Humanist educationist and activist Dr James Hemming has died peacefully at the age of 98 in Kingston Hospital (25/12/07).
Humanism
James Hemming had been a member of the British Humanist Association (BHA) since its formation in 1963 and gave many years of dedicated service to the Association on its executive committee, as its President and – until his death – as a Vice President. For thirty years, from the 1960s until the 1990s, he played a major role in the BHA’s Education Committee. During the 80s and 90s he was one of the humanist representatives on the Religious Education Council of England and Wales. He was an Honorary Associate of the Rationalist Association and a Vice President of the Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association. Despite failing eyesight, he remained an active and keenly interested supporter of the BHA and its work in education well into his 90s. In July 2001 he was a signatory to a letter published in The Independent which urged the Government to reconsider its support for the expansion of state-funded religious schools.
Education
Many of Hemming’s ideas on education remain all too relevant today. In The Betrayal of Youth(1980) he criticised an education system designed mainly to produce measurable results and proposed a curriculum which would mobilise all pupils’ resources, social and affective as much as intellectual, and encourage them to see themselves as competent. He wrote that an education in which knowledge of facts had priority over everything else would leave most pupils with a sense of failure: ‘To generate failure is to kill confidence. And confidence is the vitamin of human capability.’ His contributions to education included spells as governor of St. George’s in the East Secondary Modern School in the East End , and Mayfield School , a girls’ comprehensive in Putney. He also spent some time lecturing in Africa, and wrote widely used books for schools. He was educational adviser to the World Education Fellowship and attended its international conferences also sitting on the editorial board of its journal, New Era in Education .
Moral Education
He instigated many initiatives on moral education, developing his views on this subject in books and booklets, including The Betrayal of Youth, Teach Them to Live, You and Your Adolescent, Problems of Adolescent Girls, Individual Morality, Instead of God, Religious and Moral Education, Humanity and Christianity: The Common Ground of Moral Education, Honest to Our Children, and A Humanist Approach to Moral Education . His writing style was informed by his clarity of thought and his humanity, which enabled him to communicate with an ease and freshness that made for excellent readability despite the complex topics on which he wrote. As well as education these covered, for instance, the great ultimate questions of existence, ethics, the structure of the universe and human psychology. His books were described as: ‘lively… written in a brisk firm style which matches the author’s intention to cut the cackle and address himself to common sense. He concentrates on life as it is lived.’ (Sunday Times); ‘Thoughtful and thought-provoking.’ (Evening Standard); ‘Both courageous and thoughtful.’ (Sir Julian Huxley). He was active in the work of the Campaign for Moral Education and closely involved in the formation and work of the Social Morality Council (later the Norham Foundation), serving on its Executive Committee and on the editorial board of the Journal of Moral Education up until his death.
Cooperation
His considerable success in the area of moral education was aided by his ability to work with people with a wide range of religious and humanistic beliefs who shared his concerns. He had a particular talent for being able to ‘step into another person’s shoes.’ This, together with his personal warmth, his patience and his wisdom, enabled him to engage in productive dialogue, and in this he was a pioneer of the inter-faith communication and understanding that has now become so widespread. His own progressive political interests were reflected in his membership of Common Wealth, an idealistic, left-wing political party which won several by-elections in the 1940s, and, from the 60s on, in active membership of his local Labour Party. He was also a member of the Green Alliance.
Sex, obscenity and morality
James Hemming was one of the many prominent writers and academics who appeared as witnesses for the defence in the trial of Penguin Books for publishing Lady Chatterley’s Lover.In 1978 he was among the signatories to ‘A Statement Against Blasphemy Law’ published by the Committee Against Blasphemy Law. In 1987, during the public debate on the notorious (and now repealed) ‘Section 28’, he declared homosexuality to be ‘morally acceptable as a way of life’ in a BBC2 Day to Dayprogramme. He said in that year: ‘What is necessary for children is that they should have a complete, profound understanding of the full range of human sexuality, without any special bias being put on here and there, or trying to sell one particular line or another. Let them know honestly. If we don’t tell them what the facts are through education, they will pick up distorted and garbled views from the mass media and their friends. That is the choice: whether we give children the information they need to grow up as mature citizens, or whether we deliberately seem to be withholding part of it because it’s “wicked”.’ and was also a member of the Television Research Committee, set up to investigate the impact of mass media on the moral development of young people. He was a strong advocate of sex education in schools, authoring Sex Education of School Children, which was published by the Royal Society of Health in 1971. He was a panel member for several years on BBC’s main advice programme If You Think You’ve Got Problems, and was a close friend of humanist Claire Rayner, who also took part in the programme, and was one of his successors as BHA President.
Dr James Hemming, 1909 – 2007:educationist, child psychologist, writer, activist and Humanist.