Eton College struggles with change in a more modern Britain
At Eton College – the boarding school in rural Britain that has educated princes and 20 prime ministers – students wear tailcoats and white ties to classes. But some have worn a vest with the symbol of Black History Month underneath.
The students still sleep in ivy-covered stone dormitories, some of which date back to the 18th century. Some of them have rainbow pride flags flying from them.
It is a boys’ school, but there is also a feminist association and International Women’s Day is celebrated.
“They’re on the right track,” said Alasdair Campbell, a 19-year-old recent college graduate.
“Terrible,” said Felix Kirkby, 21, another alumni. It destroys his reputation.”
Founded in 1440 and covering grades seven to twelve, Eton has long been a symbol of British tradition and continuity, with its campus in the shadow of Windsor Castle, its elitist idiosyncrasies and its expensive tuition.
But in a Britain more racially diverse, more open to questions of gender identity and economic inequality, and increasingly rejecting the aristocratic legacy of a white-dominated empire, Eton, too, is changing. Many students and alumni have welcomed the evolution. Some don’t. Others argue that Eton needs an even more thorough overhaul to remain relevant in Britain today.
Navigating the tightrope between past and present is Simon Henderson, who became the youngest headmaster in the school’s history eight years ago at the age of 39.
Mr Henderson, an Oxford graduate and history teacher at Eton, has expanded access to scholarships – the tuition fee is around £45,000 or $57,000 a year – and last month announced an extension of his earlier initiative to work with state schools in poorer areas in the north.
He has promoted discussions about masculinity, sexism And gender identity; celebrated Black and LGBTQ+ history months; and appointed a “director of inclusion education” to address issues surrounding race and sexuality. He fired a professor who refused to remove a video he posted on YouTube claiming patriarchy was caused in part by women’s choices because it benefits them.
Some of these moves have earned Mr. Henderson the nickname “Trendy Hendy” and criticism as an “awakened” activist, while his dismissal of the professor sparked a debate over free speech on campus.
Mr Henderson sees himself as a cautious innovator, seeking to both uphold Eton’s heritage and promote change.
“Eton is not immune to the wider society we are in,” Mr Henderson, who wore the school’s signature white bow tie and cufflinks with the coat of arms, said in a recent interview in his office.
“There are times in an institution’s path when it needs to step forward a little bit more,” he said. “And this is one of those moments.”
He dismissed allegations that he wants to dismantle the school’s traditions as a “myth,” but admitted: “I know some people may feel that the pace of change has been rapid.
Henry VI founded Eton as a school for children of the poor, but in time it became a bastion for the descendants of Britain’s rich and powerful, almost by birthright.
The Prince of Wales and his brother, Prince Harry, are alumni. George Orwell was a graduate, as was John Maynard Keynes; Percy Bysshe Shelley; and the adventurer Bear Grylls. Former Prime Minister Boris Johnson also graduated from Eton; at the age of 16 he wrote in the school magazine that all parents should send a son to Eton because it will imbue him with “the most important thing, a sense of his own importance”.
Political leaders who followed a pipeline from Eton College-Oxford University to parliament have been accused of bringing into politics the entitlement and casualness they learned there, and of being out of touch with British realities.
As late as 2011, an Eton entrance test asked prospective students to imagine themselves as Prime Minister and write a speech claiming that deploying the army against violent protesters and killing many of them was “both necessary and moral”.
In recent years, Eton has admitted more sons of international money – fewer viscounts and more investment bankers – as well as more children from less affluent families, with the number of grants growing each year. Nevertheless, at least 75 percent of students still pay full tuition fees.
The school has also become more selective and demanding academically, but in a more competitive educational environment fewer Eton students are admitted to either Oxford or Cambridge than in previous years. Mr Henderson said some were now going to Ivy League colleges in the United States instead.
Mr. Campbell, the recent graduate, said he supported Mr. Henderson’s efforts. He said the conferences on issues of race, gender and privilege were an eye-opener for him. It was time for the elitist allure of the school to disappear, he said.
“The closer Eton gets to a normal school in tradition, the more light it will have in the eyes of the public,” said Mr Campbell..
Yet even small, temporary decisions have sparked controversy.
Since 1857, Eton kept a pack of beagles to use in hare hunting. But in 2004, hare hunting became illegal in Britain. The school kept the sport alive on campus by having the students train the beagles to track an artificial animal scent and then enter matches.
Last spring, the keeper of the pack retired and the school did not immediately find a replacement. The dogs were temporarily placed off campus.
Hundreds of boys protested on campus, leading to extensive coverage in the British press. The British Conservative newspaper The Telegraph wrote that parents feared Eton’s hunting society is being “quietly trimmed out the back door by Eton’s ‘awakened’ leadership.” Some parents, the newspaper wrote, even offered to “keep the pack together on their personal estates.”
Mr Kirkby, the 21-year-old alumnus and a child of academics who went to Eton on a scholarship, said the school should maintain its quirky, aristocratic activities, such as the obligation to wear tailcoats and some of its sports.
“It’s a powerful symbol of acceptance,” he said as he sat in a café in Oxford, where he now studies. “For someone who grew up in an underprivileged environment to be able to hunt and shoot and fish.”
In his view, Mr Henderson’s approach suggests a backlash against the idea of Eton as an elite private school.
“Hendy,” he added, “prepares the grounds for the destruction of the school.”
In 2020, the school erupted when Mr. Henderson fired Will Knowland, the teacher who posted the video about patriarchy.
Some students defended the teacher, arguing that his dismissal would damage Eton’s reputation as an institution open to debate. a letter asking for his reinstatement collected thousands of signatures online; the students wrote that “the school is trying to protect its new image as politically progressive at the expense of one of its own.”
The school said it was not intended to stop the debate, but that the dismissal was a disciplinary matter, as the teacher refused to remove the video after being asked to do so. Mr Knowland did not respond to requests for an interview, but told British newspapers that freedom of expression is critical to education.
While many students said they appreciated the new sensitivity Mr. Henderson has brought to the school, some say he didn’t go far enough and express hope that the school will expand scholarships more, hire more non-white teachers , girls will admit, and scrape the tailcoat all the way off.
But Mr Henderson said there were “no plans” to admit girls or take off tailcoats. And the beagles are back on campus. Some of Eton’s traditions, he said, are “a physical, tangible connection to our past” and are “very, very valuable”..”
At the end of the semester last month, there were new students in town at Eton trying on cashmere uniform overcoats and buying color-coded socks for croquet, fencing or squash.
Caius Folkerts, 12, enthusiastically took his first pass of an Eton tailcoat.
“They don’t walk around in jeans,” said his mother, Maie Folkerts, as she photographed her son in a tailcoat. “And hopefully they never will.”