November 30th, 2008
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
US black civil rights leader & clergyman (1929 - 1968)
* * * * *
I have collected quotations since the mid 1980s. I find some words, a phrase or poem that shines like a diamond and I would want to collect it and label it and keep it for later.
I suppose I was re-creating one of my earliest hobbies, collecting coins. But instead I wanted to collect words.
I have always kept quotations in simple exercise books, rather like the books one would use as a school pupil. I now have a couple of these private ‘diamond mines’. Every now and again, I like to uncover this collection, perhaps hold up a specimen and see if it looks different in today’s light.
Silence has been an important theme in my life, so I will choose some words on silence by Dr Martin Luther King. I first read about Dr King in Ysgol Rhydfelen school in a Religious Education class. I’ve mislaid the school diary, but I believe that subject was taken by either Mrs Morfydd Stone or Mr Gwyn Pritchard Jones (husband to Mrs Eirlys Pritchard Jones; both were Senior Teachers within Rhydfelen). That was around a quarter of a century ago.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
- Martin Luther King Jr.
US black civil rights leader & clergyman (1929 - 1968)
Read about Dr Luther King on Wikipedia here
Categories: Clywch |
Tags: 1985, coin collecting, collecting, dr martin luther king, eirlys pritchard jones, gwyn pritchard jones, hobby, mrs morfydd stone, quotations, religious education, scripture, silence, teachers, ysgol gyfun rhydfelen | No Comments
November 8th, 2008
In 2001 John Owen took his own life rather than face a criminal trial for allegations of serious criminal offences against children.
The Clywch Report documents the first serious complaint made by a member of school staff about John Owen in November 1983.
In Chapter 10, entitled ‘Early Warnings’, the Clywch Report documents an incident which happened in November 1983 as witnessed by school cook Peggy Newbury (mother to famous S4C cook Dudley).
It involved a child sitting in a state of undress on John Owen’s lap in his office in Gwent block.
Among the Senior Teaching staff at Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen school who were notified about this incident were : Eirlys Pritchard Jones and Dafydd Jones, who was the school’s new Headmaster.
This part of the Clywch Report is very interesting in my opinion.
It clearly explains to me that John Owen had a perverse interest in children at this point in his life.
Go forward eleven months, and at the Urdd Llangrannog camp site my life would be changed forever because of this perversity in John Owen’s character.
The Clywch Report notes that the November 1983 incident was “a missed opportunity for thorough investigation. Such an investigation might well have yielded sufficient information to have forestalled the considerable suffering that was to ensue.”
How do I feel reading this ?
I could not read the Clywch Report at all until the end of 2007. Such was the pain it caused merely to evoke memories from my time with John Owen and subsequent years in Rhydfelen.
Today, I feel less fear, less numbness, and less anger.
The media in Wales often publish a ‘Clywch Timeline’ - see the BBC’s example here.
Unfortunately, they try to portray John Owen as a man who only ever attacked his drama pupils.
The truth is not always as simple and unambiguous.
Writing my own history into a timeline helps me tell you my story and this story-telling affirms I exist, I have a history, I have memories, I have feelings and, I have a future.
Categories: Clywch |
Tags: 1984, 1987, anger, bbc, child abuse, clywch report, clywch timeline, dafydd jones, drama, dudley newbury, early warnings, eirlys pritchard jones, fear, feelings, future, gwent block, john owen, llangrannog, memories, numbness, peggy newbury, perversity, s4c, senior management, senior teaching staff, timeline, ysgol gyfun rhydfelen | No Comments
November 3rd, 2008
Blas cyntaf ar Rhydfelen… Cwrs Haf Rhydfelen ym mis Awst (os cofiaf yn gywir) 1982.
Un ar ddeg oeddwn i y pryd hwnnw. Dyma rhai o eiriau ‘anthem y Cwrs Haf’ :
Dyma’r gwersyll haf, yn ysgol Rhydfelen / Sbort a thywydd braf, yn ysgol Rhydfelen
Tarian ein hynafiaid oedd yr iaith Gymraeg, / Gobaith y dyfodol… dyma’r gwersyll haf.
Roeddwn i yn cysgu yn ystafell cerddoriaeth Eleri Owen ar ddiwedd y coridor ym mhloc Powys. Rwy’n cofio Roderick Morgan (bachgen o Benderyn a chyn ddisgybl Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Aberdar) yn cysgu wrth fy ymyl.
Cofiaf yr athro Mr Jeff Davies (Mathemateg) fel un o’r aelodau staff oedd yn cysgu yn yr un ystafell. Fe fenthycodd fy sach cysgu un noson ar gyfer yr Eisteddfod ac fe ddaeth yn ol yn wlyb. Mr Davies oedd fy athro mathemateg ym mis Medi fel ddisgybl yn nosbarth 1R.
Ar ddechrau’r wythnos fe cyflwynwyd aelodau dosbarth chwech oedd yn gwersylla gyda ni’r plant newydd. Yng nghornel y ffreutur bu John Owen yn cyflwyno aelodau’r chweched, un ar y tro. Am ryw rheswm, mae’r enw Richard Hughes wedi aros yn fy nghof. ‘Gog’, dyna’r gair. Mi oedd John Owen yn ceisio tynnu sylw at y ffaith roedd acen ogleddol gyda Richard.
Fe aeth trip i rywle yn ystod yr wythnos. Efallai Amgueddfa Sain Ffagan. Rwy’n cofio eistedd ar y bws ac yn siarad gyda Mrs Eirlys Pritchard Jones (gwraig i Mr Gwyn Pritchard Jones). Gofyn gormod o gwestiynau oedd Mrs Jones yn fy nhyb i. Aeth Mrs Jones i fod yn Brif Athrawes cyntaf Ysgol Gyfun y Cymmer ym 1988.
Mabolgampau neu rhywbeth debyg un dydd. Gemau yn y gym. Rwy’n cofio gwynebu Jason Fox ar fainc a chystadlu mewn gem lle oedd rhaid bwrw bachgen i’r llawr gyda gobennydd. Enillodd Jason Fox, boi enfawr. Ac hefyd fe gollais mewn ras dan ddwfr yn y pwll nofio… Paul Burdett ennillodd y ras.
Bwyd yn y ffreutur. Yn y llun (uchod) dwi’n aros i cael fy mwyd. Roedd y Trwynau Coch yn poblogaidd y pryd hwnnw, ac fe chwaraewyd traciau o’r album Rhedeg Rhag y Torpidos (Sain, 1980) yn dyddiol yn y ffreutur. Pwy all anghofio y ddefod o fwrw cyllell a ffyrc pan chwaraewyd Motorbeics o Siapan ?
Er fy mhod wedi mwynhau Cwrs Haf Rhydfelen 1982, deallaf fod sawl person arall wedi dioddef ymosodiadau a chreulondeb gan John Owen yn ystod yr wythnos.
Categories: Clywch |
Tags: 1982, 1R, amgueddfa sain ffagan, chweched dosbarth, cwrs haf, eirlys pritchard jones, eisteddfod, eleri owen, gwyn pritchard jones, jason fox, jeff davies, john owen, powys block, school camp, sixth form, swimming, swyddogion, ysgol gyfun rhydfelen, ysgol gyfun y cymmer | 2 Comments
