I recently watched Sir Gareth Southgate deliver his moving and emotionally intelligent 2025 Dimbleby lecture. Deliver is a good term, it was presented to us with care and thoughtfulness as though passing on something special. What an extraordinary leader he is. The main message is that young men are hurting, they are suffering from “lack of belief and resilience,” and that these are encouraged by building “identity, connection and culture.” Do listen, it is well worth it, as is the time spent mulling over his message.
Gareth didn’t define belief, but from his words I take it to mean self-belief, an inner confidence that you can achieve and contribute. Crucially, this is not just for yourself but for the various communities that young people operate within, be that a football team, school, place of work or your street. Belief doesn’t sway with the crowd or the shrill noise of social media, it is sited in the depths and feeds off inner convictions. It is knowing that everyone has a role to play, no matter how big or small that role may be, that you can be bigger and better and grow in wisdom.
Resilience is a word that is increasing in importance today, it is battling on, getting up when knocked down, keeping going no matter who stays by your side or who drops away. It is learning from failures and mistakes and not letting them define you. Although Gareth's examples kept coming back to his career in the brutal world of male football, the principles are the same for everyone. Belief in who you are and knowing you are contributing to the common good, as well as a gritty determination to keep walking on, are vital for mental and physical health, as well as for a positive society.
This week, the government announced that it will progress with the GCSE in Natural History, is this connected to Gareth’s speech? To be a good naturalist is to possess the qualities that Garth highlights.
The eco-philosopher, Thomas Berry, said that
“That the universe is a communion of subjects rather than a collection of objects.”
By that he meant that we live in a world-wide community of life, interlocking and interdependent. We are not isolated individuals; we are all in this together. To truly know and understand that in all its mind-blowing complexity help us to never feel alone. We are part of a web, and we all contribute to its existence and health. By studying our fellow travellers, we understand ourselves more, adding to a deeper understanding of what it is to be a human on a living planet.
My great hero, John Muir, saw the modern trend to isolation and removal from the web of life right back in the 19th Century. He watched as industrial people retreated into cities and lost touch with nature, the fountain of life:
“Most people are on the world, not in it — have no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them — undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone, touching but separate.”
That is a powerful description of a community that has let go of its earthy roots. I believe that by studying nature and learning once again that we are in relationship with all other living creatures, a sense of identity and community will grow.
Naturalists also learn to be resilient. It takes staying power to observe, monitor, record, notice differences and changes, be aware of shifts in the environment, and to go out in all weathers. It takes discipline and inner resolve to not allow computers to dominate. Resilience is also the lesson of wildlife. Wildlife is focussed on staying alive, inherently self-reliant, true to itself, authentic. It does its job as well as possible and is unconcerned about things that don’t matter. Another penalty ‘failure, Stuart Pearce, after his humiliation went to feed the horses.
“They don’t care what you’ve done. They just want carrots.”
Didn’t Robert the Bruce famously watch a spider keep trying to make a web until it succeeded? The human world takes perspective.
To be a good, dedicated naturalist requires us to look beyond the human and be aware of other realities, to know that the ‘other’ has value. It is also endlessly fascinating, inspiring and full of wonder. That is what I hope for this GCSE, and perhaps for an A Level and maybe even degree courses.
We live on a fabulous, incredible planet, and a GCSE is one positive way to re-engage with that reality. I am so delighted it will happen.