The world is an incredible place.
Look around you. Listen. Smell. Taste. Touch.
And yet it seems so unnervingly easy to become jaded. To fail to notice the beauty in the everyday. How good the sunlight feels on your skin on a warm sunny day, how incredibly powerful the waves can be as they lash against the sea wall, how the sky at night, particularly here at Rossall, fills with the powdery tracks of the Milky Way galaxy. When did you last marvel at a beautiful painting, a story that moved you, or a moment with another person that took your breath away? When did you last treasure the warm embrace of someone you love, the way that a piece of music moved you? When did you last release the restraint of living your everyday life to truly embrace the beauty of something?
I can tell you that for me, I do not do it anywhere near enough. Life feels too busy. Routines seem to remove the chance for spontaneity and seeing something in a new light. In everyday life, you could argue we tread the same path day to day, walk the same street, at the same time, in the same way, to get to school, to work – nothing new to see or marvel at here.
It’s what we all tell ourselves a little. Life, real life, is somewhere outside of routine. We have to wait for pockets of time where the mundane gives way to the unusual, the memorable.
And it’s true, there is a whole world of amazing things to see when we step out of the ordinary. Things that inspire and move us if we acknowledge and let them. Things we see because there is no routine to force us to keep putting one foot in front of the other to get to the next thing, the next task, the next place. We can just be.
As an adult, now in my 40s, I view every moment of beauty and awe that I stop to appreciate as a gift. And there are so many! Sunsets over the horizon, feats of human engineering, the incredible expanse of nature, the absorbing depths of a concert, the incredible stories of people past and present, the buzz of a bumblebee, the beauty of a maths problem well solved (my further maths class will understand that one). I could go on. The more I think about it, the more I recognise that there is an infinite opportunity for awe and wonder, for appreciation of how amazing our world and our experience of it is. Indeed I feel reassuringly surrounded by infinite opportunities for joy and inspiration.
But it wasn’t always like this and I would contest that whether as a pupil or as an adult, I have been guilty of so many missed opportunities. When I visit lessons now, I am taken by how incredibly knowledgeable the teachers are and how lovingly, and carefully, the curriculum has been constructed to bring into the classroom an opportunity to be fascinated, impressed and awed by the world out there. I sit there wanting to ask endless questions on the pupils’ behalf and I wonder sometimes why they don’t.
Many pupils, if asked, would tell me that school was something you had to do, a preparation for work perhaps, a body of knowledge to accumulate, a series of experiences to live through that will leave a mark on you and help you navigate future intellectual and personal challenges. All too often pupils consider themselves consumers.
And yet, much of this is not why many teachers go into teaching, nor where I believe the power of education lies. Its purpose, I believe, is ultimately to give children countless opportunities to come face to face with awe and wonder. For their spirits to soar, for that “wow” moment, for the things they will remember that will shape them and their life. Education is the foundation upon which you build your world experience and appreciation. We aim for children to be inspired, empowered, moved. We tell them stories about how amazingly intricate and fascinatingly complex nature is, how the courage and curiosity of individuals has driven our history, and how small sometimes accidental discoveries have led to changes in medicine that have been revolutionary. We share with them a curated collection of what is beautiful, and impactful, what has changed the world and what has made it better.
The job of pupils, if they are to capitalise and make the most of the awe and wonder available to them every day, is to move from passive consumer to active listener and learner. This is their time to immerse themselves in endless beauty, and fascinating facts, to make connections, ask questions and seek that deep fulfilment from appreciating how incredible our world really is. Let’s encourage them to not waste this opportunity!
All best wishes,
Dina Porovic
Senior Deputy Head