A speech delivered in my home country of Australia caught my attention this week. Delivered by the retiring Anglican Archbishop, Dr Peter Jensen, the claim was made that the popularity of Frank Sinatra’s classic song “I did it my way” for use as a funeral song showed a “deadly individualism” in today’s society. To quote Dr Jensen, “To think that a person is so proud of the phrase ‘I did it my way’ that they would use it as a summary of their life’s achievement reveals an astounding moral ineptitude, a sort of vulgar egotism.”
His very strong statement started me thinking. I reflected that using “I did it my way” as a funeral song would have been unthinkable in the Chinese society of Hong Kong where I lived and worked for seven years before coming to Awty. Like most, if not all, societies in East Asia, Chinese culture emphasizes the value of the community, and esteem is given to those who, in all humility, place the needs of
others before their own. In that context, “I did it my way” would be seen as an admission of immaturity (at best), or more likely quite a serious level of social ineptitude. In the West, the prevailing values that surround us are different, and I find that I have to remind myself (or to allow others to remind me!) from time to time to step back and allow the good of the community to take first place.
A strong sense of community is one of the five pillars that I sometimes refer to when describing Awty’s distinctive characteristics to those within and outside our school community. On Friday, I had the chance to share these distinctive characteristics in public once again, this time with prospective parents who came to the school for our Primary School Open House (and the photos in this week’s blog all come from that event). It was energizing to welcome over 120 visitors to the school, and I began my brief welcome address in The Globe
by briefly outlining the combination of five characteristics that give Awty its distinctiveness: (a) global perspective, (b) academic excellence, (c) total formation of our students, (d) sense of community, and (e) being innovative.
Sense of
community lies at the heart of our school’s identity. As I said to our visitors on Friday morning, I have never been in a school where the participation of parents as partners with the school has been as strong as it is at Awty, nor have I been in a school where parents give so much of their time and effort in a generous way to help the school. And the community extends beyond this to include grandparents, alumni and even corporations and NGOs that support us because they believe in our purpose and vision.
At the Middle School faculty meeting on Monday afternoon, we explored another dimension of building our sense of community. We recently introduced the +Works (Positive Works) program in the Lower School here at Awty, and we will soon extend this into the Middle School. As explained on their website (http://www.positivethinkingworks.org), the +Works program is a mindset, not a curriculum. It aims to build a consistent approach between school and home in building character, resilience and compassion among our students.
+Works is already making a +difference in our Primary School. We began almost a year ago with a community-wide survey among parents, students and faculty on issues as wide-ranging as school climate, bullying, homework, parents’ participation and the learning environment. The results were analyzed and
shared between faculty and parents, and more recently, a ‘peace table’ has been established in the playground to assist with conflict resolution and a system of cards and stickers that recognize positive behaviors has been implemented. Obviously, the approaches used in the Middle School will be appropriate to that age group.
To this end, I was delighted that our Head of Middle School, Mr Tom Beuscher, was a member of the ‘expert panel’ invited to speak a session for teachers and parents coordinated by +Works at St Paul’s School on Thursday evening on the theme “Why the way we connect and school and at home matters”. Awty’s involvement will continue on Monday morning when I am scheduled to record a video interview on the reasons that Awty decided to become one of the schools affiliated with the +Works program for use on their website and in their presentations. I look forward to sharing it with you in the future – if the +Works organizers feel it is good enough!
Our efforts to build a better and stronger sense of community are not an exercise in desperation for us – we are striving to make something that is already good even better. Having said that, I have heard some assert that because our sense of community is already very good, things should therefore be left alone. I would reply to this suggestion by quoting the opening two sentences of Jim Collins’ book, ‘Good to Great’ – “
Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great”.
At Awty, I am proud to say that we aspire for ‘the excellent’, not just ‘the good’. After all, if our ancestors had been satisfied with “good”, we would all be living in caves today.