Schools are about more than just education

I went to a funeral yesterday, for a middle aged man very like myself. Happily married, young kids, active life. In his case, a life cut short by an arbitrary accident. (Seriously, hug your loved ones folks, every day.)

But this is not about the funeral or the man, this is about community. What struck me about this funeral was the number of people from Steve’s life who were there because they teach his kids, run the schools his kids attend and know Steve’s family because their kids are classmates. Not just close friends and current teachers, but also the principal of a large high school, the past principal of a primary school and current and past teachers, right back to kindergarten.

“It takes a village to raise a child.” — African proverb

This seems exceptional to me. And it’s what makes the schools my children attend special. They are not just educational institutions, a place I send my kids for six hours a day to learn “the three Rs”. They are a community. They are somewhere my new preppy is happy to go every day, because he’s been part of the school community since he was four weeks old. He knows all the other kids and their families and has done all his life.

It’s also a community that rallies around its people in times of need, organising “meal trees”, helping with pickups, just generally being there for each other.

Maybe every school is like this? I don’t know. In any case it feels pretty special to me, and I feel hugely privileged and grateful to be a part of it. We don’t live in villages any more, but we still need the idea of a village: a shared responsibility for raising healthy, resilient kids.