Brockwood Park School: Mature Student Program

I find myself to be completely disconnected from my old life back in California. There are times that I want to talk to friends and family members back home, but I just do not know what I might say to them. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I am in a new place doing a new thing for reasons which I cannot fully explain and really do not enjoy explaining. I do feel quite guilty for being so disconnected from all my family and friends.

For those of you who do not know, I am in England attending a school called Brockwood Park. I am what is known as a Mature Student at the school. I have written an article for the school newspaper trying to detail exactly what a Mature Student really is. This will help to explain what I am doing here and perhaps why I have chosen to come.

Here is the article:

What are the Mature Students?
At Brockwood Park School, any permanent resident is given the title of Staff, Student or Mature Student. The role of Staff and Student is relatively straightforward as their titles' seemingly suggest what their purpose, goals and activities might entail. But what exactly is this person who is called a Mature Student? What does a Mature Student do? Why are they there? What do they provide and/or gain from the educational institution of Brockwood Park School? In order to convey the role of a Mature Student at Brockwood I must first give the context in which we all live.

What is now called Brockwood Park School was once a plantation/manor-house with supporting buildings owned by the local farming family the Mortons. In 1969 the Krishnamurti Foundation and Trust of England bought the buildings along with 40 acres of land and converted it to school use. Located in the county of Hampshire, England, Brockwood is a boarding school set in the countryside surrounded by fields, trees, rabbits, sheep and alike. During term time, the school is filled to its current maximum capacity with about 65 Students ranging in age from 14 to 19, and originating from about 25 different countries. The majority of Staff that teach at Brockwood, live at Brockwood along with the Students and Mature Students. Staff take on not only the role of teacher/educator, but the role of parent as well. Their duty is to raise a healthy individual with a mind and body capable of meeting life's daily challenges in a manner that does not restrict the natural ebb and flow of life, but rather compliment it.

The primary goal of the school, originally laid down by the founder, J. Krishnamurti, is to educate individuals to question all aspects of daily life; to not accept what others say is truth, but to discover for one's self what truth really is. The idea being that an individual who can perceive life as it is will be capable of living with no internal conflict concerning what one is and what one believes one should be. However, the manner in which this education is to be carried out is not written down in any manual or text that Staff can follow and abide by. Instead, it is left open for interpretation, discussion and attempted implementation. Additionally, the school is physically rooted in a society that demands it conform to certain rules laid down by government and, if a Student is University bound, by the strict entry requirements mandated from said bodies. These facts combine to create a very difficult task for the Staff members of Brockwood who try to balance their educational style with the realities of higher education and a form of education heavily emphasised by founder Krishnamurti. Staff members constantly find themselves stuck in the grey area between educating a student to fit into society as it stands and educating the student to create a new society born of the ideas stressed by Krishnamurti.

This different approach to education, and indeed to life itself, attracts people of all ages, experience, education and background. Krishnamurti's intention was not to educate only young students at Brockwood Park School. Rather, he viewed education as an on-going process that never stops no matter what age a person is. Thus born out of these ideas is what would become the present day Mature Student Program. Though not a firm rule, in general, the Mature Students are between the ages of 21 to 28 years old. There have been Mature Students older than 28 and there have been Staff hired younger than 28. Mature Students were originally termed "Open University Students", indicating that this was a program for individuals of a certain age who have already passed through their mandatory education and are choosing to continue their academic pursuits in the physical and religious realm of Brockwood Park School. At some point, this title was dropped and was replaced with the Mature Student title. Whether or not the original intention was to have Open University Students enrolled in a sort of external academic program while attending Brockwood is unclear. What I can tell you is that this is certainly not the case today. There is no pressure from Staff upon the Mature Students to pursue any kind of academic achievement. What then are the Mature Students expected to do if not study some kind of academics? After all, the term student seems to indicate some form of intentional learning goals.

There are a few things that the Mature Students are expected to do while living at Brockwood. Seemingly the most important practical role is the physical work that aides in the daily functioning of the school. Unlike the younger Students, Mature Students do not pay tuition to live at Brockwood. Instead, they work 20 hours a week which pays for their room and board. There is a lot of work to be done in the school, but usually a Mature Student will perform a job on any given workday in either the Kitchen, Vegetable Garden, Grounds, Maintenance, Housekeeping, Primary School Inwoods, Krishnamurti Center or Krishnamurti Foundation. Through the work, Mature Students are learning practical skills and knowledge from the job they are assigned to perform. The school does make an effort to allow each Mature Student to perform the job or jobs he/she is most interested in. Besides the work, it is expected that the Mature Students have, at the very least, a casual interest in the teachings of Krishnamurti and that they try to incorporate these teachings into their daily lives and relationships. Finally, it is stressed that the Students of Brockwood may look to the Mature Students as role models of sorts; Students may come and seek advice or help in personal matters. Mature Students fill the age gap that normally exists in traditional schools where perhaps the oldest student is 18 and the youngest teacher is in their mid to late 20s. Thus Brockwood exhibits a natural age range within its confines. Additionally, most Mature Students are not in an authority role over the Students which may make it easier for the two groups to form connections. Mature Students are therefore encouraged to develop healthy interpersonal relationships with Students provided the relations do not turn romantic in nature. Mature Students are then accepted or denied enrollment in the school on the grounds of their willingness and ability to work at and for the school, their interest in Krishnamurti, and on their ability to form and keep healthy relationships with all other members of the school. Besides these three points, after acceptance into the school, Mature Students are left to do what they please with their free time provided they do so within the boundaries of the law and the guidelines of Brockwood.

From a practical point of view, the Mature Students are essential to the operation of the school. Brockwood is always running under a very tight budget. There are jobs that need to get done and if there were no Mature Students to perform these jobs, it would mean paying someone to do it at the expense of the already heavily stretched school budget. So in this way, the Mature Students are needed by the school and are at times viewed simply as practical help by Staff and Students, and not much else. The typical Mature Student works five days a week for four hours at a time. This gives them plenty of time, even during their days of work, to do other activities of their choosing. They can opt to attend classes offered to Students provided the instructor allows them and it does not conflict with their work schedule. If a Mature Student is versed in an area or areas of study, they can choose to offer classes. Finding new staff to teach at Brockwood is a constant challenge. There are always new Staff coming and going and it is a welcome treat for the school if a Mature Student is willing and able to teach a class or two. Teaching will replace their normal work duty as long as it is under 20 weekly hours worth of work, however, preparation time for classes is not a factor in this calculation. Mature Students that do teach find themselves with much less free time compared to Mature Students that perform typical work duties for the school. So it should be clear now what the Mature Students are offering to the school. They have become essential and mandatory parts of the operation of the school. They fill the natural age gap which would exist if not for their presence which also adds a sense of completeness and wholeness to the family of Brockwood. They perform necessary tasks which the school has come to rely upon, including teaching. However, all this having been said, this does not explain why a Mature Student would come to Brockwood. Why have they chosen to attend Brockwood?

Every individual Mature Student has his/her personal reasons for choosing to come to Brockwood Park School. In general, however, I have personally observed that most Mature Students are in a search for something. What that particular something is may be different from individual to individual, but there does seem to exist a quality of trying to find answers to any number of life's questions. I do not wish to attempt to speak for all Mature Students and give a general, all-encompassing answer as to what we are all doing at Brockwood and why. I can only speak for myself.

When I am asked why I chose to come to Brockwood as a Mature Student, I tend to stare at the questioner with what I believe to be a confused face. It has been very difficult for me to convey my decision to come because no explanation could ever fully describe the reasons, feelings and intuition that accompanied this choice in my life. When I was about 13 years old, there began a feeling and sense of emptiness and incompleteness that existed in the fabric of my every day life and activity. I interpreted this feeling as a lack of happiness and satisfaction with life. Acting under this belief, I was forced to ask, if I am not happy what must I do to become happy? The next logical step after this thought was a move in the direction of pleasure. Pleasure and happiness seem to coincide together in the general thought of Western society. It seemed though that no matter what I did in this endless pursuit of pleasure, the feeling of emptiness persisted. This feeling did not change after I graduated from school and got a job. I was forced to ask myself, why? Why was I unhappy? I told myself that I had so many good things in my life; there are people that love me, I have a job that pays a lot of money, and I live in a country that allows me relative free movement and experience. The rest of the world should be so lucky, I thought, however I was still dissatisfied constantly. I quit my job and I left the country to travel the world thinking that if I leave everything I know and have grown secure in, then perhaps I will find something different and new...perhaps even something I was missing and failing to understand. I found that I did not leave my troubles behind when I left the country, rather I took them with me. I was forced to realize my troubles were within me and and not without me. It was during this period of travel that I was introduced to the writings and talks of Krishnamurti and to the existence of the Mature Student program at Brockwood. His words spoke about this feeling of emptiness and incompleteness. There seemed to be something of great value and importance in what Krishnamurti talked about. I arranged to have a perspective week at Brockwood. It was during this week that I had a moment in which I felt that it would be important in my life journey if I chose to come. If I had to give this feeling a name, I would call it a gut feeling or extra sensory perception. It was this feeling, much more so then any thought or idea, which persuaded me to come to Brockwood.

For me, Brockwood is a physical place where I am allowed the space and the time to explore myself fully, to be open and honest not only with those around me, but more importantly with myself. If I am to truly understand this feeling of emptiness it is essential that I explore myself without the need to change who I am in order to conform to what I believe others wish me to be. Brockwood is a place which tries to allow for this type of an environment to exist. I find myself surrounded by people who, at the very least, are receptive to the journey I am on if not able to completely understand and sympathise with my feelings and thoughts on the matter. Yet even with all of that said, I still have a feeling of emptiness and so I push on in my journey and continue my presence at Brockwood Park School.

Every Mature Student is present at Brockwood for their own personal reasons, but they are all gaining something from the school, be it simply practical experience from their work or something deeper and more difficult to explain. They provide an invaluable service and help to make Brockwood a complete and well-rounded institution. They are both teachers and students, but have the luxury of not being identified and categorized into either role. They are free to live life at Brockwood as please, only involving themselves in what personally interests them...as long as they have done their work.

Daniel Burgess
Mature Student '09-'10
Brockwood Park School