My Book

Echoes of pain – A life of violence
By Stephen Harvey
  

It was after a 'quite by chance' meeting of my former primary school head teacher, at the age of thirty-five, that I realised with some degree of anger and sadness that there was something something very wrong, either with teaching as a profession, or with society as a whole.

“Your family were one of the most loving that I have ever come across in my forty years of teaching”

This single statement that would have had the vast majority of us smiling for a fortnight, had hit me with more ferocity than any blow that I had ever received in the ring or from my father. It was at that same moment that I realised the wall of silence that had surrounded my terrible and turbulent formative years in this world, would need to be shared with the very same people who had failed us so miserably in the first place. This was the teachers and social workers of this world.

It seemed almost inconceivable that a family of four children, all at the same school, could be lost in the system for the whole of their childhood.

What came from all this anguish was a collection of short stories that were written in the only way that I could ever attempt to purvey the day to day life of a childhood that was spent within the grasps of domestic violence. It was never intended to shock, it is merely a factual actual account of the emotions and strategies that I put into place to cope with insanity of my situation.

As a primary carer, teachers should have, and still should be the guardian angels to protect the vulnerable children of this world. Surely this comes before RRR grids and SAT's, or have I got this very wrong?

I now work in education as a learning mentor, which is a career that I feel is 'my calling' and hopefully the reason that I had to endure the life that I did, so that I could pass on an 'insiders perspective' of a way of life that many of us, at worst believe doesn't exist, and at best, wish that they will never encounter or have to deal with.

Hopefully after reading my book a few eyes will open just wide enough to let the light hit the retina, and to realise that this world is not just about performance and levels, but being happy.

If after reading this article the only thing you take away from it is the last sentence, then writing the book and the whole of my childhood would have been worth while. Theses words of wisdom are not my own, but borrowed from another school in Stoke on Trent, who have realised what we all should have known a long time ago.

“When children learn to be happy, they will be happy to learn”

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