Friedrich Nietzsche once wrote, “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” It’s the kind of quote you nod along with at first, and then days later it’s still ringing in your ears.
That’s where I’m at.
Because let’s be honest – things are tough in many schools right now. The noise is getting louder. The demands heavier. And the fear? It’s showing up in strange places.
Messages from leaders of both Catholic and State education in Victoria in The Age last week are starting to carry a scent of panic.
These don’t sound like calls to courage. They sound like calls to arms. To adopt oppositional attitudes to our students by “reclaiming classrooms”. If I’m honest, my cartoonish mental picture conjured by this article was of a warmonger urging his forces to take territory from a foe – by any force and at all costs.
It’s not only counter-productive rhetoric, I’d contend it’s just not who these good people really are at their core.
Because schools with a strong sense of why:
- Why they exist,
- Who they serve,
- What they stand for…
…can weather almost any how. Even now.
But schools that lose their why? That start trading authenticity for appeasement? They become brittle, reactive and exhausted. They stop being communities of transformation and start looking more like bureaucracies with a narrow focus on codes and operations.
This is not a call to ignore reality. It’s a call to remember purpose. To protect it fiercely. To keep modelling the very thing our students need to learn – that adversity doesn’t have to define us, and that values don’t bend just because the wind picks up.
You’re allowed to feel pressure. But don’t let it change your character.
Because the how will keep shifting. Your why? That’s permanent.
Keep fighting that good fight,
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