Going back to first principles. But which ones?

I started my professional life as an actuary in London, looking at long-term planning for pension funds and insurance companies.  One year I had accumulated a lot of annual leave, and when I was lucky enough to win a holiday in Ecuador, I thought I would take a big chunk of leave in one go and have an extended adventure.  As a junior worker none of my work was urgent, or hard to transfer to others - but my request for four weeks leave was rejected, because “policy allows for company discretion for requests for leave lasting more than two weeks”, and even after appeal, that discretion was not forthcoming.  I resigned the day after the final appeal was rejected.

The rigidity of that company (of which this example was just the final straw) was what turned me away; I did not want to be part of an organisation which followed the rules simply because they were the rules and which allowed for no judgement or flexibility.   Their argument was that exceptions are open to the charge of unfairness and inequity, and that’s true; but I have always thought that ignoring context as a matter of principle is even more unfair and inequitable in practice and I have since sought to minimise context-free rule adherence (there are exceptions  - we really don’t want variation in how we insist on tying back long hair when kids use drills; or on taking attendance so we know where children are). 

Teachers and parents meet this issue head-on everyday; while we want to be fair (and to be seen to be fair) we know that fairness does not entail doing things exactly the same for every child.  It may well be OK to break deadlines to give more time to struggling students, or bend selection criteria for an activity for an especially passionate student.  Similarly for dealing with colleagues and to seek to adjust accordingly. n It is surely humane to recognise that different people need different things?   The general point is that when engaging in human matters such as the delicate business of shaping children’s minds (i.e. teaching) things are too complex for specific rules - we need principles.  

The beauty of principles is that they apply to many different contexts and most of all, for me, that they require interpretation.  For example:  

look before you leap and he who hesitates is lost.

too many cooks spoil the broth and many hands make light work.

it’s better to be safe than sorry and nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Solid Principles are often surprisingly ambiguous, to allow for context.       source

If you only have one principle for each pair at your fingertips, you will make certain decisions. If you have both, you will need to think rather more carefully - and look at context and individuals; that is, you’ll have to think hard about how to judiciously apply them. Our Learning Principles and Wellbeing Principles face much the same issue - they require a great deal of thought to implement.  And that’s intentional, because we do not want to become the actuarial company that I walked away from - where compliance is a good itself, rather than an occasional means to an end.

So when you look at our principles, you’ll find things like “Learners should understand the purpose of their Learning” - a very general statement that may be implemented differently for older and younger students, and for different subjects.  That’s in stark contrast to “Teachers should write the purpose of each lesson on the board at the start of each lesson” as has been the guidance in some national systems.  There is a world of difference - not that the latter advice is wrong, but it is so limited, and takes no heed of context; it closes down, rather than opens up, the opportunity for creativity and contextualisation.  In framing our principles, we have recognized that there are no shortcuts to the search for wisdom, and every teacher needs to do the hard work to get it themselves; it cannot be handed out on a plate. Dee Hock’s brilliant summary: Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior... rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior.

And the holiday in Ecuador was wonderful, by the way.