Aiglon Today magazine

The pages that follow will give a flavour of the diversity, challenge and commitment to service that we so explicitly value at Aiglon - indeed the words diversity, challenge and service are three of the five “pathways” in our guiding principles towards the fulfilment of our central educational goal: the balanced development of Mind, Body and Spirit.

As students know, I take great pleasure in challenging them (and occasionally teachers) either in private or public to show me that they know what the central tenets of our guiding principles are. A fellow Head of another school challenged me about this. “Surely there is no great merit in a child simply being able to parrot a few worthy words, most of which are abstract and possibly beyond their comprehension?”

I did not have an immediate reply. Instead I asked him what his students would reply if they were asked what the guiding principles of their school were. He paused; “if I’m honest, I’m not totally sure, and I don’t think they’d all agree!”

There are many important lessons and priorities in life that we internalise and exercise before we truly understand them; and it may be that some Aiglonians will only come to a deeper and more appreciative understanding of our guiding principles long after they leave the school. In the same way that a child may learn to that 9x9 is 81 long before this has the remotest practical significance in their life, we should not be afraid that daily encounters at a young age with abstract ideals and goals is an exercise in purposeless memorisation. And the sooner that these abstract concepts - challenge, diversity, service for example - take material form in the daily lives of students at school, the more likely they are to influence the attitudes and priorities that will shape their lives and the world of which they will become stewards.

Richard McDonald
Head Master

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