Welcome back! I’m trusting that the break was fabulous … albeit perhaps a little too short.
Most of my break was awesome, but it wasn’t without setback. You see, I lost my wedding ring … at the MCG on Day 4 of the Boxing Day Test Match.
It’s something I’ve worn every day for the almost 28 years that Anthea and I have been hitched.
All I can deduce is that I’ve pulled my hand out of my pocket too quickly and it’s fallen off. By the time I realised the ring was gone, it was too late.
I was super nervous about telling Anthea too. I felt like the ring was significant and that she might take it that I was careless or flippant with this symbol of our deep and abiding love.
I needn’t have worried.
She pretty much ambled by the news with a casual, “That’s a shame. We’ll have to get you a new one.”
Anthea seemed to know better than I that it isn’t the ring that underpins our relationship. The ring was just a symbol of something that matters far more – how we treat each other.
There are morals in this story for us in schools too. Try these on as you think about 2024’s possibilities:
- Bestowing your school the value of ‘respect’ is just a symbol. On its own, it doesn’t actually mean that people will be more respectful.
- Handing out symbolic certificates for ‘responsibility’ doesn’t help young people become more responsible.Making personal responsibility easy and habitualised at school is far more effective.
- Winning team or house points for ‘honesty’ doesn’t instill in anyone a care for being truthful and trustworthy any better than it fuels a bloodlust for victory over others.
It’s easy to be sucked into meaningless symbolic representations in schools. They’re literally everywhere in society these days. Just don’t fall symbolism over substance.
It’s the substance that lasts the test of time … even when the symbol falls off at the cricket.
Keep fighting that good fight,
PS. On the first of January the price of a Real Schools Partnership went up (been over three years so we were due). However, anyone who enquires and sets up a meeting by the end of Jan can still get in at last year’s price. So, if you’ve been considering working with us, now would be a smart time to hit reply and say “let’s chat about partnership”. We’ll take care of the rest.
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