My blog from Houston, Texas. Updated most weeks, usually on Sundays.
Di and I were thrilled this week to welcome our son, Tim, and his partner, Alyce, to Houston. It was fortuitous that their visit coincided with a week’s break from classes. Although I still had to attend several school-related meetings during the week of his visit, it was wonderful to have the time to show our son the sights of Houston and beyond, including quick trips to NASA, Galveston and San Antonio (Di’s and my first trip to San Antonio despite living in Houston now for 15 months). As I have also found when I have lived in other cities in various parts of the world, it is when visitors come to visit that we get to enjoy the enriching experience of seeing our own home city through the eyes of others.
One of the highlights of Alyce and Tim’s visit was a tour of Awty’s campus. Unfortunately, there were very few people present for them to meet, but nonetheless it was with a real sense of both pride and humility that I showed them through every building on the campus, including our superb Athletics Stadium facilities. Tim had seen photos of the campus prior to his visit, but he was deeply impressed nonetheless, noting that it seemed much larger and more expansive in reality than the photos had suggested.
Following Tim’s departure on Thursday evening, I spent Friday in my office catching up on writing various reports and e-mails. As sometimes happens, some visiting prospective parents called in to my office to say ‘hello’ – something I always enjoy very much when it happens. They were very interested in looking at Awty because of its explicit commitment to internationalism and global awareness, although I was sorry they were not here on a normal school day – it is, after all, our students who give life and vibrancy to what are otherwise empty shells of buildings.
My visitors invited me to explain the school’s philosophy, an invitation which I am always delighted to accept. On this occasion I found myself paraphrasing the words of the former Canadian Prime Minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Lester B. Pearson: “How can there be peace if we don’t understand each other? And how can we understand one another if we don’t know one another?”.
For me, the purpose of using education to produce mature, reflective, tolerant, curious and profound internationally-minded young people lies at the very heart of Awty’s existence and purpose. We are not a school where education is “done to” students (as this implies passivity) – we are a school that engages students as active participants as they explore, experience, enjoy and construct their understandings through deep questioning. As one student said to me a few weeks ago, “we form friendships here from all over the world with people who mean the whole world to us”.
Like my own son, my visitors on Friday seemed to go away with an enlightened and profound appreciation of Awty’s special and distinctive qualities. Yes, I DO like showing off my school!
Showing off our campus
Sunday, 7 October 2012