Date: 06/01/22
By Alan Hardie, CEO at NCEAT.

I always feel like January is the longest month of the year. The days are still very short and it’s generally colder than December. After celebrating Christmas and New Year, it’s easy to feel a bit deflated. This is especially true when the cold and dark is combined with a resolution to give up something we enjoy but we know isn’t the most healthy option (like chocolate!) or we are tired from increasing the amount of exercise we are doing! The first week in January is therefore often described as one of the most depressing weeks of the year. Taking down the decorations before the Twelfth Night (5th January in England) also signals that celebrations are over for another year.

However, in many countries, Spain for example, January 6th (El Dia de los Reyes) is a day of huge celebration, just as important as Christmas Day. As you will see in Sally’s column, it celebrates Epiphany and the visit of the three Wise Men or Kings to see Jesus and present him with gifts. The idea of Wise Men and the concept of wisdom may seem a little old fashioned and the word wisdom is not as widely used today as it was in the past. Given the challenges over the past couple of years, maybe we should be looking at wisdom as one of the key qualities we demand from our leaders.

In our school Trust, as with other Church of England Schools, wisdom is a very highly regarded quality and one which we try to develop in our pupils. Educating for wisdom is a key part of how we fulfil our Trust vision. For us this means not just learning the knowledge in the content of the curriculum, but also about encouraging children to be curious, ask thoughtful questions about what they are learning and to transfer something learned in one lesson and apply it in another. It’s also about developing reasoning, understanding ethics and being able to see things from the perspectives of others. It’s about learning to make wise decisions.

Traditionally wisdom was seen as something that develops with age and experience, and to some extent this is true. However it is also something all of us can develop through our resilience, determination, empathy for others and in our personal skills. Again, as a Trust we are committed to giving our pupils chances to experience a range of opportunities that they may not otherwise be able to enjoy, from forest and beach schools, to learning a musical instrument, to Mandarin and Chinese culture lessons. Much of this learning won’t be recognised in exam grades but it does give pupils the chance to develop wisdom through a variety of experiences.

One of the struggles for all countries in dealing with the pandemic has been, at times, a lack of wisdom in how to cope with this type of challenge. Experience of this type of rapid spread of infection around the globe is very limited and much of the planning was based on a flu pandemic, which is different in nature to coronavirus. When dealing with a huge amount of data and a variety of views and advice from scientists, the wisdom to interpret information and make the right decisions is a rare and very valuable attribute for a world leader.

Maybe next time we hear the story of the three Wise Men we need to remind ourselves of the importance of wisdom in all that we do and put wisdom near the top of our list of qualities we require of our leaders.