Marland, Michael 1934–2008

(Peter Michael Marland)

OBITUARY NOTICE—

Born December 28, 1934, in London, England; died of cancer, July 3, 2008. Educator, administrator, anthologist, and author. Marland was a passionate defender of what British educators call the "comprehensive school," the secondary school open to all students, usually within a surrounding neighborhood, offering vocational and technical training in addition to certification for university admission. As the founder and headmaster of the North Westminster Community School in London from 1980 to 1999, he worked tirelessly to provide a quality education to all children, regardless of their background. He believed that education should bring people together in a common quest for academic enlightenment and that school curricula should link one subject to another within a multidisciplinary body of knowledge. He believed that teachers should be shepherds of young learners in a secular process that he called pastoral care, and he believed that teachers who could not or would not maintain control of their flocks could not hope to be good shepherds. Marland taught at various schools from 1957 to 1979. He came to Westminster with a substantial body of experience in education, but he did not limit himself to the classroom. On a national level he was active with the Commonwealth Institute Education Committee and the National Textbook Reference Library. He chaired the Association for Pastoral Care in Education and the Books in Curriculum Research Project. On a local level he worked with the Westminster Arts Council and the Westminster Race Equality Council. Marland was also a prolific writer, with more than three dozen books to his credit. His books on education include Pastoral Care: Organizing the Care and Guidance of the Individual Pupil in a Comprehensive School (1974), The Craft of the Classroom: A Survival Guide to Classroom Management in the Secondary School (1975), and The Comprehensive School: Organisation and Responsibility (1976). But, as he once told CA, Marland was proudest of his anthologies for students, wherein he made a particular effort toward a balance "in which minority groups are well featured, and the position of women properly portrayed." His anthologies include Discovering Poetry (1970) and Loves, Hopes, and Fears (1975). Marland was decorated a commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1977.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Times (London, England), July 8, 2008, p. 54.