Three elements great schools have - or the earth wind and fire of education.

Dynamic Education for Turbulent Times

Three elements great schools have - or the earth wind and fire of education.

Posted by Igno van Niekerk on June 6, 2008 at 10:39pm

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Yesterday, after work, I had the pleasure of taking pictures at Grey High School in Bloemfontein. A school with a brilliant reputation, a wonderful sense of heritage and, yes, wonderful kids.
As I was wandering through the school grounds with a few kids, it struck me how confident these guys were. There was a sense of the enjoyment of a life without limitations, and I tried to dig a little deeper...
Whenever I passed kids, they would get up and greet. A kind of discipline which one does not always see at all schools. And I realized...
The foundation of confidence is discipline.
But it did not stop at that.
They were proud to do what they did, they were proud of their school, and of what the school stands for.
So these three elements left me sleepless last night....
How can we have kids who are confident but not arrogant? The Great leaders described by Jim Collins in "Good to Great".
It comes with discipline ... one of the dilemmas today is that discipline is difficult in overcrowded, understaffed schools with rigid rules for what teachers can and cannot do. I am not one for harsh punishment, but if there are no mechanisms of maintaining the boundaries of rules and regulations, discipline will never work its magic - and there will be no confidence, which will lead yet again to a lack of discipline.
So, there's a victorious cycle and a vicious cycle.
And to win, we need to look at our country, ourselves and our thoughts.
Are we still proud of who we are and where we come from? (When we have crime and xenophobia on our doorsteps)
How disciplined are we? (Are we pushing through on our dreams and ideals? Are we keeping commitments to our families, spouses and followers?)
Are we confident? Do we believe in our teaching methods, our syllabi and our own consistent growth?

If we miss one of these elements, we miss some of the foundations of what education should be about...

Raising proud, disciplined and confident pioneers, who will be the footsoldiers , fighting the battles on the frontiers to the future...

As the future is a different country.

People do things differently there.

Comment by Charles Cock on June 7, 2008 at 3:55am: Unfortunately many of our problems stem from a lack of discipline at home (as I think you imply here). We as parents also have to take responsibility and be willing to subject our kids to at least some form of discipline. If we dont we're not doing them any favours in life...

When we applied for admission for grade R at St Andrews (also in Bloemfontein) the headmaster called in every set of parents individually and laid down the school rules to us: If your kid gets caught with drugs: we call the police. Full stop. etc. Sign here. If you dont like it - this is not the school for you. It seems harsh on the surface, but it was done in a caring way.

My sisters kids are at school in Australia: they have a model of discipline where the kids at the school decide what their punishment should be - in some cases you have to admit your wrongdoing and select your own punishment: "OK Johnny - you hurt Petey - what are you going to do to make it up to him?" i.e. you have to take responsibility for your own actions. I visisted them there (including at school). Funnily enough I had exactly the same experience there: whenever I passed the kids stood up and greeted me.

I do think that we still tend to underestimate our kids in many regards...Sometimes we should learn to treat them more like adults in order for them to act like adults.

Comment by Nicole Masureik on June 7, 2008 at 7:26pm: I agee with Charles. My only reservation is that it has to be applied consistently by all staff members, otherwise it doesn't work. Just like parenting, if something is going to work, then the 'parents' have to present a united front. Therefore, I see the problem in schools as being the fact that different teachers simply do not see things the same way. I'm not sure how we get around that... and clearly these two school have... Any thoughts on how?

Comment by Igno van Niekerk on June 8, 2008 at 4:55pm: Maybe, just maybe we spend too little time on what Peter Senge calls "A SHARED VISION" at our schools.
What do you think would ask if we randomly ask teachers of the same school what their school's main purpose is? I.E. what do we want for the kids?
How many would say things like positive self image (- follow up question - how?---) or academic excellence (where's the balance).
It's actually about the essence of leadership and that means understanding what we stand for...
In our education system we find islands of excellence, and somehow they are not duplicated, wonder why?
Maybe you guys have some ideas...
And maybe it's a shared responsibility between us (parents/teachers/kids) in a country where there are more single-parent households every day, as well as absent authority figures and growing discipline problems...
Yet, I believe it starts with each one of us - even if it's just a conversation, an awareness, a commitment...