Editor's Note

This issue focuses on Brockwood Park School. This unique and vital place has been undergoing a kind of metamorphosis over the years since K died. Without going into the history of that time, I think it is fair to see it as akin to an interregnum, a period of transition that is inevitable when a teacher of K’s import is removed and the school which he founded and motivated until his death is obliged to create its own destiny thereafter.

There have been many changes and a very considerable amount of self- observation and analysis in that time. A large number of vitally interested people have contributed to this process, and the outlines of its future course do seem to be coming more clearly into view as a result. Whether one talks of the academic programme, student welfare and development, or even financial stability, there is a sense of vision crystallizing from all this input.

However, the school’s place in the world is precarious. This is inevitable with any place that attempts to do something outside the educational mainstream. Brockwood, in all its particulars, is not like any other school. There may be some superficial similarities with other schools in Europe purporting to follow an alternative approach to education, but ultimately none that focuses, in such an international setting, on self-enquiry and dispassionate observation in the manner that Brockwood attempts to do. In this sense it remains the revolutionary place that K intended it to be.

Over the last year or two the spotlight has become more precisely focused on the number and nature of the students who attend the school. This has coincided with the commencement of a professional student recruitment programme, as well as a refining of academic curricula. Brockwood needs more good students in order to fill its quota of available places and to give momentum to its educational aims. By ‘good’ students I mean those who are sympathetic to Brockwood ’s objectives and willing to engage with those aims and also with their peers in that exploration that is at the heart of the place.

A year ago, at the Saanen gathering, I had lengthy discussions about the school with two people who, I felt, were very representative of Brockwood. Both had recently left it, and I was anxious to capture their views while impressions were still fresh. Some extracts from those conversations follow, as they may give something of a first-hand feel, albeit of a generalized nature, of the place.

Gopalakrishna Krishnamurti was educated entirely within the Krishnamurti school system, beginning at The School, Madras, at four years of age, and moving from there to Rishi Valley and then to Brockwood at 18. He has subsequently taught at Centre for Learning in Bangalore, and for 3 years at Brockwood,as well as completing an Open University degree in physics while living at Brockwood as a mature student, and subsequently a master’s degree in philosophy in the USA. From his experience, Gopal has identified three areas that form the basis of a Brockwood education and that, ideally, would be addressed by any educational institution worthy of the name: “...how is (that) education to prepare a young person to meet the demands of earning a livelihood, and in what sense would that be an appropriate or ‘right ’livelihood, also of satisfaction to the individual? The second aspect ...in what way can the school help the student build relationships based on trust, both with his or her peers and with the staff ...(which is) important for relationships later in life? The third ...can an education in some way nurture an independent outlook so that the student is able to meet the challenges of life and reflect on things independently, and not succumb to the pressures of society?” He spoke also of “a sense of academic excellence, by which I mean learning for its own sake.” But most important, he felt,is the “sense of enquiry that goes on throughout the school,” and related to that the acceptance by everyone there that “it is central to Brockwood ’s educational philosophy and the concerns that K raised that there is no psychological authority there. At the same time, freedom doesn’t mean doing what one likes, freedom goes with responsibility.”

The second person interviewed was a former Brockwood student from France, now studying for a degree in the USA. Lionel Claris went to Brockwood at 16 and stayed for 4 years. He felt that he was possibly unusual in that he was very interested in K’s teachings before going to the school. This led us into a discussion on what constitutes a suitable basis for a student to attend Brock- wood, assuming that they haven’t already developed an interest in K them- selves: “what you would look for is a certain open-mindedness and an interest in living differently, and to question ...,an interest in not only going with the flow, doing what everyone else is doing ...and in relationship — what it means to live well with another human being.” And on the subject of why Brockwood is a good place for such a student: “the staff see that you are interested in seeing who they are and that they ’re giving you space, and that space is the same thing as confidence, security ...you can’t summarise Brockwood in a few words, but there is this feeling from person to person that there is actually some care, some interest, some shared curiosity.”

The above comments should be read in conjunction with those of a senior Brockwood staff member, Toon Zweers, concerning pastoral care at the school. The feeling of sensitivity evident here relates naturally to Gopal’s and Lionel ’s impressions of the place.

To round out the package,there are extracts from two recent articles: firstly, by Javier Gómez Rodríguez for the German Committee’s newsletter providing a synopsis of the philosophical base for a Krishnamurti education; and secondly, by Bill Taylor, Administrative Director of Brockwood Park School, detailing how the school presently attempts to achieve those aims. It is our hope as editors that, by reading all these pieces, the reader will have a fairly complete picture of the jigsaw that is Brockwood and even feel, perhaps,that he/she may be able to support it henceforward, not necessarily financially although that would certainly be very helpful right now, but in whatever way is feasible, even if that is just in spirit. That, too, has meaning for the place.