I've really tried very hard to resist the obvious, Ex Africa semper aliquid novi but it just will not be resisted. Pliny the Elder was spot on!
African Genesis
It was in Africa that the new idea of, as David Wylde put it, the "airie nothings" of "conversations" between some international educators first occurred in 1997. Those who participated in that tentative initiative in connecting school leaders internationally could only intuit what that first Connection would unleash. On May 16, 2001, the Global Connections Log was published on the organisation's website: 54 physical outcomes in four years; eight articles, four presentations, three books. Impressive stuff - measurable and quantifiable.
Not on the Website
But what they mean in the qualitative realm, the intangible stuff of awarenesses that have been awakened; changes in thinking and frames of reference; changes in attitudes; lives that have been affected; opportunities that have presented themselves and been seized; positive, new impacts on school communities all over the world; imaginations that have been fired; spirits that have been re-energised; new directions that have been pursued; reconciliations that have been effected; bridges that have been built; relationships that have been established; friendships that have been forged...these cannot be registered on a website database.
They are written on the ether; they are bedded in the spirit; they are nurtured in the heart. And it all started in Africa.
Africa Revisited
So when Africa called again, those on whom Global Connections had already worked its alchemy, and those who know a good thing when they hear about it, responded and made their way to Nairobi in early July.
Global Connections is a unique and precious idea that makes possible unique and precious opportunities. There can be very few organisations in the world that in the space of 4 short years can so tellingly have captured the hearts, wills, energies and imaginations of the cream of the worlds' adult school leaders. And they gathered at Starehe Boys' Centre in the heart of Nairobi's teeming slums to talk about student leadership: Can it be taught? If so, what skills must be learned? What models must we apply? How do we integrate student leaders into society? What is the purpose of service? What are the qualities of a good leader? Do prefect systems isolate the greatest percentage of students from acquiring leadership skills? How do schools without prefect systems work?
Starehe Boys' Centre
Starehe, for those of us who had not been there before was certainly something new: a school run on Trust and Responsibility; a school with only two school rules; a school run to all intents and purposes by the students; a school where boarding staff are merely required to be physically present; a school which practises service as a way of life and where brotherhood gives meaning to life. Something new out of Africa indeed.
Student Leadership in the Education Process
Global Connections V was a natural extension of the 2000 Deerfield Conference. There we had grappled with issues of environmental awareness and sustainable development and what we should be doing in our schools to shape responsible citizens of a more hopeful world - a better deal for the earth and its people. At Starehe we explored the complex nature of the kind of school environment that makes for responsible young citizens who can and must take ownership of their responsibilities for shaping a better world. We tried to identify the hallmarks of processes and practices that free young people to lead and to take initiatives that can improve the quality of life for all.
We agreed that the student who is not required to do what he/she cannot do, does not do what he/she can do.
We agreed that the message we should convey to our students is that "there is more in you than you think " and that we need to structure our school environments in such away as to stretch our students through leadership opportunities to begin to discover "the more".
Repeaters and First Timers
At Starehe there were Global Connection "repeaters" and "first timers". Few would have failed to sense the joyous celebratory spirit of our first evening as we gathered together on the eve of the Conference. It was so good to be together again. To greet old friends-from Doon School in India to Trinity College in New York; from Mowbray College in Melbourne to Bayview Glen School in Ontario. To see new faces-from Slovakia, Macedonia, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Bulgaria, Italy, Costa Rica. To smile in warm re-uniting at familiar faces, from Sevenoaks School in England, The Athenian School in California, the Hill Mountain School Vermont, l'Ermitage in France. In fact as the conference progressed the "repeaters " were gently chided for being so chummy, by the "first timers". Next year they will be sharing in the heartwarming reunion as "repeaters" The fellowship of the global connections makes a deep impression on the heart and mind!
89 top school leaders from 27 different countries from all the continents. Astonishing.
Packed Days
In four densely packed days we unpacked the features of enabling philosophies and practices that facilitate the development of leadership skills in students: The Conference was addressed by eminent Kenyan academics most of whom had Starehe roots or connections. They served to attest to the quality of the Starehe education and life experience. The Conference also provided a platform for conference delegates closer to the school experience to share their views on student leadership.
Themes
Some key themes that emerged and helped to heighten our awareness and understandings were:
- risk taking is part of personal growth and an essential feature of leadership development-young people cannot learn responsibility unless they are allowed to fail-falling, failing, trying again
- we need to create a culture that grows moral strength to provide hope and reasons and tactics to live
- we have to promote value systems that are for the benefit of mankind; we need to shape young people who are spiritually alert and courageous and who can make "good decisions" instead of "right decisions"
- genuine, honest and open dialogue between adults and students is a critical success factor.
"If you are given a coffee cup to wash, wash it better than any coffee cup has been washed in the world before."
We preferred the model of servant leader instead of the power/authority model; "Anyone can be a great leader because anyone can be a servant." Here the Starehe coffee cup image spoke eloquently: "If you are given a coffee cup to wash, wash it better than any coffee cup has been washed in the world before." We need by example and inspiration to attract students to a commitment of service. We were challenged to look anew at the service ethic. "Why do we serve?" The replies from the floor were compelling: "by serving I make a tangible act of personal gratitude;" "it adds meaning to my life;" "because I repair my own heart;" "because I am a human being."
The value of mentoring and group counselling was explored: "Raise eagles but don't dictate the direction they should fly in." Teachers need to see themselves as mental health professionals aware of "the widespread insecurity of adolescence." Schools must make conscious planning and process provision to meet the full range of Maslow's hierarchy of needs in young people, starting at the bottom! Girls have very different responses to leadership challenges from those of boys. Girls "weave webs of inclusion" and are "chilled" by the traditional male hierarchical model.
Yes, most of us knew at least some of this: but we all needed to focus again on the role adult school leaders have to play in making it all happen!
So many leadership models to consider: the Declaration we decided upon gives only a glimpse of the rich and diverse input from which we distilled the key features of leadership - enabling school environments.
Views and Personalities
In the process of the four days which we all were agreed should have made more provision for group discussion and reflection, some moments of delight, amusement and poignancy resonate for me: Malcolm McKenzie's laconic reference to "800 years of deferred maintenance" in his Welsh castle; Peter Kapenga's exhaustion and helplessness in describing the sheer impossibility of applying what, for him, were the luxuries of values-based leadership models, in a world where the very air is politicised in Ramallah (how that echoed with the South African delegates!); Verena Novkosva's pale face each morning as she reported on the civil war in Macedonia where in Tetevo, so close to Skopje, her home, shelling, sniping and mortar fire had returned with spectres of the Kosovo horrors; her courage and trenchant observations.
How far away from the Bulgarian and Slovakian Communist experience is the possibility of growing a positive, spiritual and values-based leadership process in school there where personal initiative has been all but quenched; Peter Harris' madcap, iconoclastic sense of humour; David Wylde's intense, succinct assessment of the significance and value of the Global Connections journey - his describing it as a Minoan Experience - "walking into another civilisation." Revisiting our "Knowns" and finding a different sense of where we come from. "We are all better by sharing and understanding with others." His planting of the Xhosa aphorism into the Global Connections collective conscious of:
"Umuntu, gabantu, ubantu" ("We find our humanity through other people"). His passionate echoing of Peter Pelham's deep concern over Africa's agony - the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Other Impressions
Karen Murton's quiet but forceful reminder about the way girls learn and exercise leadership; Dr Li's watchful, attentive presence, and the gentle commentary of his interpreter; the uncomfortable and communication - inhibiting raked seating in the conference room; the dreadful state of the roads; the death - defying bus rides; the views of the Great Rift Valley; the kaleidoscopic Africa Night at Starehe under African stars; the intensity of the performances; the superb management of the whole spectacle by the boys; the explosion of colour and movement and dance - drums, voices- which drew boys and delegates together in breathless, stamping, swaying and vocal connectedness; the openness and generosity of the Starehe boys and staff; the poignant reaching out of the boys; their need to touch and be touched.
Who was not touched by the African Global Connection?
Possible Improvements
As stimulating and rewarding was the Business Meeting on Saturday 7 July. Regrettably this fell outside the natural "cut off " moment of the Conference and many delegates had already left. But really important things happened here and I would urge that next year we incorporate the Business Meeting into the main body of the Conference because of the report back opportunity it affords. The Deerfield Declaration had charged schools to report at Nairobi on the steps they had taken to implement the practically, the spirit and values of the Declaration. At the Saturday meeting 11 schools reported back on the significant ways in which they had responded to the Deerfield challenge.
In my view this report back is every bit as important as the Conferences we hold. In Peter Pelham's words, "Our leadership is to be measured in what we do with (those) contacts and how we use them to the benefit of our students, our schools, and the process of education nationally, regionally and internationally.
In the final analysis, Global Connections will be remembered not just for what is said and written, but also for what is accomplished; by the measure of our outreach, our willingness to be bold and step beyond the understood or perceived boundaries of our immediate missions; and the willingness to consider, and hopefully, implement new dimensions in teaching and learning and in exchanges to broaden the horizons of all members of our school communities."
Starehe stretched us; the Conference structure made huge demands on us and we all felt that we had not had enough time to dialogue and exchange informally; that we had not had enough time for stillness and reflection to internalise some of the key learnings. Strong stuff needs time to distil!
The Global Crisis
One real regret is that because of the tight schedule, we had no time to respond to what Peter Pelham rightly called "the global crisis" - HIV/AIDS. He put before us devastating current statistics. He had asked us, "What possible role can Global Connections play in all of this? Against such mesmerising statistics what possible solutions can we offer individually? Collectively?"
He proposed that the Conference "and the 213 other global connections from over 30 countries pledge to take steps (or expand those already taken) to educate our students and subsequently others on HIV/AIDS prevention."
Alas, because of the schedule constraints we did not take that pledge. Perhaps there is still an opportunity to do so.
