The doctor looked at the young man and said, “You need to get in shape, young man”, to which the young man replied, “I am in shape; round is a shape!” The story is no doubt apocryphal but the need to keep in shape is important for our health and well-being; we even speak of keeping things ‘shipshape’, in other words, keeping things neat and in order. Ships had to be kept tidy and organized.
There have been many famous ships over the years, with the most famous one ironically being the one that sunk, the “unsinkable” ‘Titanic’. Other famous ships include HMS Beagle (which carried Charles Darwin on his five-year journey of scientific discoveries), the Endeavour (the ship that Captain Cook used for his scientific exploration) as well as Endurance (that Shackleton used for his polar exploration). We might also include HMS Bounty, which was made famous for the mutiny that took place on it, when the captain and loyal staff were cast off in an open launch and had to travel thousands of kilometres to safety.
Furthermore, there are so many different types of ships from ocean cruise liners to tankers, from fishing boats to speed boats, from lifeboats to sailing boats, from tugs to rowing boats. We could also identify the many different types of naval ships, each with specific purposes; aircraft carriers to destroyers, cruisers to minesweepers, frigates to submarines. Each has a very particular significance. Let us, though, reflect further on many other different types of ship, ships that do not go on water but carry us all through life, each also with a particular significance. Think then of relationship, leadership, mentorship, citizenship, ownership, membership, headship (though interestingly there is not teachership), even hardship. These are all vital ships.
While we may well remember that ships often were prefaced by the initials SS (standing for ‘steamship’), so the SS also stood for the dreaded German Schutzstaffel in the Second World War (meaning “Protection Squadron”), the feared major paramilitary organization employed unsparingly by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party. We do well, therefore, to look at two other powerful, imposing ships that have the initials SS, with reference to much of education today – Scholarship and Sponsorship. What sort of ships are they? Are those the shape of ships we want? They are SS Danger.
Scholarships are seen to be highly attractive but hide certain dangers. There may be a degree of arrogance in offering a scholarship, in thinking that that school is better equipped than others to provide an education for a child, when it may be more for the benefit of the school than the child. Indeed, offering a scholarship can also place a lot more pressure on a child to perform well to justify the expense, when other pupils have waited long for the chance. Beware of a mutiny on the bounty!
In a similar way, Sponsorship for school sport or culture may be used for the wrong things and for the wrong reasons – after all, if something is worth sponsoring, why should we wish to promote our company; why do we not just donate the money? Sponsorship, therefore, is not simply for the benefit of the children. Indeed, much of the sponsorship may be directed towards the wrong things or not the most important things, rather to personal or business preferences. As integrity means doing the right thing right even when no-one is watching, so it could mean, with reference to sponsorship, doing the right thing right especially when no-one is watching. Should we not sponsor the sport, not a school? Beware of making a titanic mistake in trying to create the “unsinkable”.
Let us not forget, though, another SS ship that is in fact a necessary part of the fleet of education, and that is sportsmanship. That is where our focus and attention should be, more than scholarship and sponsorship. After all, in closing, consider the old story of a US Navy ship that contacts an approaching vessel on the radio and demands it change course by 15 degrees to avoid a collision. The other party refuses and tells the Navy ship to change course instead. Angered, the naval captain brags about the massive size of the carrier and its accompanying strike group of destroyers and cruisers, repeating the demand to change course or face threatening countermeasures. The other vessel calmly replies: “This is a lighthouse. Your call.” The lighthouse of education is sending out warnings to SS Danger. What shape is our ship today? Do we need to change course? Our call.
Thank you for speaking about scholarship, now I’m able to look at it in all angles.