Not the wind, not the flag

Two monks were arguing about a flag. One said: "The flag is moving." the other sad: "The wind is moving."

The sixth patriarch happened to be passing by. He told them: "Not the wind, not the flag; mind is moving."

Ekai (in The Gateless Gate)

Try to see it once my way: everything zen (Bush)

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Entrepreneur Ben Chestnut on the importance of momentum:

"Never sacrifice momentum. I might know a better path, but if we've got a lot of momentum, if everyone's united and they're marching together and the path is O.K., just go with the flow. I may eventually nudge them down a new path, but never stop the troops mid march."

Momentum is often talked about during sports matches where a surge of effort is maintained for a period of time so that it overwhelms an opposition. It's palpable and emotional, that feeling, but that surge is tough to sustain.

Momentum ebbs and flows through a match. Same in a school setting. It's rare to have a situation where 'everyone's united and they're marching together'. I've felt it a few times in my teaching career.

It's great to be a part of it when it happens.

(School is out) Everybody gonna jump and run (Gary US Bonds)

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School hols have now kicked in for us at Hastings Boys' High School.

The final rituals of the year are in the books - junior prizegiving, a final teacher only day, handing out 2025 timetables, staff farewells, staff raffles and staff BBQ.

One of the teachers who was retiring had been at the school since 1981 - an incredible 43 years of service to one school. We're very different people. There's no way I could do that. Alan started his career two years before me but my career has taken me to many different places. Plus, I have no plans to retire! 

He did try to retire in 2009 but was persuaded back to teach chemistry. I dare say he'll be back in some capacity - relieving or Exam Centre Manager. Once you are institutionalised it is tricky to leave a place completely behind.

The raffle was eventful. I bought two $2 tickets. During the final staff meeting, random staff were used to draw out numbers. When I was chosen, I pulled out one of my own numbers! Hilarious!

It was a lucky dip for prizes and mine turned out to be a couple of Prezi cards. Wahoo!! 

A great end to the year. Thanks to Hastings Boys' High School and the English department of stars!

Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind; the race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself (Mary Schmich)

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A colleague, endearingly known to us English teacher types as 'Smurf', suggested I write a post focusing on the 'song' Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen). Good idea.

So here 'tis...

First - some background trivia: 

Everybody's Free (To Wear Sunscreen) was a spoken word song that Baz Luhrmann, the Australian film director, kind of nursed into existence (the voice is Lee Perry's and the writer was Mary Schmich). I couldn't find it on Spotify, but it is on YouTube. You can see the original video for it here.

As I've used it to farewell Year 13 students in previous schools, I can't believe this hasn't cropped up on one of my blogs to date. TBF it could have landed up on Goo Goo G'Joob (it's a song after all);  Wozza's Place (it's pulp pop culture advice after all); on The Purdzilla Show (it's a pithy set of quotes after all); or here (it's got an educational vibe after all).

I do like these spoken word advisories, and spoken word songs in general, like Gil Scott-Heron's poetry set to Brian Jackson's jazzy accompaniment (try The Revolution Will Not Be Televised), or Billy Bragg's Walk Away Renee, or The Eels Susan's House for instance.

When I was a student at school in the seventies, some teachers were fond of quoting from Les Crane's The Desiderata. That one seems extremely dated now.

About that same time, Tom Clay's still moving paean to the Kennedys and MLK called What The World Needs Now (Abraham, Martin and John)  deeply affected me, and it still carries an emotional punch. However, unlike Sunscreen, the advice is indirect.

So, as I told Smurf, the closest thing I can link to Sunscreen is Robert Fulghum's All I Really Need To Know I learned In Kindergarten.

“These are the things I learned (in Kindergarten):

1. Share everything.
2. Play fair.
3. Don't hit people.
4. Put things back where you found them.
5. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN MESS.
6. Don't take things that aren't yours.
7. Say you're SORRY when you HURT somebody.
8. Wash your hands before you eat.
9. Flush.
10. Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
11. Live a balanced life - learn some and drink some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work everyday some.
12. Take a nap every afternoon.
13. When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
14. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
15. Goldfish and hamster and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
16. And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.” 

At this time of the year I often think about offering the advice found in Sunscreen and Kindergarten to departing students.

But really the pithiest advice/suggestion comes from Polonius to his son Laertes in Hamlet:

This above all: to thine own self be true, 

And it must follow, as the night the day,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

Carry on, my wayward son - there'll be peace when you are done (Kansas)

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This is the last week of Term 4 with the students before we all head off on our summer break.

Movember is history (as is my facial hair) and December is upon us.

It's a good time of the year to tidy up, close off workbooks, ease the throttle back, and throw away miscellaneous stuff that has accumulated in the just-in-case pile.

It's always remarkable how inconsequential a lot of things are after the fact. As many do, I tend to hang on to stuff just in case. The pile grows throughout the year and is seldom accessed. So, the moment to jettison all of those now inconsequential pieces of paper is a sweet one. It's very cathartic.

In movies the employees having to pack up their belongings are given one cardboard box, and I've always laughed at that, but it's actually true! That's all you need!

When I left my previous job at the end of Term 2 this year, I had some personal files to save digitally, and a single folder of papers - most of which I haven't looked at since or have subsequently thrown away. This, after 6 years in the job. It's a good lesson to remember.

Very few things are essential.

Eager and curious

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"If you're eager to learn—even if you aren't particularly talented—then you can make it a long way despite your shortcomings.

But if you're not eager and curious, you'll find your natural abilities often fall short of what is required."

James Clear

Everything we do matters

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I'm enjoying Ryan Holiday's The Obstacle is The Way.

This bit resonated with me having reverted back to being a classroom teacher after being a Principal, and recently finding myself making a cup of tea for a senior manager (he said it was a great cuppa):

Everything we do matters - whether it's making smoothies while you save up money or studying for the bar - even after you already achieved the success you sought. Everything is a chance to do and be your best. Only self-absorbed assholes think they are too good for whatever their current station requires.