This engaging documentary follows a primary school head who uses classical thinkers to teach new ways of defusing violence This documentary about school life brought back happy memories of Nicolas Philibert’s classic Etre et Avoir from a generation ago, about a gentle teacher in rural France helping his infants understand the meaning of life. Kevin McArevey is the dynamic headteacher of Holy Cross Boys’ primary school in north Belfast, in a community once scarred by the Troubles. Mr McArevey loves Elvis, martial arts – and classical philosophy. For his nine-and 10-year-olds, he has introduced lessons with maxims from the great thinkers of Ancient Greece as talking points, and he is using these lessons as a way of learning new modes of thinking, strategies to defuse violence and head off confrontation, and it culminates with his bold plan to put up a big new mural on the streets: not the traditional icons of sectarianism, but Plato, Socrates and Aristotle. It hardly needs to be said that McArevey believes Belfast’s men of violence learned their mindset in the school playground (maybe some learned it in his own school playground) so he wants to plant something new. Continue reading...
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