John Mason and the death of a principle

Kolkata: Much renowned for tenures as principal of Doon School in Dehradun and St. James School in Calcutta, John Mason, who passed away yesterday, was fierce about a certain principle. That the primary task of educationists is to excavate the goodness and not get mired in the badness.

In the 1980s, when I had the grateful opportunity to be on his watch for two years, this was a fairly unusual sentiment. As the culture was clinically harsh on failures, notably for those who were not the brightest in Science and Maths. A progressive, actually regressive, destiny card was written for such fellows as if destined to a B Grade life by default. India at that time was interested mostly in doctors, engineers and civil servants - schools usually succumbed to this destructive trap.

So much so that slots in debating, quizzing or even Scouts/Guides were debarred, via an unwritten code, for the academically insufficient. The thinking was that institutions existed to follow the painstaking national agenda of generating science graduates, to fill the glorious temples of the country conceived by wise punditry. Many I knew escaped this trap by embracing SAT but that was necessarily connected to parental means. While most others lost the invaluable ingredient of self-confidence in this journey and thus undermined the eventual destinations. 

Many from an earlier era will subscribe to this sentiment so I am even bringing it up as a valid context. While younger readers may swell in gratitude to be born at a time when society had cooled down, liberalising the thinking of education. Perhaps liberalisation in state policy was the happy conduit, leading to the cult of the MBA and eventually the opening up of diverse remunerative careers.

John Mason as Principal

John Mason was indeed a pioneer of this new age school of thought and implemented the same with much rigour in the schools he influenced. Most certainly, there was a foundation of sincere academics but clearly from an outcome point of view, grades never the ultimate shores. Extracurricular was genuinely cocurricular in spirit more than letter and talents were provoked to shine, in a well crafted meritocracy.

You may well say that these are values which every school of the day advertises with so much gusto. But that is exactly the evidence which proves my point of integrated thought leadership- a seamless continuum from worldview to action which John Mason curated way before its time. I have witnessed this pattern in St. James and Doscos of the day will surely not disagree - most certainly the Middle East institutions he later captivated would have been beneficiaries.

As a communicator, he was quite splendid on his day, which usually was every day at work. Literature was never taught but instead showered, designed to elicit love and not just earn marks. His style was quintessential English Public School, as seen in movies, while the empathy was rooted in the cultural diversities of the student base. An inclusive potpourri of multiple origins with many an inquisitive goal, each seeking a valid reason to learn.

In life as in literature, the finest legacy of a legend is the influence that lingers over time. The fine lives shaped by John Mason are indeed many and his role in their making is practised with due sincerity. As is his contribution in shaping the modern avatar of Indian schooling, sensitive yet focused. Clearly a principal whose most abiding principle is the celebration of human potential.