This Week I am Reading ... Mrs Lisa Westwood

Mrs Lisa Westwood is the Class 1 teacher at Elmfield. Lisa shares her review of Humankind by Rutger Bergman below.

I have a habit of having a few books on the go at once.

My bedtime read is always some form of fiction, often children's, that I can comfortably allow my imagination to slip into with ease; like a familiar pair of slippers. I am a serial re-reader! I think you get so much out of reading a story again. I have re-read my favourites endless times and never tire of them: Harry Potter; the Chronicles of Narnia; any of the books by Roald Dahl; Tom's Midnight Garden; The Secret Garden; and so on. Having a daughter has allowed me to revisit the nostalgic haven of picture books that I managed to salvage from my Mom's regular clearouts over the past 30 odd years: my favourite of which is "Gorilla" by Anthony Browne.

However, my current Saturday morning read is something quite different. Humankind by Rutger Bregman is a very grown up, but relentlessly optimistic, non-fiction book which, to me, reinforces my personal feeling that idealism does not automatically mean 'unrealistic' (as I have been told a number of times in my life). Bregman is a historian and writer, and his other book, which is of a similar vein, "Utopia for Realists" has been translated into thirty-two languages.

He promotes the simple idea that humans are inherently kind.

This is not the popular opinion, it would seem, amongst psychologists, behaviourists and historians. In order to convince us of this simple, but powerful fact, Bregman takes several examples and case studies throughout history, many of them very plausible and well known, in which the dark side of human nature has been painted, and unpicks them and digs deeper to expose biases and hidden truths. He is highly convincing in his efforts to shine a light on even the darkest of examples and paint them in a much brighter one.

And yet he does it effortlessly. For example, did you know there was a real life occurrence that reflects the famous novel "Lord of the Flies" and yet unlike its literary counterpart, the real events that unfolded found the young men (who were stranded on a small island together for several months) to be co-operative, good humoured, resourceful peace-keepers? They even invented a rule that whenever anybody disagreed they had to go to opposite ends of the island to cool their tempers before being brought back together to make peace. There are so many true stories, similar to this, that Bregman has sourced and researched to go into this book. It's truly fascinating and so uplifting. That particular part was one of my favourites.

It is a hopefully history, in which we can see the best in one another, learn positive lessons from the past and truly believe that we can work together to create a better future.

We can become so cynical and ground down in this busy, technological, commercial age and I feel this is one of the reasons we as staff, pupils and families of Elmfield are so dedicated to being closer to nature and want a real connection with the world and people around us. This book reflects that, but in a way that appeals to the businessman as much as the artist, the economist as much as the ecologist. Sometimes it can feel like there are so many people finding fault in the world but not enough trying to fix it.

In reading this book, one can see that we can make a difference, and that all it takes is a gentle nudge in the right direction and nearly all of us human beings will be on board with it.