Recently I listened to a school leader talking about what has shaped him and his leadership. He spoke of personal experiences and how that influences the way he interacts with his school community. This established his priorities and drove him to his desired outcomes. As I listened and realised that he only referred to research and theorists to make connections to his current practice. It was inspirational!
It got me thinking about my educational platform and what it is that shapes my beliefs and values in education.
My favourite teacher was Miss Takarua. She taught us at Tolaga Bay School in the 60's. We all loved her! Why? Because she believed in us all. She encouraged everyone. Now this is a class of kids that moved through the school together each year to another teacher. Only new enrollments were the the change. So as a class we had been together since we were 5. There was a stark contrast with Miss Takarua to the teacher we had the year before who berated the kids who couldn't get the maths, or couldn't read. They were constantly put down. It was a ghastly year.
One thing that Miss Takarua did everyday was to ask us about the happenings in our life. She would ask about what happened on the marae in the weekend, who went fishing, who jumped off the wharf in the holidays, who helped with docking or shearing on the farm. She was genuinely interested in all of us. So in a way as Form 2 (Year 9) kids, we didn't have "morning talks" as such, but we shared what was important for us, what was fun and community events. Everyone was included.
And there's the start and finish of all - the word included. She got us to work a lot in pairs and small groups and made sure no one was left out - especially new kids. When I look back on it now as an educator I reckon she could have written a lot of the educational textbooks we read nowadays.
What we did at school when we were kids...
