Higher and higher

By Tim Middleton | 6h ago

Nelson Mandela

The natural world is beautiful – and different. Here we are as humans, as we have said before, seeking after As in education (we want A*s and consider it all about Achievement, Advancement, Alignment, Amusement, Amazement, Assessment and Appointment) and looking down on Es (though Education starts with an E and is all about Empowerment, Enrichment, Enlightenment, Enjoyment, Excitement, Endorsement and Endowment). That is how we see education and school. Birds have a different view though. A gull wafts around at lower levels, eating grubs but sea gulls (or as we should see them C gulls) fly further, higher and eat on fish (or super-fish-als and arti-fish-als) while all the time the kings, the rulers of the skies, the eagles (to us, the E gulls) soar higher still, see further and show greater resilience. We want our children to be E gulls. We want them to fly high.

We all know that life is all about highs and lows — as the great Nelson Mandela opined in his autobiography “I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb” and to reach the next hill we have to go down this one. The hardships, the strains and the stresses of climbing (and even of the descending) are worth it, however, as the views from on high are majestic. The lows come with the highs. We want our children to be the E gulls; it is not A gull that flies high in education but E gulls.

Our role as educators (be we teachers, parents or curriculum designers) is simple: to raise children higher. Readers may be familiar with the song, “You Raise Me Up”, an immensely successful modern song, composed by a band called Secret Garden in 2001 but since being covered over a thousand times, including by Josh Groban and by Westlife, in numerous languages with massive record sales. Its words speak to us as educators: “You raise me up so I can stand on mountains. You raise me up to walk on stormy seas. I am strong when I am on your shoulder. You raise me up to more than I can be”. We are to raise our children up to more than they (and we) think they can be.

It is a similar theme and idea to another song from further back in time, from the hugely successful film ‘The Sound of Music’, with the song, ‘Climb Every Mountain’ where the character was urged to “climb every mountain, ford every stream, follow every rainbow till you find your dream” - again, strong, positive, clear advice to her and for our children. We must help them to do that, to show them the path up the mountain. Indeed, the character was told that “you must find the life you were born to live”. And as E gulls we are born to go higher, to search high and low for that purpose, that calling.

Life is indeed all about going higher, recognizing there have to be lowers at times to reach the higher. We are to raise our children up but we should understand and remember that we do not simply love them when they are high or low in. It is what the Olympics are all about – higher, faster, stronger (further, even). But it is not just about running (as in a previous article); it is about raising, raising the bar, raising the standards, raising the hopes, raising the abilities, raising the confidence.

Christina Koch, one of the Artemis crew that circled round the far side of the moon recently, going further (higher) than any human being before, reflected on her return that “When we saw tiny Earth, people asked our crew what impressions we had. And honestly, what struck me wasn’t necessarily just Earth — it was all the blackness around it. Earth was just this lifeboat hanging undisturbingly in the universe.” They were clearly raised higher and gained a far greater appreciation, respect and commitment as a result. Science is taking astronauts higher into space. Are we taking children higher in life?

Going higher is hard work yet the views are worth it; the perspective gained is mind-blowing and so should the education that we are offering to our children. The higher we go, the more petty, the more insignificant and trifling we will see those things that currently arrest our attention. We need to say “Hiya” to education – to education that takes them higher. We need to understand that education is not just for hire (our children must own it) but it is for them to go higher. E gulls rule, leaving A gull far below – let us raise them all up higher to more than they think they can be.