Who is the bravest?

I recently leafed through a picture book written by Lorenz Pauli, lovingly and skilfully designed with smart drawings by Kathrin Schärer. It came to my mind that this book should be available to all (educational) leaders in our country during further training for creative input and food for thought. (Perhaps not meant entirely seriously, or yet?) “Brave, brave” was written on the cover. A clever title for a story, and a clever title for a training programme! I liked the profound story with a mouse, a snail, a frog and a sparrow as protagonists. They could all become role models when it comes to making courageous decisions! Yes, and I think in view of the lamentable state of education in our primary schools, courageous decisions need to be taken. Of course, all those involved are very much challenged, because realising you have made a mistake and having the courage to try something new are not the domain of every man – or every woman. However, it could be the beginning of a way out of the debacle at our primary schools in the foreseeable future. But let’s follow the four protagonists.

Input A: Who is the bravest?

Mouse, snail, frog and sparrow sit together on the bank of a pond and don’t know what to do. Finally, the frog suggests a competition to find out which of them is the bravest. His friends think it’s a good idea, a very good idea, even a fantastic idea, and clap with their paws, wings and antennae.

Pause for thought 1:
Broadening the horizon

Who is the bravest? Wouldn’t that also be a challenge for those responsible for education in training centres and education authorities? They would have to step out of the confines of their everyday lives and jobs and broaden their horizons in the process (and hopefully realise that they are on the wrong path). But then the task becomes more challenging. They would have to think about brave ideas on how to correct the senseless and irresponsible school reforms that have ruined our education system in recent decades.

Input B: A brave endeavour

The mouse takes a bold step forward. It decides to swim to the other shore and back again without surfacing from the water. But oops, the frog quickly dismisses the mouse’s plan: “What a quack. That has nothing to do with courage! It’s just for fun!” Sure, swimming is part of the frog’s main business, but for a mouse it really is a brave endeavour. Will the project of our little heroes come to nothing?

Pause for thought 2:
The first realisation

Now it could be that one or two fearless education politicians – I apologize, this always includes fearless female education politicians – have a first insight and a clever idea (like our mouse). He seriously wants to try something new. He wants to create clarity and remove educational rubbish from our class rooms. Would he receive a positive response from those around him? (Or are there some frogs there too?) Would the idea have to come from the relevant political environment to get attention? Or are his colleagues frozen in their own ideology, spellbound by the pressure of the education lobby and fear for their own sinecures? And therefore: too little courage to jump into the cold water?

Input C: You’re great ...

The four different friends, however, are unafraid. The sparrow settles the conflict and the mouse takes a deep breath. It dives into the water and comes back snorting and gasping. Yes, and the frog even has the courage to congratulate the mouse and help the mouse out of the water: “Brave, brave! You’re a great diver”. And everyone claps with their webbed feet, antennae and wings.

Pause for thought 3:
A new education concept

Let’s imagine that after a sleepless night, the director of a university college of teacher education (or, I apologize, always a females director as well) were to go to the education authorities and present a new training concept. At the same time, he would hand over a long list of politically wrong decisions “thanks” to which the education of young people has gone in the wrong direction in recent years. Would the numerous education “experts” from politics and academia thank him shamefully for being the first to have the courage to name and admit the mistakes made? If so, they would surely come up with a bouquet of ideas on how the hopeful and often very committed teacher trainees could be provided with the pedagogical, psychological and didactic tools they need for their demanding profession. Some would even know that one of the causes of the reform cascades of recent decades was Milton Friedman’s neoliberal concepts of privatisation and economisation of the education system, in view of anew lucrative market in which primary schools should only offer easily testable subjects as basic education (the rest should be bought by parents as an investment for their children’s future). “I see”, one of his colleagues would now say, “it’s all about the children’s ‘human capital’ ... about self-organised learning … at the expense of all children … This is supposed to be so-called educational justice … How condemnable! With the result that nowadays a quarter of the young people who leave school do not understand and read German sufficiently and a fifth of them do not fulfil the minimum requirements in maths and science!”
  And if his colleagues do not have the courage to realise this? Would they tell him that this is nonsensical and that he is mourning yesterday’s ideas, as they have been advised to do as a discussion blocker?

Input D: The grouch
becomes courageous

But there is a faint hope, just like the frog who takes on a new challenge. Previously a grouch, it is now infected by the courage of the mouse. Today it doesn’t want to eat a measly mosquito or a nimble fly, but a large water lily, it announces. Initially it too is met with opposition, this time from the snail, for whom such an endeavour is an everyday occurrence. But supported by the mouse, who knows what a test of courage means, it chokes down the water lily with stump and stalk. Even the snail jumps over its shadow and begins to praise the frog. “Brave, brave! That really is something very special”, it dares to say.

Pause for thought 4:
Support and thinking along

If, after at least one sleepless night, an equally courageous person responsible for education were to suggest to its fellow decision-makers that the timetable should be cleared of the (mostly useless) early foreign language lessons and that the German language should be prioritised again! As a historically aware contemporary, he would also remind them that Bill Gates travelled around the world at the end of the 1990s and offered many governments to give them his software free of charge. This was the case in 1998, when he paid a visit to Switzerland and had a meeting with Federal Councillor Villiger. By doing this he found supporters also in Switzerland. Leading the way was the then Director of Education of Zurich, Ernst Buschor, who accepted an invitation to attend a symposium in Boston and then wrote the basic concept for a reform that had an enormous impact on today’s schools. The long-standing head of education was able to report this, and he suggested to his colleagues that they finally put a stop to the digitalisation of schools, which then was in full swing at great cost.
  From then on, teachers should be able to use the devices (voluntarily) as a supplementary didactic tool. Also, he restored the children’s right to guidance and allowed the teachers to provide again community-building classroom lessons and to establish a secure  relationship to their pupils, in line with the latest research findings. Of course, digital media would also continue to be available for pupils to work with – where they actually add value to analogue work. For example, in upper secondary school for writing applications for apprenticeship training positions. If this were the case, then the support and thoughtfulness of those responsible for education would be a step in the right direction. What happy parents and children! And what positive dynamics could start from there.

Input E: A step forward

The snail feels the same way. It decides – despite the sparrow’s scepticism – to come out of its house and crawl around its shell. It finally wants to take a careful and detailed look at her surroundings and return to her house with this new experience. Her courageous actions are supported by the enthusiastic echo of the mouse and the frog (and the sparrow too). They all clap their wings, webbed feet and paws enthusiastically (even if the house is now a little crooked).

Pause for thought 5:
Out of the snail shell and ivory tower

A snail shell as a place for retreat – doesn’t that remind us of the ivory tower of education authorities and teacher training colleges, trapped in unrealistic concepts, far removed from practice? Or are there still some courageous people who venture out of their bubble of eternal approval and applause and take a close look at the educational debacle that has been created at primary schools in recent decades? By the way, this is an absolute must for Switzerland, the former country of education, whose primary school education is one of the most important foundations of its direct democracy!

Conclusion: That’s brave!

Mouse, snail and frog are eagerly awaiting the sparrow’s test of courage. It will be particularly brave and cheeky, they think, just like sparrows are. It trips back and forth until he finally announces: “Well, I’m not taking part.” The reader is left wondering why. The same goes for its friends, who ponder his answer in a somewhat perplexed way before cheering: “Yes, that’s brave!” (I think so too!)
  Let’s switch to our education managers in the final phase of their advanced training. In the usual feedback round, some of them dare to say: “It’s not ideology, but pedagogy that should become the basis of primary school again! That is my goal.” Almost everyone agrees. Only one does not. He steps out of the line and suggests: “We should take the Danish Minister of Education, Mattias Tesfaye, as an example. In an interview, he apologised to the young people of Denmark for turning them into guinea pigs in a digital experiment, the extent and consequences of which could not be foreseen”. Unexpectedly, he met with a positive response: “We will give this book to all those responsible for education so that their eyes can be opened”. The applause from his fellow campaigners is unexpectedly huge (and the frog, mouse, snail and sparrow are happy to join in and clap their webbed feet, paws, antennae and wings). •

PS: Book reference:
Lorenz Pauli and Kathrin Schärer’s picture book, with its versatile and sensitively told story and beautiful pictures, has many young and old readers and viewers in families and schools.