The Blessings and Bumps of Community

The Air Force annual fitness test included a thirty second flex hang.

We joked that if the enemy ever attacked via monkey bars - we'd be ready.

Clambering over cargo nets, crawling through concrete pipes, zipping along a flying fox, or mounting a 3 metre wall, will not fend off 21st century weaponry. Yet military training still includes obstacle courses as simple means of developing problem-solving, physical coordination, team-building, and decision-making.

"The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way." - Marcus Aurelius

Tackle the course often enough, and each obstacle transforms into a pathway. Mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual growth feed off each barrier conquered.

Obstacle courses simulate Life, albeit with risks confined to rope burn and pride.

Educate = Latin educare = 'to lead out'.

Students are compelled to work and play alongside other students. Navigating nudges, knocks, and punches of other students. Fairness and injustice. Life.

School staff hold that risky space, often against anxious parents who lack the perspective and wisdom to see past their child's tears to the lifelong lessons.

School is an obstacle course. Part programmed. Mostly unplanned. Each setback leading dependent children out into autonomous adult. A Life Simulator.

Almost.

School is a soft place to fall. If a child is going to stumble, fail, feel the sting of injustice, the punch of a bully, be wounded by words or broken promises - best do so supervised by professionals who have seen it all, and know all will be well.

One of the many vastly underestimated and under-appreciated skills of school staff is they know the balance between risk and safety. They can read and allow for the sweet spot between where each student fails to learn - and learns to fail. They know Curzon's risk profile and his capacity to overcome and grow.

Educare - to lead out.

We remove risk from school at our students' peril. As the courts have recognised and affirmed, it is not in society's interests to raise a 'greenhouse generation'. The average school lunch time has more authentic, organic, and student-led adventurous training than any excursion or simulation. All watched over by experts.

The word 'monk' is from the Latin for 'alone'. Yet monks work and pray in community. Only the most spiritually evolved monk is permitted to live as a hermit.

Parents choosing school acknowledge their child prepares for a unique life best by navigating the blessings and bumps of community. They cast a vote of confidence in the professional judgement of experts in their child's learning.

Sometimes school staff will get it wrong.

But not so fast - anxious and critical parent.

Because error and how we respond - also - is the stuff of Life.