Hello!
Unfortunately, week 37’s illness continued into week 38 unabashed. The flu bug bounced between us, coughing crazily into our faces. I’m glad to write that we are now almost over it. On the upside Aberdeenshire enjoyed a late summer, so a large part of my recovery was spent either building up my strength again by walking to the harbour or sitting in the garden doing little else than snoozing.
Looking back at this time last year, when I was making strong progress with the HND Computing course at my previous job, I remember being in a good place. The work was challenging and hugely rewarding, but others in my family had a tougher time.
I am glad that I now have over twelve months of weeknotes to reflect on. However, it pained me to recall that last September my son was going through a torrid time at his (now thankfully previous) school. It was bad, and the experience knocked his attendance, attainment and made him question his worth (which you will understand was utterly heartbreaking). This toxic messaging wasn’t just coming from his peers, it was coming from professionals at the school.
Unfortunately, the school has, over time, developed a poor culture which is going to have a significant long-term impact on these students. I know this because I saw this impact on former students when I spoke with them at college. I also continue to see this negative impact through the life choices and self-esteem of former classmates of my daughter as they grow into adulthood. I don’t think the school see this, and I'm not going into greater detail, but I am sad to hear of the continued impact of the leadership failure from some of the young men and women who still attend.
I’m reading more about character building, which seems to be a happy side-effect of developing my AI & ethics-themed theory of knowledge course. Building a positive classroom culture has always been an important aspect of my work in enhancing relationships with students in any school where I taught, but I’ve never researched this topic - instead relying on my morals and paying careful attention to student voice. By chance, through visiting this blog post on Educating for Humility by Kolby Atchison, I’ve discovered an author I’m excited to read more of - David Brooks.
From reading reviews and the synopsis of The Second Mountain, I’m already psyched to dig deeper into his writing. It comes at a good time too. Since my friend Mark asked me in July what I wanted to do next, I've been trying to work it through. Career-wise, for the last fifteen years, I have been focused on moving on and up. There were a few setbacks of course. Nothing (much) that I regret mind you, because every experience is an important learning opportunity.
In July, I had no answer to Mark’s question. Retirement was an easy, if impractical, joke of a suggestion to avoid really, deeply thinking about the next step. Was this the moment when I was in the valley between the first and second mountains, without realising it? Was July 2024 the moment of “midlife crisis”? Mark would disagree I think. He has long thought that I had a midlife crisis when I packed up my family’s life and moved to Italy!
This week I’ve been watching Celebrity Race Across the World. The overarching message to viewers is that facing your fears, working together and drawing on your partner's collective experience and skills to compete and hopefully complete the challenge is an important one. The beautiful scenery as they cover thousands of kilometres helps pull in the viewers too, of course.
The places visited by the celebrities en route, Elqui Valley in particular, were awe-inspiring. I’d love to live in a place where you can just look up and see night skies as beautiful as those. The self-examination and dawning realisation of the strengths and skills of the celebrity or their race partner when in the face of adversity was also particularly appealing. Many were, like me, in the process of reassessing their life goals or purpose.
Stumbling upon David Brook’s concept of the “Second Mountain” was a stroke of luck and it resonates deeply with my current journey of purpose-seeking. I’ve never really been one to take the well-trodden route and my reflections this week remind me of the Stoic wisdom: "The obstacle is the way.".
The path ahead may be uncertain, but I'm beginning to see that it's in facing these uncertainties that we often find our true direction and purpose. Whether that is an opportunity to address systemic issues in education or something else entirely, I’m looking forward to the challenge. Have a great week!