New Year, new term at Bradford Grammar School and one of those blogs that comes from playing back a phone recording of my morning assembly (a cringeworthy experience in the quiet of the office!). So, for those who might be interested in glimpsing a little more of life at BGS:
“On this the first day back, the theme of the week is ‘exploration’. Exploration is all about breaking new ground, pushing back boundaries; what better time than the start of New Year to explore this idea.
You might know Charles Darwin to be a famous Biologist. He is that, and more. Charles Darwin continues to be regarded as one of the most influential people who has ever lived, influencing the way in which we see the world around us and our place within it. He was a natural scientist, thinker, philosopher, a highly controversial figure for the church and faith leaders from many communities, a true explorer who not only helped to chart new coasts and territories, but also developed and mapped out new ideas about life on earth.
But, he had a big nose, apparently …
… and because of his nose, all of this very nearly didn’t happen. What a different world view we might have today if Charles Darwin’s nose had come between him and his ground-breaking, exploratory work? Okay, you lot are smart, so, perhaps, what I’m saying seems just plain daft. Unthinkable. Possibly you don’t believe me, and that’s okay as we encourage you to doubt and ask questions at BGS. So, let me explain.
Back in 1831, Captain Robert FitzRoy was making preparations for the forthcoming voyage of HMS Beagle. This was a scientific mission to explore and survey remote parts of coastal South America, before sailing across the Pacific, via New Zealand and Australia, in a circumnavigation of the globe, a huge undertaking in the days of sail. However, sea captains on long voyages lasting many years, isolated from their crew by the loneliness and weight of leadership, were known to go mad! The previous captain, two years into the preceding mission to South America had done just that. Gone mad. And shot himself. 26-year-old Captain Robert FitzRoy did not want to suffer the same fate.
Instead, before setting sail, he sought a dinner companion, and specifically a naturalist, to join him to undertake light scientific duties and engage in supper time conversation to keep the good captain from losing his mind at sea. The position would be unpaid. At the time, Charles Darwin was a struggling medical student at Edinburgh University who was known to turn green at the sight of blood and dash away from human dissection classes to be sick outside. He was a bit of a laughing stock apparently amongst some of his peers. Charles Darwin’s parents were in despair.
Reluctantly, they allowed their son, Charles, to take up a Plan B, a theology degree at Cambridge University to study religion and ethics and such like. But the young Charles Darwin did not excel here either. How can this be? Someone who is now regarded as possessing one of the greatest minds in the history of human exploration and science, one of the greatest and most influential thinkers ever, presenting at the time as a bit of a non-event at university.
It’s not hard to see why the opportunity to quite literally jump ship and onto HMS Beagle, even though the job was unpaid, was attractive. It was an opportunity to disappear and do something different. And Charles Darwin’s parents, again, reluctantly agreed.
But Charles had an enthusiasm outside of his studies. Namely: insects, beetles, natural science. Following an amateur geology field trip to Wales, another area of scholarship that genuinely excited him, Charles started to study and think deeply about the history of our planet and the life upon it. The stars, it seemed, had begun to align as HMS Beagle sailed out of Plymouth in December 1831.
Captain Robert FitzRoy was 26; naturalist and dinner guest, Charles Darwin was 22 years old. But it could all have been very different. FitzRoy, when interviewing Darwin, took exception to his face, and principally to his nose. FitzRoy was a believer in physiogamy, the notion that you could tell much about someone’s character and intelligence by the shape of their features. Remember, this was the 1830s; but you may have heard of similar ideas taking hold, with tragic consequences, much more recently.
FitzRoy did not immediately warm to Darwin, or his nose. Thankfully, his need for conversation was greater. So they sailed together, returning to England a little under six years later and the world would not be the same again. Had Darwin not been present on HMS Beagle it is unlikley that he would have ever set foot on the Galapagos Islands to observe the subtle variations in, what he sumised, was one single family of finches, each adapted to take advantage of differing island environments. In The Voyage of the Beagle, published in 1845, Darwin noted: ‘Seeing this graduation and diversity of structure in one small group of birds, one might really fancy that from an original paucity of birds in this archipelago, one species had been taken and modified for different ends’. This revelation would take hold in Darwin’s mind, later to be expressed through his ‘theory of natural selection’ and publication of ‘On the Origin of the Species’ in 1895.
What can we at BGS learn from all of this? A great deal is the answer and I’m only going to scratch that surface now.
Charles Darwin was never a failure in his young life. But he did not set the world on fire either, being sick outside the Edinburgh University medical school and ultimately packed up and off to sea for a job without pay. But the sailing of HMS Beagle was an opportunity to follow a passion – natural science. If you follow your passion you are more likely to be happy and succeed too. So, consider choices wisely and make the most of your opportunities.
Medicine wasn’t right for the young Darwin. However, he went on to change the world with ideas that he developed in his early and mid-twenties. Young people can have great impact. This phenomenon did not start with Greta Thunberg. So, get busy. Great explorers, scholars, politicians, leaders and the like tend to have their portraits painted and pictures displayed in books when they are old and crusty. But ground-breaking work is very often undertaken when folk are young. So, again, get busy. Be brave – no half-hearted efforts – especially at your young age.
There are things you can control and things you can’t. As my mate, Kingy, Cricket Coach at a school where I used to work, remains fond of saying: ‘control the controllables’. Accept that life has some random elements to it. Don’t let this stop you. Don’t fall victim to the thin notion that you are somehow weak, blown by the breezes, that life is done unto you.
You are active agents in your own lives. Step-up, ‘control the controllables’ in 2020, enjoy that challenge and, like it was for Darwin, when your break comes, you will be in a position to seize it.
And finally, as far as this assembly goes anyway, don’t worry about the size of your nose.
“If you follow your passion you are more likely to be happy and succeed too. So, consider choices wisely and make the most of your opportunities. Great explorers, scholars, politicians, leaders and the like tend to have their portraits painted and pictures displayed in books when they are old and crusty. But ground-breaking work is very often undertaken when folk are young. So, again, get busy. Be brave – no half-hearted efforts – especially at your young age.
You are active agents in your own lives. Step-up, ‘control the controllables’ in 2020, enjoy that challenge and, like it was for Darwin, when your break comes, you will be in a position to seize it.”
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