When one reads something like Ed Weick's description of Veronique . . . <<<< One of the brightest kids I ever met was a little seven year old girl in a huge slum in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She had a tremendous sense of what was going on around her, and was the most adept student of about thirty or forty in an adult (yes, adult) evening English class. I was sorely tempted to put her in my suitcase and bring her back to Canada, where she had a chance of getting a good education. The average schooling in the slum was about three years, which means that little Veronique may no longer going to school now and is on the street. While she was outstanding, there were several other bright kids in that slum as well, all probably going nowhere. >>>> . . . one really wants to blubber.
But wouldn't it be splendid to endow a school somewhere in the world for children such as Veronique? Since my wake-up call of prostate cancer last year (now probably clonked on the head for a number of years), I've been thinking about dying and who to leave my money to when the time comes. I have grandchildren but I'd also like to leave some money for education. I'm not rich -- just comfortably a little more than the average I suppose -- but aware that a relatively modest amount of money, sensibly invested, could support a small school in a country with a reliable legal/property system -- perhaps in Nepal or Afghanistan or Brazil or somewhere like that. In fact, for the last year I've been looking around in a desultory way for possible charities which specialise in small school projects of this sort. But I haven't found one yet. What rather prompts me is the origin of my own school, Bablake, founded in Coventry in 1563 for the education of the children of poor people. It was started with a relatively small amount of money (�49) as a result of an accident of trade. Here's an account of this from a history of the school by Peter Burden: <<<< Thomas Wheatley, a maker of instruments for wool combing, sent his agent John Oughton to Spain for some wedges of Toledo Steel. On his agent's return the chests were found to contain silver ingots and cochineal. Wheatley, being an honourable man and unwilling to profit by another's mistake, tried in vain to discover to whom this treasure rightly belonged. In the end he gave the proceeds of this lucky accident to founding a school. . . . >>>> The income was enough for a small property, one teacher and about two dozen children (who were boarded). But, over the years, other Coventry businessmen gave to the charity, and the school endowment grew. Thousands of poor children were educated over the centuries until the school was taken over by the state in the 1940s. (And, now that the state-education system is getting into an increasing mess, I'm hoping that Bablake will regain its independence in due course.) I'm a great believer in the accidents of life. Perhaps Ed's paragraph quoted above was another accident. Could this lead to another school? Given the brains, diligence and the *relative* affluence of FWers, such a prospect would be entirely possible. Any ideas anyone? Keith Hudson ___________________________________________________________________ Keith Hudson, General Editor, Calus <http://www.calus.org> 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________
