art schools, or in some cases directly
into artistic work as a means of earning their livelihood, than is the case in
schools of a more conventional type’.
The popularity out of school hours of the printing room - the
new building was then not yet a year old – was noted with approval, also the
effectiveness of the guild system as a stimulus to progress, and the various
creative opportunities provided by the school newspaper and museum. Neither was
it felt that the ordinary academic subjects were being neglected, in fact the
school was performing here surprisingly well given that, as the inspectors put
it, ‘the boys are by no means picked material intellectually’.
*
The 1932 inspectors recognised at Bembridge an unusual,
ongoing educational experiment which they were prepared to view with a good
deal of generosity:
It is held that it is through the arts and crafts that a boy
can best gain the experience of absolute realisation of self in work, and that
this experience has a beneficial effect upon the spirit in which he approaches
any other kind of work. Up to what stage dependence can be placed upon the
manual arts as affording a wide intellectual training, and how far it is
possible to preserve this harmony of interest and activity when the other
subjects of the curriculum come to be studied are problems of great interest
and difficulty which are at any rate being faced here.
By 1949, in the radically altered circumstances of post-war
austerity and the need for rapid reconstruction, and in an educational
environment in which many of Whitehouse’s ideas were much less unfamiliar to
the mainstream, this attitude had changed. The 1949 report is in places quite
harsh, depicting a school failing in its key ideals, and while there is due
respect for his pioneer work, there is no longer the deference to Whitehouse
personally, detectable in 1932. In general, ‘the school is not well equipped
for teaching purposes except in arts and crafts subjects’ and ‘except in
history and crafts the standard of work is below the average to be found in
schools which provide education for boys of similar ability’.
The teaching of science, in particular, where ‘no syllabus or
records are available’, was found wanting, requiring especially the integration
of biology, still covered in the curriculum by the relic of (essentially
observational) ‘Nature Study’ which ‘has not been considered part of the real
science course’.
The inspectors were understandably impatient, but perhaps
occasionally they were unjust. They point to the school’s current failure to
exploit its privileged location: ‘it is a disappointment that in a school with
such excellent natural facilities so little use has been made of them for so
long…in marine field work alone there are possibilities open to very few
schools in the country’. While it was
true that four years had passed since the return from Coniston, there was a
persistent underlying problem which was hardly confined to Bembridge: the
shortage of suitably qualified staff.
The art master ‘had barely completed three weeks in the new
and unequipped art room at the time of the inspection’.
The exhibition, illustrating the work of the past session and
previous years, revealed a disappointingly low standard. In drawing and in
painting there is no evidence of a tradition, and the very uneven quality indicates
uncertain guidance in recent years…The virile quality of original and creative
exercises has been replaced by a tendency to rely on derivation from existing
sources. This is particularly noticeable in the woodcuts used in association
with typography. It would no doubt help to regenerate a new and personal
inspiration in the craft of wood-cutting and wood-engraving if this work could
be linked more closely with creative design in the art room.
And there is a rather cutting conclusion, whose reference to
his book of 1928 Whitehouse would not have missed: ‘there is a need for a
vigorous…approach to the visual arts more in keeping with the original concept
of a creative education’.
And yet amidst all this criticism the paragraph headed
‘Typography’ – the newly-infused word now used in place of ‘printing’,
reflecting the mid-century emergence of the specialism of graphic design - is
curiously muted, even a touch reverential, and not necessarily looking forward:
In the craft of hand-composition and printing with the
hand-press the school has maintained an unbroken tradition. There is a good
standard of craftsmanship in the various productions and the simple,
unostentatious layout, enables boys to see, as they should, that the
fascination of playing with movable type is not inconsistent with dignity and
simplicity of design.
With its technical mystique, its clear reflection of the
‘real’ world of industry, its manifest purpose in the community in which it was
set, the printing room in its heyday was ever apt to work its magic on the
visitor, be they prospective parents being shown round by the Head, or boys’
families looking in on Foundation Day weekends (when the decks were cleared to
show off the year’s work) – or hard-nosed school inspectors.
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