"Young‘s greatest achievement is probably the founding of the Round Square Conference in 1966 on the occasion of Hahn‘s 80th birthday. [...] He brought Hahn‘s pedagogy to the world."
Dieter Plate, former colleague, member of the Salem Board of Governors - in his memorial address for JWY, Salem, May 1st 2012 ∞
"The Heads of the first six schools to constitute the RSC met in Salem on Hahn’s 80th birthday and [...] the very first meeting of RSC took place. Who set up that meeting I wonder? J.W.Y. of course. Nobody else."
Roy McComish, founder and former head of Box Hill -
"Toast To Winthrop-Young" at the Round Square Conference, Bishop’s College, Lennoxville, Quebec 1992 ∆
2. Roy McComish: Toast to JWY
3. JWY: The Hahn Schools Conference
The Kurt Hahn Prize
To strengthen the bond between the member schools of the future association that was to be founded on Kurt Hahn’s 80th birthday, the Salem Alumni Association offered to donate a prize “in appreciation of Kurt Hahn’s lifelong contribution to education”. Together with two other Salemer alumni, Ms. Trudel Seiler-Vierling and Prof. Wolfgang Kimmig, JWY prepared the rules and criteria for the prize.
“The Kurt Hahn Prize is awarded in recognition of an exceptional act of service to others, immediate or long term, either within or without the school community. The aim is to acknowledge individual student achievement whilst furthering a lasting spirit of unity among all Round Square schools.” (Round Square)
In 1954, JWY helped organise a multiple-school reconstruction effort, following a devastating earthquake in Argostoli, Greece. He was inspired by the great positive impact this experience
had on the students and decided to continue organizing such aid projects by founding an association of schools that followed the ideas of Salem and Gordonstoun. In 1966, on the occasion
of Kurt Hahn’s 80th birthday, JWY had the Heads and Governors from seven schools that had been founded either by Kurt Hahn or his former colleagues or pupils invited to Salem
(Gordonstoun, Battisborough, Anavryta, Box Hill, The Athenian School, Louisenlund and the Atlantic College). King Constantine, governor of Anavryta and JWY's former pupil, took the Chair of this
meeting.
The first conference was held at Gordonstoun in 1967. This time, Kurt Hahn was present and protested against the association being named after him. JWY suggested that it be called the Round
Square Conference after the venue of the conference.
JWY was first appointed Honorary Secretary, and retired in 1992 as its Director.
"Jocelin Winthrop-Young introduced me to Hahn’s political and pedagogical ideas. For decades, he saw to it that these ideas remained alive in Salem and in the
other Round Square schools. He was the initiator and founder of Round Square: He first presented the idea of an association of schools in 1966 on the occasion of Kurt Hahn’s eightieth birthday.
Hahn, wary of any kind of cult of personality, initially withheld his consent, but he soon came to accept to idea, though he opposed the idea that the organization be named after him. It
was
Jocelin Winthrop-Young who at the Gordonstoun conference in 1967 suggested the name Round Square Conference.
Jocelin Winthrop-Young deserves credit for having prevailed against considerable resistance and skepticism. In 1974 I participated at the conference in Cobham
Hall; the main question at the time was whether Round Square should continue. This remained a perennial theme at many conferences. With patience, presence and good arguments
Jocelin Winthrop-Young ensured the growing acceptance of Round Square.
Today Round Square is a success story, but the beginnings were difficult. Without Jocelin Winthrop-Young the organization would not have survived.
The design of the conferences as well as the guiding principles of the organization can be tracked back to him. He may not have invented them all, but he ensures that all of
them were realized."
(Dr. Bernhard Bueb, Head of Salem (1974-2005), taken from the e-Newsletter for the Round Square community, 2008 ∆)
Top row photos, left to right:
- The current Round Square logo ∆
-
Jocelin, 2009 *
- The 1st Round Square logo by Roy McComish *º∆†
References:
* Family collection
º Kurt Hahn Archive
∞ Salem
∆ Round Square
† Gordonstoun Archive
Ω Röhrs, Hermann (1970). Kurt Hahn. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.