On 5^th February, the church remembers the first Christian martyrs also known as the “martyrs of Japan”. Christianity was first introduced into Japan in the sixteenth century. By the end of that century, there were probably about 300,000 Christians in Japan. Alas, they were not destined to have an easy time.

Because of unrest among Japanese Christians, a decree in 1587 banned the propagation of the Christian faith in Japan.

In 1596, things got worse. A Spanish ship ran aground and its cargo of ammunition was confiscated. The ship’s pilot supposedly said that Christian missionaries were simply paving the way for Spanish military conquest. Needless to say, this confession did not go down well.

In February 1597, twenty-six Christians, both Japanese and non-, were executed in Nagasaki, becoming the first martyrs in Japan and it is this martyrdom that is commemorated on February 5^th.

In spite of these persecutions, the Roman Catholic mission continued to expand. Finally, in 1614, Shogun Ie-yasu issued the edict of persecution and ensured its implementation: churches were destroyed, foreign missionaries expelled, and Japanese Christians tortured and killed.

From this time on Christians went into hiding and were known as Kakure Kirishitan (“Hidden Christians”). The government closed the country to Roman Catholic traders as well as Christian missionaries. Contact with the West was henceforth strictly controlled and was not lifted until late in the 19^th century.

A ritual known as fumi-e was forced on Christians: they were told to step on a mental image of Christ and publicly confess that they had nothing to do with Christianity. If the person refused, they were tortured and, if that didn’t break them, killed, most notoriously, by being boiled to death in the volcanic springs of Mount Unzen. Fumi-e factors heavily into Shūsaku Endō’s 1966 historical novel Chinmoku (Silence), recently made into a film by Martin Scorsese.

In contemplating this grim story, here are some questions you might ponder yourselves:

• A question for historians: Were the Japanese shoguns right to see Christianity as a European colonial endeavour and therefore a threat to Japanese culture?
• For philosophers: Should people try to share their faith as the Christian missionaries did or should they keep it to themselves?
• Had you been a Christian then, what would you have done in the fumi-e: stepped on the image of Christ or accepted torture and death?
• If you are a Christian, do you think these martyrs were brave or foolish? Do you think God expected them to choose death?
• For all of us: In what ways today are you forced to stand up for what you believe?
• Is there a culture of conformity at HGS that forces people to be something that they are not?
• Do those of you with religious faith feel welcome to be yourselves?

The Japanese shoguns rather obviously did not have an attitude of religious tolerance. For its part, Christianity has also not always been tolerant of others’ faith. Just learn about the Spanish Inquisition, which forced Jews to accept Christianity or die.

Tolerance of diversity is good…most of the time.

Why the caveat? For me, the inter-faith effort—and principles of religious tolerance in general—should not simply be about tolerating all beliefs just because they are beliefs. Some beliefs are demonstrably bad and should not in fact be tolerated. For example, if your beliefs require that girls undergo FGM, or if they promote the othering of homosexuals or a feeling of superiority over others, or the oppression of women, then I for one, do not think that we should be blindly tolerate of them in the name of religious freedom.

We all want to promote an attitude that is open and tolerant of belief here at HGS but not without limits. There is a difference between good and bad religion and of all worldviews in general: political and ethical as well as religious.

 Peter Vardy [Good and Bad Religion] has written about the difference, as he sees it, between good religion (worthy of generous tolerance) and bad religion (which should be challenged):

• Good religion spreads its truth claims “by persuasion rather than coercion … [with an] openness to other perspectives.” None of us has all the answers.
• Good religion helps people to develop into individuals where “compassion, patience, love, pity, [and forgiveness] … are all present.”
• Bad religion is characterised by readings of sacred texts that are often “used to justify [a] lack of independent thought” and the persecution of others.
• Bad religion encourages a habit of compliance and unquestioning obedience.
• Good religion, as promoted by Muslim scholar Ibn Rushd, believes that science and philosophy are not the enemies of truth, but rather further tools for its acquisition.
• Good religion promotes equality while “bad religion tends to tolerate and foster the [often heteronormative, patriarchal] status quo.”
• Good religion challenges “accepted practice … and calls society forward beyond existing conventions.”

Both bad religion and intolerance led to the terrible treatment of people in medieval Japan and under the Spanish Inquisition And so, let us learn to accept, to learn, to be tolerant, but also to challenge bad thinking and cruel behaviour. Be kind and just as importantly, have the bravery to challenge unkindness. In other words, be tolerant but do not tolerate intolerance.

Stay well and safe.

Be kind to yourself and others.

Best wishes,

Dr Bird

Congratulations to those who participated in the demanding online Physics Challenge Competition which was held in January 2022.  All students achieved either Gold or Silver Awards.

Gold Award winners:

Aurel Axinte, Amar Aulakh, Ateeb Ilyas, Arshjeet Nagi, Timothy Lowman, Abhishek Williams, Aqib Hussain, Abdulrehman Shaker, Atharv Baghwala and Yousuf Burhani.

Silver Award winners:

Dylan Sharma, Zane Baker, Karugan Seevaratnam, Manav Talwar, Eron Beqiri, Balkaran Kahlon, Thevayan Navaratnam, Mohammed Yasin and Mohammed Jahan.

Mr Jones

On the 4th of February, twelve Year 9 students had a fantastic day out participating in an annual Physics quiz which was hosted by the prestigious University of Birmingham in their most prized building – the Great Hall. The university also organised a campus tour which enabled us to appreciate the university’s wonderful site and academic life. We offer a huge ‘thank you’ to the university and the organiser Mohammed Ansar who made this event possible.

Several schools took part in this competition and some of the notable ones other than our school included Camp Hill Grammar School for Boys along with other schools that are part of the King Edward Foundation.  This meant that there was fierce competition between schools and a tense atmosphere! The competition began with a word-search consisting of questions which tested our general Physics knowledge; students from each school were split into teams, each team consisting of 4 people working together.

The quiz was formed of 5 rounds (of 10 questions each) and the quizmaster was astrophysicist Dr. Rob Smith from the university.  There was also a specialist round which focused on astrophysics along with ‘spot prize’ questions which were much more difficult, including questions such as ‘How many nuclear plants are there in the World currently?’ (the answer is 459, by the way). We were also able to play our ‘Joker’ for one of the rounds that we felt confident about and this doubled the points for that round – unfortunately for our team, we failed to make the best use of it!

The first round was on waves and I believe our team did very well as the questions were mostly about the structure and types of wave. The second round asked us about kinematics and was mainly based on calculations such as speed, force, etc but in my opinion, it really was not as daunting as the subject sounded. The third round provided us with clues about something and students had to guess ‘What am I?’ – our team did well on this round.

That round was then followed by a short break and an excellent lecture on the ‘Ultra cool, seven dwarf planets’ which was delivered by Professor Amaury Triaud who discussed different planets and stars in space.

I think it is safe to say that the following round was a complete disaster for not only our team but all the other schools participating as it asked about the names of famous scientists – ‘Who am I?’ However, round 5 focused on ‘materials and particles’ in which our team performed much better.  The quiz concluded with the specialist round on astrophysics, about which students were advised to research and prepare for beforehand.

The results were then announced and it is with great delight I can say that our group (Team B) came second place, with Camp Hill Boys (Team A), the reigning champions, coming first place once again.  King’s School Worcester (Team A) came 3rd. I would like to show my gratitude to Ismaeel, Yusef and Kaelen, my team members, whose contributions made this achievement possible.

In conclusion, this trip was a great learning experience for all of us as it deepened our knowledge of the wider universe while enabling us to appreciate the importance of physics through the lecture; it was an enjoyable competition and hopefully, next year, our school will to do even better!

Ehan Taseen (9N)

For the record, 49 teams participated in the quiz.

Our three teams totalled points of 51 (Team B), 49 (Team A) and 48 (Team C) so it was very close indeed!  All of our students thus performed very well indeed on the day.

Team B: Kaelen Van Vliet, Ehan Taseen, Ismaeel Ali and Yusef Hakim

Team A: Arjun Lyall, Ali Mirza, Manveer Ballagan and Ifrad Amirul

Team C: Pavisan Chandramohan, Jedd Vergara, Hardev Manku and John Wierzbicki

Criminals come in all shapes and sizes, which is sometimes how they are caught. McArthur Wheeler was 5’6” but weighed 270 pounds when he set out to rob a Pittsburgh bank in early 1995. Yet he made no effort to conceal his body, as he was wearing the perfect disguise on his face. He strode calmly into the bank lobby, confidently ignoring security cameras, as he waved his gun at the tellers. Police quickly recovered clear footage of him and broadcast it on the evening news. The confidential tip line starting ringing minutes later. Within an hour, Mr Wheeler was in custody.

He was baffled at his arrest, but not half as confused as the Police, who didn’t understand why he kept repeating that he had “worn the juice”. It turned out that this master criminal had a cunning plan. Knowing that lemon juice worked as invisible ink, only becoming visible when held near to a heat source, Wheeler had a brainwave. He covered his face in lemon juice so that it wouldn’t be visible on security cameras. He was extremely confident of his plan, but just to be certain, he took a photo of himself beforehand on a Polaroid camera, which convinced him because it came out blank (possibly the world’s first selfie fail?). “But I wore the juice” he wailed as the cell door slammed.

McArthur Wheeler could simply have disappeared into the annals of dumb crooks, but for the work of two social psychologists from Cornell University, Justin Kruger and David Dunning. They were researching a curious phenomenon to do with self-awareness. What intrigued them about the robbery plot was why Wheeler believed with such certainty that he would be able to foil the security cameras with lemon juice on his face. He was clearly an incompetent robber, but not an unconfident one. Why was he so sure he would succeed?

It turns out; our brains are wired that way. The study ultimately demonstrated that the less competence an individual has in a specific task, the more inflated their perception of their own ability. Today, this phenomenon is known as the Dunning–Kruger effect.

It’s not absolute, you need some degree of knowledge to start with. If you never learn to drive a car, you will know that you can’t drive. However, those who do learn, but then drive badly, usually assess themselves as having much higher levels of ability than is actually the case. Conversely, research shows the very best drivers usually under-report and downplay their skill. The same is true for all aspects of human endeavour. Poor scholars think they will score higher than they do. Armchair critics believe they could coach their favourite team better than the professionals. People who consider themselves extremely funny often tell the worst jokes. Those who are supremely confident that they are the perfect spouse … you get the picture.

Actor John Cleese highlighted the Dunning-Kruger effect when he said: “If you’re very, very stupid, how can you possibly realize that you’re very, very stupid? You’d have to be relatively intelligent to realize how stupid you are.”

I share this not as some veiled comment on the intelligence of our students, who are generally extremely capable and remarkably self-aware of their academic abilities. Nor is it a subtle dig at side-line supporters who willingly share their insights into how the game should be played. Neither am I commenting upon the quality of any parent’s driving, joke-making or prowess as the perfect partner.

I like the Dunning–Kruger effect simply because it reinforces my love of humility. It has been my experience that the more competent a person is, the less they need to tell others of their ability. The very able are often quite self-deprecating. Whereas, over-confidence and arrogance often walk hand in hand. There is nothing more unattractive than someone who pushes their own barrow, especially if that barrow is empty.

Unashamedly, to students of all ages, I preach the virtues of being humble. Which should not be confused with a lack of confidence. It is possible to be modest and still be self-assured. In fact, that is an extremely endearing combination. Our best scholars, athletes, creatives and leaders let their performance do the talking.

HGS is not in the business of breeding better bank robbers, but if our students leave us with quiet confidence in their abilities and the intelligence and humility to know what they don’t know, I will be happy. Hiding your light helps nobody, but neither does shining it perpetually on your own face. Unless your face is covered in lemon juice of course!

Stay well and safe.

Be kind to yourself and others.

Best wishes,

Dr Bird

Both the Year 7 and Year 8 Athletics Teams started the season in style by claiming victory in the Level 2 Sportshall Athletics Meet (Hamstead Partnership). Against a talented field, the competition saw many individuals making their debut performances for the school. A fantastic effort by everyone involved. Their win means that both teams have qualified for the county finals on the 30^th March 2022.