Tom Symons: A Canadian Life

Chapter 11: Peace and International Understanding through Education: Tom Symons and the United World Colleges

Peace and International Understanding through Education: Tom Symons and the United World Colleges RALPH HEINTZMAN T om Symons’s role in the Association of Commonwealth Universities—including as honorary treasurer from 1974 to 1988—was paralleled and complemented by his growing involvement in another international movement: the United World Colleges (UWC). There was often a good deal of overlap between his roles in these two organizations. And because he was actively involved with both of them, he was often able to draw on the ideas, networks, and relationships of one to respond to challenges the other was also facing.1 Symons had already been following the development of Atlantic College in Wales, which was the mother college of the later UWC system, and he was excited about this new educational venture from the start. He thought the international concept that was being developed there—creative, dynamic internationalism at the senior secondary and junior university level—was immensely promising. Atlantic College had pioneered an approach to secondary education that was profoundly international: not just taking international courses, or studying international affairs, or mixing in a few students from various parts of the world, but a college with an international mix both of faculty and of students; and international in its curriculum, as it adopted what was then emerging as the International Baccalaureate (IB), a standard Symons himself had helped to develop. The UWC educational philosophy also emphasized C H A P T E R 1 1 240 TOM SYMONS: A CAnAdiAn Life the ideal of service to local communities, a driving force in Symons’s own life. So it was natural and perhaps inevitable that Symons should become involved from the start with the movement to establish the second United World College in Canada. There was already another college in Singapore, but it had not been created specifically as a UWC and had only later been brought into association with the UWC movement, eventually becoming a full UWC college. The Canadian college was to be the second UWC established expressly for that purpose, with the UWC educational philosophy as its driving force from the beginning. Establishing a Canadian UWC would also help to extend the international spirit underlying the UWC approach, making the Canadian college another important step toward developing a genuine international network of UWC colleges in a variety of locations and cultures around the world. Symons was also attracted by the proposal to name the Canadian college in honour of Canada’s former prime minister, Lester Pearson, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. He was a strong admirer of Pearson, whom he considered an outstanding international statesman, a great commonwealth man, a great Canadian, and a “very, very special person.” So he thought it entirely fitting that the new college should become a national memorial to Canada’s “most remarkable international figure.” There were also circumstantial reasons for his involvement. One of the moving spirits behind the establishment of what was to become Pearson College was Jack Matthews, then the head of Lakefield College School, located just north of Peterborough and Trent University. Later to become the first head of Pearson College, Matthews had been a strong supporter of the establishment of Trent University while at Lakefield. As Trent’s first president, Symons had become a member of the Lakefield board, and a friend and admirer of Matthews. So when Matthews and others began to draw together potential support for establishing a Canadian UWC, it was natural that they should turn to Symons. Following an initial informal meeting in Toronto in 1972, Senator John Nicol and Major General George Kitching formally PEACE AND INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING THROUGH EDUCATION 241 invited Symons to join the Canadian National Committee working to establish a Canadian UWC. Symons not only accepted but soon became chair of the Foundations Committee for the fundraising effort, enrolling canvassers and approaching numerous Canadian and US foundations. One of the focuses of his fundraising efforts was to endow scholarships for a college that was to be entirely self-funded, with no tuition fees, so there would be no financial barriers to excellence or to international students from less developed countries. By October 1973, Symons was already receiving praise for the “extremely well organized program” he was carrying out in his fundraising role.2 By 1976, the fundraising campaign and the work of the National Committee had made Pearson College a reality. Symons was elected to the board...