"My mother attended Bunce Court and I once made a radio documentary about the last-ever school reunion, so I have myself interviewed many of the same people and heard some, though by no means all, of the stories cited here. Cadbury has constructed a lively and compelling narrative, although Essinger, deeply compassionate but strait-laced and outwardly rather severe, never quite comes to life as an individual. Many of the attempts to describe the “Bunce Court spirit” are also a bit vague and idealising but perhaps the most striking is the suggestion of one former pupil that the school was animated by “a complex amalgam of humanism, the Quaker faith, liberal values and Judaism, brought together by the mind of a woman whose one purpose in life seemed to be to serve children”. Another, who came from an English school where she had just learned about the Tudors and Stuarts, was amazed by a style of teaching that was “more like a conversation” and required her to write essays on urgently topical issues such as “American isolation and imperialism”.
~ Matthew Reisz
The School That Escaped the Nazis by Deborah Cadbury – review
No comments:
Post a Comment