The Blog

2020-

2020-12-06 e
YOU CAN'T SAY THAT (latest news about 2020-11-29 g)
"So a video about masculinity led to a butch stand-off. "

If the backlash builds, head and provost could fall from grace together

If Will Knowland's refusal to take down a video about masculinity is deemed gross misconduct, he becomes a martyr to hundreds of boys

It was my lot as an Eton master to organise ‘Speeches’ for the Head and the Provost. One summer, the boys performed the Blackadder trial where General Melchett serves as witness and judge, testifying tearfully then passing sentence.

Much as Provost Waldegrave chortled then, in last Sunday’s Mail he took the Melchett-like step of assuring the world that Will Knowland, a teacher recently sacked by the Head, was guilty. The Eton community thought he’d be chairing Knowland’s appeal hearing next week, so the early verdict was a surprise. It was less surprising when Waldegrave withdrew from the hearing on legal advice.

The outcome will undermine Eton’s Head and Provost whichever way it goes. Knowland, with heavyweight support from two Harvard professors, has won key intellectual arguments. If his refusal to take down a video lecture about masculinity is deemed gross misconduct, he becomes a martyr to hundreds of boys, thousands of OEs and millions of random bloggers. If the dismissal is overturned, Eton’s leadership teeters on the edge of farce.

Yet Simon Henderson, in his sixth year as Head, is less “woke” loon than idealist. Passionate about inequality, he has pushed the diversity and scale of bursary pupils, most recently through his ‘2020 Vision’ initiative. He is also alert to the regulatory frameworks which oblige schools to be ideologically ‘safe’ for pupils and scrupulously considerate to employees.

Henderson has always prioritised pupil safety and previously sacked a male beak for alleged gender insensitivity. So when a female colleague protested that Knowland’s content was misleading and offensive (it asserted that a world without men would inconvenience women), Henderson was chivalrously appalled.

This was a mistake. By instructing Knowland to withdraw his lecture, he undermined the principle of controversy behind the ‘Perspectives’ (geddit?) course. Knowland dug in and secured the higher ground.

Tony Little, Henderson’s pragmatic predecessor, saw nothing in black and white and rarely issued ultimatums. Most heads would have nudged both parties towards greyer ground. (Privately, Knowland insists he could have refashioned his arguments had he received an explanation, not an order.)

So a video about masculinity led to a butch stand-off.

Knowland is as alpha as they come: he bench presses 400 pounds while reading Coriolanus. Henderson, if less intimidating in person, certainly has a puritan edge: whenever he sacks someone, and he has sacked some exceptional teachers, it feels like a purge.

Yet Knowland’s lecture is less controversial than what you can hear any week from the celebrity radicals who flock to Eton.

... One thing is certain – someone will be sacked. (read more)

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