What do P Diddy and Pheidippides have in common (apart from a certain similar ring to their names)? Some readers may have heard of neither though younger ones may recognize the former while older more scholarly (no offence) ones may remember the latter. P Diddy, as anyone can find out, is an American former rapper, record producer, record executive, and actor as well as a three-time winner (fourteen-time nominated) of Grammy awards, who is currently in prison serving a 50-month sentence for prostitution-related charges. Pheidippides, on the other hand, may have brought pleasure to many people back in ancient times when he ran from the town of Marathon to Athens (the distance of our current marathon races) to announce the Greeks’ impressive victory with the cry (almost rap-style), “Joy! We win” before falling down, dead.
As far as we are aware, Pheidippides was not a rapper or record producer or executive, nor, we guess, did he spend time in prison for prostitution-related charges, so the connection has to be that P Diddy gained much recognition when he ran the New York marathon in 2003 in a time of four hours, fourteen minutes and fifty-four seconds – without dying, it should be added. That having been said, this weekend over fifty-nine thousand runners (out of a record number of 1,133,813 applications) will be running a differenat marathon, the London marathon, be it for charity (sharing positive news too), for fun, for ambition, for pride — some even for the prize. Let them run.
We will not find running a marathon on any curriculum nor in many career presentations but there is an interesting link between the two items, which those with more knowledge of ancient history and languages will perhaps perceive, as the English words ‘career’ and ‘curriculum’ both come from Latin words that have to do with running. The curriculum is literally a running, a journey, a race for some (originally a chariot race), a pace, a means of moving forward with purpose. A career is also a journey, moving forward (though when we speak of someone careering forward, we understand it to mean it is moving uncontrollably, wildly, dangerously). A career is like a marathon, not a sprint.
In that regard therefore, a career can be defined in the words of the writer to the Hebrews in the Bible where it is written “run with perseverance the race set before us”. It is not just any old race that we run (as might be seen to be the case in ‘Forrest Gump’ where Forrest just runs and runs and runs) but the one that is planned for us. Just as some people are sprinters and others are long-distance runners, as some are hurdlers and others are hobblers, so in life we each have a different race to run. Our task is to help them find the race (career) for which they are best equipped and help them run it.
When we see people running, we might wonder if they are running away from something or someone, being scared of what is coming after them — “run, rabbit, run, rabbit, run, run, run”. They might be running away from enemies, from hardship, from reality even. Instead of running away, we want to help them run towards something, something meaningful, worthy, in an excited, enthusiastic, determined manner, be it towards employment or relationships. And let us just remember, we are to run, not walk, not crawl, not stand or sit still. Run, pupil, run.
One of the classic films of all time (winning a record 11 Academy Awards in 1960) was the MGM film ‘Ben Hur’ which told the story of Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish prince who was wrongly enslaved by his Roman friend Messala, but who “survives the galleys, triumphs in a rigged chariot race, and eventually finds spiritual transformation” — perhaps not the original chosen career for the character but nonetheless it was the race set before him. He followed a different curriculum that reeked of betrayal and revenge but finished strong; he ran right through.
Careering through the curriculum at pace will lead to the death of our children. The news that we bring to our children in the curriculum must be good news. We must be able to tell them through the curriculum, “Joy! We win!” It must not be the death of us or of them. The curriculum that we offer must prepare children for their career; it should set the course for the child to run. At the heart of the curriculum is that sense of running; there must be an urgency and a purpose to it. But we must remember that it is a marathon, not a sprint. Run, children, run.
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