How we represent the world is a story, and many stories are possible.
( Joseph Gold: The Story Species)
The delight of every story lies in the unknown that is the beginning - the experience of wandering through the possibilities, making connections and choices, reflecting and pausing, rushing forward to try something new and exulting in the joy of new discoveries - all the promise that breathes 'adventure' is absolutely waiting at the beginning of every story!
This is the story of school as well - new beginnings happen every autumn and, as the inhabitants of schools, we count on this promise to write a different tale every single school year. We don't want to hit 'replay' - ever!! New students, different colleagues, changes to policy and procedure, fresh approaches to our classrooms, new books to introduce, new discoveries to uncover and share. There is a palpable excitement every fall that permeates school - we can't wait to open the doors and let the adventures begin, both as teachers and as student.
This is a very human endeavour - Terrence Deacon notes:
We tell stories about our real experiences and invent stories about imagined ones, and we even make use of these stories to organize our lives...And slowly, over the millennia, we have come to realize that no other species on earth seems able to follow us into this miraculous place. (The Story Species)
The challenge is to keep humans - both the adult ones and the youngsters - focused on the freshness that is the beginning rather than falling back on the same old story line that is tiredly familiar when the plot twists and turns require great energy and innovation to stay fresh, alive and adventurous. Sometimes we want to relate an old tale, or relive a previous story line, just because it is safe and known and feels comfortable. 'Adventure' only sounds interesting when the obstacles are safely hidden and unknown - it is far less appealing to write a new story when everyone is feeling overwhelmed and perplexed. This is where the real work of writing stories - especially school stories - resides. And I believe the tools for ensuring school stories sustain energy, promise and adventure are actually rooted in the beginning.
Promising beginnings need wide-open boundaries - fresh opportunities for everyone. Not just a re-visit of the curriculum or assessment strategies. Not just reviewing rules and expectations. Rather, we need space to to wander, to be curious, to invent and ask questions together. We need literature to help us understand stories so we can invent new ones and perhaps organize our lives a bit differently. We need big ideas that don't always work and small ideas that just might help us re-jig the big ideas. We need colleagues and friends who thoughtfully respect us while nudging our thinking in new directions. We need laughter and tears and energy and exhaustion. We need possibilities rather than walls and rules and directions. We need to know our students and their stories and allow space for them to write new lines and plots, beginnings and open endings that change when they need to allow for different kinds of discovering and learning.
I believe in the concept of borderless classrooms - schools as places where learning happens indoors, outdoors, in hallways and offices, on buses and in libraries and anywhere in the world. Where students and teachers bond through shared experiences, stories, projects, questions, laughter and sadness - regardless of homeroom numbers, assigned teachers or grade levels. I believe teachers need to have opportunities to talk to each other all the time - to share stories, literature, resources, experiences, investigations, questions and narratives as they co-create learning and assessment with their students and each other. I believe this is not only possible but essential for schools to breathe with the many stories our students will share, live, read and write as another new school year begins.
"It's possible to have a much deeper experience of the world through the use of a deep looking and regular documentation of everyday life. Through these practices we may be able to create a new narrative for ourselves, one in which we are at the centre of a powerful and important adventure...This is who you are meant to be." (Keri Smith: The Wander Society).
Next week the Eric Harvie School teachers will gather for the first time to launch a brand new school, a brand new school year and loads of new learning adventures with approximately 360 students. As we gather to begin writing these new stories, we are ready to live in the possible with tools that will sustain our work through the unknown twists ahead - design thinking, peace education, the best literature we can find to share with each other and our children, innovative approaches to thinking, learning and using our spaces, and discovering the places in which we will live out our stories. The adventures beckon and we are ready!
Lorraine Kinsman
Principal
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