I am going to return to an old and favourite topic because, ever optimistic, I want finally to persuade some ghosts to be laid to rest.
The first ghost is that many things at ICS get damaged by students who show no respect for others’ possessions. Airers of this ghost are making dramatic (and serious) accusations against children attending this school with little evidence to go on.
Certainly, some damage is done but it is nearly always accidental and of no great financial significance. Certainly, teenagers could be more careful. But puberty’s hormone cocktail just makes this a very unrealistic focus of a school wide drive. In fact, a lot of kids, and especially boys, already feel very self conscious about their increased clumsiness let alone all the visible body changes they have to undergo alone.
Occasionally there is wilful damage. For example, a wall is given an addition of a football supporters’ emblem. So is a desk. A toilet is filled with toilet paper. But the broad view reduces the height of these incidents when placed against the usual school landscape. Tellingly, very rarely is a student’s work on display defaced and this must be noted. And no, we do not tolerate even these damages and yes, we follow them up and question people in or near the scene, investing a lot of time and effort in these enquiries. And yes, the Administration makes it very clear there are consequences ready for any vandalistic act. It is just that we very rarely have to enact these consequences.
Ghost 2: 'There is a good deal of theft from students and, indeed, it is getting beyond control.' The problem with this particular ghost means that this regular theft is committed, presumably, by your children; that the upbringing you give them is ineffective; that the social education we give them is insufficient. A sub ghost, a ghostlet if you will, is that ‘Yes, but my child was lead on by those other children who really are…’ But the same arguments can be raised about parental standards of upbringing and school standards of personal development if a child cannot say, 'No!' or an adult still not sought out or some other wise solution still neither known nor attempted.
Yes, indeed, bunches of objects go missing as I have written in a previous Blog series http://nickydarlington.blogspot.com/ Keys and ipods and iphones (and normal phones and rings and earrings and wallets and watches and bracelets and necklaces and precious keepsakes and huge gangsta blouson puffjackets, and trainers and track suits and shirts and sweaters and normal jackets; these are a selection of the items reported to Sandra Downie or Mr Hall or me as having been stolen.
Slightly smaller bunches of these items lie for weeks In Lost Property and in Sandra’s ‘LostBox’ in her office. Many are located in or on or behind the lockers (we are going to move these to more frequented areas of the school). Many are found in the rooms in which the owners last had a class and turned in to the cleaners. Several are found on and under the lunch tables at 1.45. Some have been loaned out and not returned or forgotten about or loaned on to a friend of the first loanee.
Yes, and some clearly have been stolen but this is a very small percentage and one that is not higher than other, similar international schools. And that is neither defensive nor complacent, merely context creating. Solutions are clear and present, well known and much repeated to our constituents, namely you and them. Here are the Golden Rules of Property Retention that are seldom followed
Do not bring expensive and/or designer artefacts to school. They are neither wanted nor needed. This is just common sense and a question of what is appropriate.
Lock valuables away in lockers.
Buy large, solid, recommended padlocks.
Never leave something tempting in you jacket or bag and then leave these lying around.
Place valuables in the Tresor at the foot of the stairs in the Academy opposite the boys changing rooms.
Hand them in to Sandra for safekeeping.
Remember to collect these valuable items afterwards.
Go check in Lost Property.
Go check in the LostBox.
Label your clothes.
Be able to identify your phone, calculator, wallet or watch because your own clear but special sign is on it.
Report it missing (not stolen) as soon as relevant steps are taken.
If it is likely there is in the community a child tempted to steal then we must try not to put temptation its way.
New Year’s resolution? For the sake of your children’s reputations and our school’s honour, let’s give this a try.
Tuesday, 3 February 2009
Pants
Well, what is suitable? How do we know? By what do we judge? How do we cater for everyone’s cultural view? Is it just a question of aesthetics and personal predilection, fad n’ fetish, one generation reminding the other of its mortality (and dead lack of cool)? Does it actually matter?
‘What is he rabbiting on about this time?’ you may well be pardoned for thinking.
Well, somehow we accept rabbits’ behaviour in their own cultural context – we know and accept what they are like. But put humans en masse and opinion leaps to the tongue of the many as we observe what they do and what they wear to do it and air our considered opinion to anyone who has the misfortune to be nearby and not hearing impaired. We adults go broadcast then.
‘Making out’, ‘hitting on’, or ‘canoodling’, ‘snogging’ or ‘courting’ depending how far back your particular generation goes. It gave offence in the time of Chaucer and does so today. One litmus test is does what you happen to observe two humans doing make you feel uncomfortable? Another is whether what you see is appropriate in the context, here of study and learning amongst many cultures. Or again is it acceptable in our host country because if it is then what is the problem? Does the fact it is in a school that two teenagers are clearly showing affection make the difference, or any difference? Is it relevant to argue that you don’t see teachers cuddling and canoodling? This normally brings snorts of…well…hilarity and horror in more or less equal parts. Is it a relevant metaphor anyway since our upbringing and professionalism would prohibit open displays of luxurious affection on the campus?
The decision we have made in the secondary school is worth stating, for our parents and our students. If two people’s behaviour causes onlookers discomfort then it is not ok. Then one should intevene. Then I do intervene. So does Mr Hall. So does Mrs Zwart; we are in agreement. And so we try to explain exactly why and try to ignore the look of incomprehension at the irrelevance of the argument. It is a rule. So there. 'Private life has the word ‘private’ and what part of ‘private’ is causing you the problem? Break it at your peril. For the greater good. Move on.'
And then there is this extraordinary habit of boys their jeans totally below their…erm… gluteus maximus, for which they were never designed so they look plain silly. Going up stairs behind one there is a strange and unlovely view of the current underwear of choice. And when running they need one hand to keep the jeans from falling down! Ridiculous! In my day… This is a rant and I am not going there.
Did I hear one of you say, ‘Just ban it?’
‘What is he rabbiting on about this time?’ you may well be pardoned for thinking.
Well, somehow we accept rabbits’ behaviour in their own cultural context – we know and accept what they are like. But put humans en masse and opinion leaps to the tongue of the many as we observe what they do and what they wear to do it and air our considered opinion to anyone who has the misfortune to be nearby and not hearing impaired. We adults go broadcast then.
‘Making out’, ‘hitting on’, or ‘canoodling’, ‘snogging’ or ‘courting’ depending how far back your particular generation goes. It gave offence in the time of Chaucer and does so today. One litmus test is does what you happen to observe two humans doing make you feel uncomfortable? Another is whether what you see is appropriate in the context, here of study and learning amongst many cultures. Or again is it acceptable in our host country because if it is then what is the problem? Does the fact it is in a school that two teenagers are clearly showing affection make the difference, or any difference? Is it relevant to argue that you don’t see teachers cuddling and canoodling? This normally brings snorts of…well…hilarity and horror in more or less equal parts. Is it a relevant metaphor anyway since our upbringing and professionalism would prohibit open displays of luxurious affection on the campus?
The decision we have made in the secondary school is worth stating, for our parents and our students. If two people’s behaviour causes onlookers discomfort then it is not ok. Then one should intevene. Then I do intervene. So does Mr Hall. So does Mrs Zwart; we are in agreement. And so we try to explain exactly why and try to ignore the look of incomprehension at the irrelevance of the argument. It is a rule. So there. 'Private life has the word ‘private’ and what part of ‘private’ is causing you the problem? Break it at your peril. For the greater good. Move on.'
And then there is this extraordinary habit of boys their jeans totally below their…erm… gluteus maximus, for which they were never designed so they look plain silly. Going up stairs behind one there is a strange and unlovely view of the current underwear of choice. And when running they need one hand to keep the jeans from falling down! Ridiculous! In my day… This is a rant and I am not going there.
Did I hear one of you say, ‘Just ban it?’
Thursday, 6 November 2008
Snow already again yet.
Snowflakes drifted out of an unwashed grey sky and began to suffocate the familiar shapes and colours of the school playground…etc. etc.
It is time to talk about snow again the weather has hinted rather unsubtly, whilst we were still in October and on summer tyres. Snow always raises controversy the moment a child gathers some and begins to shape a sphere. At this point a polemic develops amongst the adult sections of our community as to whether snowballing is a good thing or a bad thing. There’s no room for grey between this black and this white. The kids need no such debate, of course; most head straight to the white stuff or away from it, minds already made up.
The question is whether snow is dangerous. In the past few years folks from North America have tended to answer ‘yes’ and Europeans to answer ‘no’. In Europe humankind has more or less domesticated snow and with its unique talent turned it into a money-spinner and an expensive one at that. Snow is a source of fun over here. We can turn it into heaps of sport and recreation forms. We tend not to get combination of the quantities and the vast terrain mix that produce danger. Unless we are pretty stupid or vastly unlucky getting lost in a white wilderness with consequent treacherous disorientation and hypothermia is an experience we can avoid. Off piste skiing when avalanche risk notices have been posted is the main and rather too frequent example of the stupid.
On the campus of ICS the real risk is of a snowball in the face which can be very nasty. So what do we do about this? We have a policy at present that allows children to throw snowballs once they enter the secondary school. But we stipulate and monitor closely certain conditions. The Field is the only permitted snowball area, so that a child who does not want a close encounter of a cold kind can roam the rest of the campus in peace (and warmth). Those who go on the Field know that there will be snowballing. Members of staff are at the edge of the Field during breaks and are ready to intervene or even close the Field if the play gets too rough. As soon as the temperature rises and the snow gets soft we lock the field and snowballing becomes but a dim memory, for this is when snow becomes icy and the resulting snowballs are too hard for friendly play. Further, ganging up on children or snow fights involving much younger kids against much older and stronger are not allowed. Nor is face washing, nor is the deliberate making of icy snowballs. If Jemima were to break one of these rules she would be sent inside for the remainder of the break with a stern warning. So you can see the teachers are busy and mostly unappreciated out there getting cold whilst protecting safety.
But wouldn’t it be easier just to ban snowballing? Yes, it would; and all body contact sports and roller blades and climbing frames and kickboards and skateboards… you see where this is leading: the elimination of outdoor education’s relevance to the IB learner profile. The ICS does not have a prohibitive philosophy or mission statement; rather it is an enabling one. So children need to have the time and space and permission and supervision to learn about fair play and safety and consideration whilst at the same time working off all that surplus energy. They need a break from lessons and classes and walls and instructions in the middle of the day. They need and deserve fun.
But this is so unfair on the girls, someone irately commented last year. Well, no, not really. Lots of girls are out there on the Field joining in. They also gather are on the perimeter egging their favoured boy to deeds of greater gallantry. Remember, too, that everywhere else is snowball free. Remember that the days of safe snowballing could recently be counted on the fingers of two hands. Finally, remember this policy is not set in concrete. The situation is discussed each year and change therefore is always possible.
It is time to talk about snow again the weather has hinted rather unsubtly, whilst we were still in October and on summer tyres. Snow always raises controversy the moment a child gathers some and begins to shape a sphere. At this point a polemic develops amongst the adult sections of our community as to whether snowballing is a good thing or a bad thing. There’s no room for grey between this black and this white. The kids need no such debate, of course; most head straight to the white stuff or away from it, minds already made up.
The question is whether snow is dangerous. In the past few years folks from North America have tended to answer ‘yes’ and Europeans to answer ‘no’. In Europe humankind has more or less domesticated snow and with its unique talent turned it into a money-spinner and an expensive one at that. Snow is a source of fun over here. We can turn it into heaps of sport and recreation forms. We tend not to get combination of the quantities and the vast terrain mix that produce danger. Unless we are pretty stupid or vastly unlucky getting lost in a white wilderness with consequent treacherous disorientation and hypothermia is an experience we can avoid. Off piste skiing when avalanche risk notices have been posted is the main and rather too frequent example of the stupid.
On the campus of ICS the real risk is of a snowball in the face which can be very nasty. So what do we do about this? We have a policy at present that allows children to throw snowballs once they enter the secondary school. But we stipulate and monitor closely certain conditions. The Field is the only permitted snowball area, so that a child who does not want a close encounter of a cold kind can roam the rest of the campus in peace (and warmth). Those who go on the Field know that there will be snowballing. Members of staff are at the edge of the Field during breaks and are ready to intervene or even close the Field if the play gets too rough. As soon as the temperature rises and the snow gets soft we lock the field and snowballing becomes but a dim memory, for this is when snow becomes icy and the resulting snowballs are too hard for friendly play. Further, ganging up on children or snow fights involving much younger kids against much older and stronger are not allowed. Nor is face washing, nor is the deliberate making of icy snowballs. If Jemima were to break one of these rules she would be sent inside for the remainder of the break with a stern warning. So you can see the teachers are busy and mostly unappreciated out there getting cold whilst protecting safety.
But wouldn’t it be easier just to ban snowballing? Yes, it would; and all body contact sports and roller blades and climbing frames and kickboards and skateboards… you see where this is leading: the elimination of outdoor education’s relevance to the IB learner profile. The ICS does not have a prohibitive philosophy or mission statement; rather it is an enabling one. So children need to have the time and space and permission and supervision to learn about fair play and safety and consideration whilst at the same time working off all that surplus energy. They need a break from lessons and classes and walls and instructions in the middle of the day. They need and deserve fun.
But this is so unfair on the girls, someone irately commented last year. Well, no, not really. Lots of girls are out there on the Field joining in. They also gather are on the perimeter egging their favoured boy to deeds of greater gallantry. Remember, too, that everywhere else is snowball free. Remember that the days of safe snowballing could recently be counted on the fingers of two hands. Finally, remember this policy is not set in concrete. The situation is discussed each year and change therefore is always possible.
Friday, 24 October 2008
Dean's Blog 'Cows'
(Another one for the DOZ list this week:
‘Oh, can’t I?’ said the driver as she left the car parked on the big yellow drop off signs on the tarmac and under a yellow notice…)
It was a chill, grey, late autumn mist in mid September that spread across the field as though dawn had tried and then given up on lighting the planet this morning, or at least that bit that included Wangen (ZH). There was a group of a dozen and a half cows in the near part of the field looming out of the gloomy morning mist. The cows puzzled me. Normal cows eat grass and flick their tails at the same time. Cunning that. Except when they lie down they do this all day. This seems to be the sole point of cows. These weren’t. Instead, they were standing totally, uncannily still stiffly facing a variety of directions, as though some giant child had just taken them out of his toy cupboard and placed them in a group near the fence. The scene was like the age very young children go through when they play next to rather than play with another child. These were clearly not playing. Presumably unwittingly, they reflected all the horrors of a chill, damp, early Monday morning after a wet weekend in October, which is where I was at.
However, they did get me thinking about something that happened in the Dean’s Office the previous week. A student asked to speak with me about a pending situation that this student could clearly see was most likely to spiral out of control and then cause a very difficult situation out of which this student felt climbing was no option. Reputation would be damaged and college entry threatened. Why? Because teenage patience, dignity, reputation and respect were being threatened to destruction by another student. Since student two was in a younger grade than him, student one knew he would be blamed if there was trouble. He understood the implications and reasons. And this was happening publicly and with increasing frequency. Recent history showed this student that a satisfactory remedy was not on the peer personal menu of student two as all attempts to reason had been rejected. So it was time to seek an adult’s advice. I felt thrilled, of course. Here was the perfect model of a student maturing rapidly and sufficiently proactively to obviate a poor decision. Everything we try to instil in students had been internalised. Appropriate measures had been tried. Sensible alternatives had been considered and then prioritised. One had been decided on independently. Already half a dozen boxes on the IB Learner Profile had been checked. Whichever way I examined this particular model it seemed valid.
‘Yes,’ you are saying. ‘Well, that’s good. But where do the cows come in?’ Well, hang on in there. So the student and I devised a strategy together. (Collaboration is under Communication on the IB Learner Profile). The student examined each stage and each proposal showing wisdom beyond his calendar age. Everyone had to be winners; no one need have a dented ego. Respect must be maintained. Cooperation was the target outcome. Has it worked? Well, there’s no Hollywood ending to this anecdote as it is too early to tell and there are too many behavioural variables. But so far there has been no further incident so we are both confident the tense stage is over for this student.
And the cows? Well, I was coming to them…
‘Oh, can’t I?’ said the driver as she left the car parked on the big yellow drop off signs on the tarmac and under a yellow notice…)
It was a chill, grey, late autumn mist in mid September that spread across the field as though dawn had tried and then given up on lighting the planet this morning, or at least that bit that included Wangen (ZH). There was a group of a dozen and a half cows in the near part of the field looming out of the gloomy morning mist. The cows puzzled me. Normal cows eat grass and flick their tails at the same time. Cunning that. Except when they lie down they do this all day. This seems to be the sole point of cows. These weren’t. Instead, they were standing totally, uncannily still stiffly facing a variety of directions, as though some giant child had just taken them out of his toy cupboard and placed them in a group near the fence. The scene was like the age very young children go through when they play next to rather than play with another child. These were clearly not playing. Presumably unwittingly, they reflected all the horrors of a chill, damp, early Monday morning after a wet weekend in October, which is where I was at.
However, they did get me thinking about something that happened in the Dean’s Office the previous week. A student asked to speak with me about a pending situation that this student could clearly see was most likely to spiral out of control and then cause a very difficult situation out of which this student felt climbing was no option. Reputation would be damaged and college entry threatened. Why? Because teenage patience, dignity, reputation and respect were being threatened to destruction by another student. Since student two was in a younger grade than him, student one knew he would be blamed if there was trouble. He understood the implications and reasons. And this was happening publicly and with increasing frequency. Recent history showed this student that a satisfactory remedy was not on the peer personal menu of student two as all attempts to reason had been rejected. So it was time to seek an adult’s advice. I felt thrilled, of course. Here was the perfect model of a student maturing rapidly and sufficiently proactively to obviate a poor decision. Everything we try to instil in students had been internalised. Appropriate measures had been tried. Sensible alternatives had been considered and then prioritised. One had been decided on independently. Already half a dozen boxes on the IB Learner Profile had been checked. Whichever way I examined this particular model it seemed valid.
‘Yes,’ you are saying. ‘Well, that’s good. But where do the cows come in?’ Well, hang on in there. So the student and I devised a strategy together. (Collaboration is under Communication on the IB Learner Profile). The student examined each stage and each proposal showing wisdom beyond his calendar age. Everyone had to be winners; no one need have a dented ego. Respect must be maintained. Cooperation was the target outcome. Has it worked? Well, there’s no Hollywood ending to this anecdote as it is too early to tell and there are too many behavioural variables. But so far there has been no further incident so we are both confident the tense stage is over for this student.
And the cows? Well, I was coming to them…
Dean's Blog 'The Grey Wall 2.0'
‘An unseasonably chilly rain was slicking and polishing the grey concrete etc. etc.’
Actually, the other day a twelfth grade studentess dropped into my little office in the MB. She had never been there as these students spend most of their lesson time and all of their free time in and around the DSC. ‘I don’t see why you were complaining about your view, Mr D. it’s not that bad. I mean you can see quite a large strip of grass as well as the concrete wall!’ Such positivism really cheered me up as it was clear she meant it. Mind you, she was standing up; when you sit down naturally the window sill as horizon raises itself to cover the lower part of the view and bang goes a heap of my grass. But then you see a little bit of sky, she pointed out. But the positive comment, the ‘glass half full’ attitude, had me reflecting on just this remarkable aspect of teenagers. They will fall about in class till 10.00 am, moaning about lack of sleep and the presence of acute hunger. They will allege that they had a boring evening, too, and that they have a maths test for the third week running, a science lab write-up and a humanities essay all due today, rolling their eyes the while with pantomime drama. Having been shown a suitable lack of sympathy in response, however, (‘Go to bed earlier.’ ‘This is a school, you know.’ etc. which is what they really expected in the first place) they charge off at the sight of their friends to play a noisy version of football that seems to entail kicking the ball as hard as possible over the Red Top fence and into the school drive as often as possible within the time available, part of the thrill being, presumably, whether it bounces on the roof of a car. Or they create a rugby scrum like huddle of gossiping that produces both sudden and random screams of laughter and horror, or exaggerated exclamations of total disbelief that threaten to damage the delicate workings of the adult human’s inner ear. No sign of depression, deathly fatigue or near starvation there. Their experience is limited, protected as it should be. Their experience tells them that life will improve dramatically and radically in a moment as it always has and always did.
But there are so many bunches of kids, as we know, in so many environmentally and socially impoverished places on the planet where their far too extensive, negative experience will tell them that life will not get better, that it will most probably get much worse very soon as it tends to, that help and peace and a cessation of pain or fear or hunger are not even worth considering. You know all this as well as I. (I was in Zimbabwe at the end of March for a few days. On the night the rumour spread that the government had been defeated in the elections in this township the elation and relief were infectious. Three weeks later these same joyful people were being hunted down and abused.)
ICS has an unbroken tradition of making a specific difference to the lives of communities and, through sponsorships, to specific children, since the late ‘60s. And grade 9’s programme for the recent IB MYP Areas of Interaction Activity Week continued, improved, and broadened this tradition. The focus was ‘Children at Risk’. But when this other world is introduced to our world, it is essential (and not so easy) not to produce hopeless feelings of guilt or indignation or despair in our students at the size of the situation. A careful programme of information, films, research, creative writing, pod casts and drama as well as the presentation of valid, possible and available ways to make a difference, had been prepared by the relevant staff. The timetable was flexible so that activities were lasting a morning or a day or even 48 hours. The students’ enthusiasm grew rapidly and the quality of perception in their reflections was impressive. Last week, therefore, grade 9’s location was really rather a wonderful place to be.
Actually, the other day a twelfth grade studentess dropped into my little office in the MB. She had never been there as these students spend most of their lesson time and all of their free time in and around the DSC. ‘I don’t see why you were complaining about your view, Mr D. it’s not that bad. I mean you can see quite a large strip of grass as well as the concrete wall!’ Such positivism really cheered me up as it was clear she meant it. Mind you, she was standing up; when you sit down naturally the window sill as horizon raises itself to cover the lower part of the view and bang goes a heap of my grass. But then you see a little bit of sky, she pointed out. But the positive comment, the ‘glass half full’ attitude, had me reflecting on just this remarkable aspect of teenagers. They will fall about in class till 10.00 am, moaning about lack of sleep and the presence of acute hunger. They will allege that they had a boring evening, too, and that they have a maths test for the third week running, a science lab write-up and a humanities essay all due today, rolling their eyes the while with pantomime drama. Having been shown a suitable lack of sympathy in response, however, (‘Go to bed earlier.’ ‘This is a school, you know.’ etc. which is what they really expected in the first place) they charge off at the sight of their friends to play a noisy version of football that seems to entail kicking the ball as hard as possible over the Red Top fence and into the school drive as often as possible within the time available, part of the thrill being, presumably, whether it bounces on the roof of a car. Or they create a rugby scrum like huddle of gossiping that produces both sudden and random screams of laughter and horror, or exaggerated exclamations of total disbelief that threaten to damage the delicate workings of the adult human’s inner ear. No sign of depression, deathly fatigue or near starvation there. Their experience is limited, protected as it should be. Their experience tells them that life will improve dramatically and radically in a moment as it always has and always did.
But there are so many bunches of kids, as we know, in so many environmentally and socially impoverished places on the planet where their far too extensive, negative experience will tell them that life will not get better, that it will most probably get much worse very soon as it tends to, that help and peace and a cessation of pain or fear or hunger are not even worth considering. You know all this as well as I. (I was in Zimbabwe at the end of March for a few days. On the night the rumour spread that the government had been defeated in the elections in this township the elation and relief were infectious. Three weeks later these same joyful people were being hunted down and abused.)
ICS has an unbroken tradition of making a specific difference to the lives of communities and, through sponsorships, to specific children, since the late ‘60s. And grade 9’s programme for the recent IB MYP Areas of Interaction Activity Week continued, improved, and broadened this tradition. The focus was ‘Children at Risk’. But when this other world is introduced to our world, it is essential (and not so easy) not to produce hopeless feelings of guilt or indignation or despair in our students at the size of the situation. A careful programme of information, films, research, creative writing, pod casts and drama as well as the presentation of valid, possible and available ways to make a difference, had been prepared by the relevant staff. The timetable was flexible so that activities were lasting a morning or a day or even 48 hours. The students’ enthusiasm grew rapidly and the quality of perception in their reflections was impressive. Last week, therefore, grade 9’s location was really rather a wonderful place to be.
The Accidental Death of a Boy in Morning Traffic
That morning had the signs, I guess,
The frosty light refused to grow,
The damp and cold and bitterness
Clung onto pavements white with snow.
Cars stood steaming in the cold
Impatient when the lights turned red;
Drivers occupied with phones,
Distracting children late to bed,
GPS and babies’ cries,
Radio news and texts to send,
Late appointments fixed with lies,
Enough to drive you round the bend.
A car accelerated now,
(The distant traffic lights turned green)
As focus on the phone hid how
A teenage boy in hood and jeans
Had raced his bike across the road.
He did not signal, did not look
He had no lights, no fear, no load
Of bag or books. That’s all it took,
The bike and car will occupy
Too small a space outside the school
Thus turning morning routine rides
To noise and shock and pain so cruel.
Only half awake at eight
A headstrong, happy handsome boy
A boy who knew that he was late,
Seduced by speed, the wind was joy.
That lithe, athletic boy just flew
Across the greasy tarmac, smashed
Against the hood and bounced off stone
As screams and paint and blood and bone
Spilled out to chill the startled air.
Now cars moved on, the buses too,
And no one seemed to see or care
About that scene now out of view.
Nick Darlington
The frosty light refused to grow,
The damp and cold and bitterness
Clung onto pavements white with snow.
Cars stood steaming in the cold
Impatient when the lights turned red;
Drivers occupied with phones,
Distracting children late to bed,
GPS and babies’ cries,
Radio news and texts to send,
Late appointments fixed with lies,
Enough to drive you round the bend.
A car accelerated now,
(The distant traffic lights turned green)
As focus on the phone hid how
A teenage boy in hood and jeans
Had raced his bike across the road.
He did not signal, did not look
He had no lights, no fear, no load
Of bag or books. That’s all it took,
The bike and car will occupy
Too small a space outside the school
Thus turning morning routine rides
To noise and shock and pain so cruel.
Only half awake at eight
A headstrong, happy handsome boy
A boy who knew that he was late,
Seduced by speed, the wind was joy.
That lithe, athletic boy just flew
Across the greasy tarmac, smashed
Against the hood and bounced off stone
As screams and paint and blood and bone
Spilled out to chill the startled air.
Now cars moved on, the buses too,
And no one seemed to see or care
About that scene now out of view.
Nick Darlington
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
The Grey Wall
Here we go again…a non-contact period, a blank white ‘page’ on the Microsoft Office screen and chilly, slanting rain sliding down my office window smearing my view of a soiled grey concrete wall…not much there for inspiration. And suddenly my doorway darkens with the figure of a student.
I have now been interrupted, willingly, by four different groups of students who were variously asking for information, telling me information or just coming in to say hello. Sorry, make that five as two 5th grade girls just came by, stopped to say hello, tell me about the assembly they were practising a poem recital for (they are nervous but are really doing it for their friend’s sake as she likes performing and they do not want to let her down) and ask me if I liked my job. So this topic is now what I want to write about.
ICS has always had a culture of communication between the adults and the children. As long as I can remember and that is nearly as long as Mr. Mills or Mr. Greaves can, children have felt comfortable coming up to us to chat about whatever they are enjoying or what ever is troubling them, spontaneously, openly. This is a pedagogical characteristic that is precious and cannot easily be bought, taught or acquired by attending a seminar. It would seem that the kids pass it on by doing it and therefore modelling it in front of new students or members of a group; that new teachers quickly realise it is a wonderful, essential part of the ICS style and absorb it..
As a result it is relatively rare compared to other schools in our collective experience, that a major event, a hurricane of a bad decision if I may use an unfortunately topical meteorological metaphor, strikes our ‘island’ without some advance warning. The warning is almost always accurate. The spirit of the warning is almost always the need to protect a friend from her/himself as a temptation or action or dialogue is on the brink of being enacted which would cause unfortunate reputational damage to its enactor.
No, I am not talking about kids telling tales or sneaking. This confidence sharing is altogether something far more sophisticated and valuable. I am talking about a child supporting a friend during difficult times of ‘teenagerhood’, of offering help and advice (forcefully if necessary) out of community concern, of risking damaging their relationship in the interest of helping their friend. This is altruism. And as a result a huge amount of my dean’s time is spent just listening, and then asking what it is a student wants me to do (maybe it is just to listen as good listeners seem to be a dying breed), asking what she/he had done so far, constructing an action plan, and dropping hints in the appropriate ear. What might I be doing during dean’s time in different educational culture? Well, I would be lecturing, ticking off, assigning punishment (or sanction or consequences or mandating a conversation - whichever is the current PC phrase). I would be seeing aggressive and uncooperative and sad teenagers, maybe the same old faces of repeat offenders and not really achieving much in the way of amelioration.
To end on a personal and parental note, I was so pleased that my teenage son found someone in his very strict Swiss secondary school to whom he could open up, as there are always going to be heaps of things that teens just do not want to discuss with us, their parents, right now. And be assure that ICS is full of such adults.
I have now been interrupted, willingly, by four different groups of students who were variously asking for information, telling me information or just coming in to say hello. Sorry, make that five as two 5th grade girls just came by, stopped to say hello, tell me about the assembly they were practising a poem recital for (they are nervous but are really doing it for their friend’s sake as she likes performing and they do not want to let her down) and ask me if I liked my job. So this topic is now what I want to write about.
ICS has always had a culture of communication between the adults and the children. As long as I can remember and that is nearly as long as Mr. Mills or Mr. Greaves can, children have felt comfortable coming up to us to chat about whatever they are enjoying or what ever is troubling them, spontaneously, openly. This is a pedagogical characteristic that is precious and cannot easily be bought, taught or acquired by attending a seminar. It would seem that the kids pass it on by doing it and therefore modelling it in front of new students or members of a group; that new teachers quickly realise it is a wonderful, essential part of the ICS style and absorb it..
As a result it is relatively rare compared to other schools in our collective experience, that a major event, a hurricane of a bad decision if I may use an unfortunately topical meteorological metaphor, strikes our ‘island’ without some advance warning. The warning is almost always accurate. The spirit of the warning is almost always the need to protect a friend from her/himself as a temptation or action or dialogue is on the brink of being enacted which would cause unfortunate reputational damage to its enactor.
No, I am not talking about kids telling tales or sneaking. This confidence sharing is altogether something far more sophisticated and valuable. I am talking about a child supporting a friend during difficult times of ‘teenagerhood’, of offering help and advice (forcefully if necessary) out of community concern, of risking damaging their relationship in the interest of helping their friend. This is altruism. And as a result a huge amount of my dean’s time is spent just listening, and then asking what it is a student wants me to do (maybe it is just to listen as good listeners seem to be a dying breed), asking what she/he had done so far, constructing an action plan, and dropping hints in the appropriate ear. What might I be doing during dean’s time in different educational culture? Well, I would be lecturing, ticking off, assigning punishment (or sanction or consequences or mandating a conversation - whichever is the current PC phrase). I would be seeing aggressive and uncooperative and sad teenagers, maybe the same old faces of repeat offenders and not really achieving much in the way of amelioration.
To end on a personal and parental note, I was so pleased that my teenage son found someone in his very strict Swiss secondary school to whom he could open up, as there are always going to be heaps of things that teens just do not want to discuss with us, their parents, right now. And be assure that ICS is full of such adults.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)