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Archive for March, 2009
Tribes
I’ve been reading Tribes by Seth Godin. It’s great to be pushed a little to think about leading, especially in a culture that he beautifully describes as “sheep-walking”. That culture is especially prevalent in schools, in my experience, and one that is dangerously easy to slip into without realising – the clock your hours, do just enough, us-vs-them attitude that keeps the status quo. And by the way, as Dr. Horrible said “the Status is not Quo” – it’s not hard to see from inside or out that education is not working as we want it. (tanget: Joss Wheedon is totally a leader in the Tribes sense of the word!)
Education isn’t working right nationally, locally, in my school, in my classroom. There are flashes of it going well, but I’m sure a whole week can pass, even longer, when a pupil at my school is not a learner, is not engaged in the process, is not led to grow in their skill, understanding and excitement in any single lesson. The buzz from a crazy day like our video on Red Nose Day was palpable. Only a few people were cynical enough to really believe it wasn’t a great day. How can I change things so that experience happens on a daily basis in my room?
Taking a moment to think about leading is giving me a chance to explore some ideas. How can I lead that in school, at a classroom level and with my colleagues? I think L2 has given me a lot of answers for the classroom side of things. Using the accelerated learning cycle or another active learning model puts the emphasis on students to understand and get on board with real objectives. Using that approach and the pace it almost generates works across the board – IT, L2, RE, wherever. How can I lead that change in the school (paid responsibility or not…)? Suddenly a Teaching and Learning newsletter seems like a useful and valid idea to do. Not on paper, that’s backward looking; an email newsletter that I can track. That will help me to connect with the tribe that will emerge and craw them in closer to the aim.
First task – write a manifesto: what do I want to lead at school?
Ripples
Peace is a funny thing. The angels never understood why it was such a big deal, but there’s a lot of things the angels never understood. They watched God make earth from the seething waters, watched His spirit hovering over the turmoil and crafting such beauty. Oh how they sang on that day – it was amazing what He had made from the darkness. They thought that song would last for ever, but they were wrong. It was an incredible song, but they had to stop.
Turmoil crept back in. it seemed to infect humanity. The angels had thought that humanity was God’s master stroke, the piece-de-resistance in creation, but now it seemed like such a huge mistake. The turmoil spread and spread and the angels kept wondering how it could be so different there, when heaven was so… calm. They whispered to each other, wondering what God would do about it, how he could rescue peace from planet earth. So much pain, so much hatred. Angels can’t empathise or even sympathise – they just don’t feel those things, but they saw the effects and scratched their heads.
They watched, amazed as God went down to the seething waters and touched them. He became part of the turmoil and as he lived among the hurting people, he made just a little ripple. Angels don’t understand ripples, so they just watched. No more whispering for a while, they wanted to see what would happen. As Jesus’ effect was snuffed out, they started to murmor again. Was this the end of the ripple – it seemed so small and faint? It was a huge lake of humanity and only a few had even seen the ripple. God said “Shhh, just watch.”
You should have seen their mouths drop open as the ripple kept on spreading. First a handful of people were touched, a dozen here, twenty there, then more and more. As the ripple touched some of their lives, more ripples came from those drops of peace. The ripples kept spreading, round and round the lake, touching more and more people. As the angels watched the Spirit hovering, the wind from his wings gave energy to the ripples. The angels found a new song now, they got louder and louder as they saw more ripples.
This story was written for, and used in my talk at Canley called “Peace with Others”. Ripples became the extended metaphor for spreading peace through humility, and I felt that there were peace ripples through the service. I pray it helps you too.
