Published by The International Centre for Therapeutic Care
Residential child care includes regular columns from John Diamond of The Mulberry Bush School
Yesterday evening one of the young adults who lives at Mill Grove asked me how my day went, and I replied in the usual East End vernacular, “O.K.” At his request I expanded briefly: “As full, varied and rich as every day at Mill Grove”. Which led me to attempt in this article to describe … Read more
It was a strange day not only by normal standards, but also for me, in that I spent it with people whose ages spanned 100 years. Yet on reflection I realised that some of the connections between the generations could not have been closer or clearer. In the afternoon I was with Ben, who is … Read more
For months now in the UK, possibly even years, we have grown accustomed to new revelations about how celebrities like Jimmy Saville and Gary Glitter have abused children and young people. The label for what they have done is usually something sexual, from inappropriate or indecent behaviour to rape. There is revulsion at what they … Read more
In this article I want to describe the nature of two completely different, indeed antithetical cultures that affect the lives of children. Because culture is the air that children breathe, it infiltrates every aspect of their lives, their relationships, the space, the environment in which they grow up. This means that they will and must … Read more
As we enter a new year it is a time to look ahead with hope, and possibly longing. I do so having immersed myself in Jan Swafford’s biography of Beethoven, and try as I might I cannot find a way out of this enticing deep water unaided. So I will try by clutching at a … Read more
In the run up to Christmas this year I visited two members of the Mill Grove family: both of whom are in their late seventies. One was terminally ill and in a hospice, the other had suffered a series of strokes that had left him partly paralysed down the right side of his body. They … Read more
The last chapter of the book, The Growth of Love, is entitled “Villages and Compost Heaps”, and in this column I would like to come back to this theme once again. For the record I last wrote an In Residence column on the subject in June 2002 (It Takes a Village to Raise a Child). … Read more
When I began my research into residential child care at Edinburgh University in 1969 one of the pioneers whose work I discovered and cherished was Barbara Dockar-Drysdale. The place forever associated with her name is the Mulberry Bush School, Standlake, west of Oxford. For some reason, although I gone to see (and indeed stay in) … Read more
In August 2014 the extended family of Mill Grove enjoyed its 39th consecutive holiday in North Wales. Perhaps the anniversary would not have been so significant if I had not read John Buchan’s The Thirty-Nine Steps in recent months. Or perhaps this year’s stay was uniquely special. (Just for any new readers, Mill Grove is … Read more
A Scottish-flavoured batch of articles
Throwing stones has a long and chequered history. Examples that come to mind immediately include David’s heroic killing of Goliath, the throwing of stones by resistance or revolutionary movement against occupying forces, the use of stones as a method of execution, and the story of how Jesus intervened when a woman was about to be … Read more
The importance of life stories cannot be overstated. By life stories I mean the process in which a child, young person or adult tells in some consecutive or coherent age-appropriate way the narrative of their life to date. And implicit in this is the fact that someone who cares about them unconditionally has listened to … Read more