There should be way more Dilworths in eN-Zed. One in every city and a few more for the areas that don’t have cities. Dilworth School provides an holistic education “for boys from good families whose circumstances may prevent them from fulfilling their full potential.” And they’ve done so for about 5000 boys already.
Yes, I know about the Royal Commission’s report about Dilworth’s evil era and surely they and everyone even remotely associated with that has learnt and made changes so that that never happens again. And it seems Dilworth already has done that.
There are more boys and families who would benefit from a free education like that offered by Dilworth based on values: respect, honesty, excellence, integrity, service and compassion. But it’s not just the boys and their families who benefit from Dilworth’s efforts, the whole of eN-Zed and all eN-Zedders do. Well-educated students become excellent citizens who don’t get drunk and abuse their families, who don’t ram-raid liquor stores, who don’t behave fraudulently in business and who don’t become crooked politicians. Well-educated students grow up to represent their families and society in world-level sports, music, arts, politics…
But here’s the thing, Dilworth isn’t ultra-special. What Dilworth does, any school can do. They teach students to be disciplined, they teach a sound curriculum, they teach values to live good lives. They have an outdoor ed. facility at Mangatāwhiri that’s used extensively to teach resilience and a love for the natural environment and how to cook up a decent feed when you’re out in the bush or down at the beach.
Dilworth, like any school, is not a collection of buildings and sports fields and tree-lined driveways. Dilworth is its people: the Board, the management, the teachers, the support staff, the past students, the current students which means Dilworth, like every school in eN-Zed is its culture.
Dilworth is an excellent school because it works. It is effective because it achieves what it aims to achieve. It takes in students, many of whom are just like almost all teenage boys – filled with energy and enthusiasm, but with little direction and few plans – and Dilworth sends out well-educated, principled young men. And of course, this is what all eN-Zed schools should do.
Dilworth costs a lot to run. So do all schools. Dilworth has a lot of money, but so does the eN-Zed’s Government due to the unlimited generosity of taxpayers. The Government spends a lot of its money on policing and justice and prisons, but imagine if eN-Zed discovered how to prevent its citizens from becoming crooks and thieves and thugs. Wait, we do know; it’s called good parenting and good schooling.
So, to the next Minister of Education… build a Dilworth in every city and in every region that doesn’t have a city. It’ll be expensive to build and even more to operate. But the money is there. The only thing missing is the common sense to take the decision.
eN-Zed 