Sunday 11th July, 2010

Michael on Farms for City Children

Once upon a life: Michael Morpurgo

The Observer – Sunday 11th July 2010

Michael Morpurgo and his wife were determined to change the lives of inner-city children by giving them an experience they’d never forget. The poet and author recalls how they started their first kids’ farm in Devon – and how one of the visiting children inspired his greatest literary work

In a new book by Richard Stengel, Mandela’s Way: Lessons in Life, Mandela wrote in the introduction: “We are human only through the humanity of others and… if we are to accomplish anything in this world, it will in equal measure be due to the work and achievements of others.”

I did a lot of floundering about in my 20s. There was a brief spell in the army, which I think I knew was a mistake from my very first parade at Sandhurst. Square peg, round hole. At King’s College London studying for my degree, I just got by, felt defeated by philosophy, and was simply inept at literary criticism. Round peg, square hole. I taught subsequently in various schools, state and private, never really settling. I disliked intensely the politics of the classroom, but the classroom itself I thrived in and enjoyed. I was an enthusiastic teacher who relished the challenge, and found early on that I had a way of communicating with children that seemed to work, particularly when I was telling stories to them.

But I could see that so many children were simply passing through the system; their time at school was having little or no effect. Often my attempts to change the way these schools worked were frustrated. There was resentment and defensiveness all around me. I was mired in a world where I felt I didn’t belong. Disillusion and disappointment set in.

All this was in stark contrast to the home my wife Clare and I had been making for the last 10 years. We had married far too young, had children far too young, but we were somehow deeply contented. Difficulties at work though were having their effect. We had moved house far too often in those early years as I struggled to find my feet as a teacher. The disruption was taking its toll on the life of the family.

I had begun to write stories, although tentatively, and by great good fortune was published quite quickly. But the books did not do well: very few reviews, disappointing sales. I knew in my heart of hearts that the stories lacked depth, that I had not yet found my voice as a writer. It was at this lowest ebb, after a decade of floundering, that the gods, moving in mysterious ways as they do, set us on a new and purposeful course. It was through the intervention and support of good friends that we found a way to stay positive, to move out of the doldrums.

Judith and Tom Rees, old and trusted friends, first suggested we might look into finding a way to enrich the lives of inner-city children outside the classroom. The idea chimed perfectly for us. Clare and I had felt that many children we were teaching suffered from a profound poverty of experience, that school could so often be narrow and restricting for them, that their horizons needed expanding, that their lives needed to be enriched. All our instincts, and our research, too, led us to believe that time spent in the countryside, away from school and family, could only be beneficial for them…

Read the full article in The Observer here

Watch a video of Michael talking about Farms for City Children

Find out more at the Farms for City Children website

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