Principal's Blog
2018 Term 2
Permission Notes
Our family are having a lovely break in Bordeaux. I want to thank Faye, Jeannette, Nick, Wayne, and Joelle for allowing me this time. I have lived FCS almost daily, 50+ hours a week, for 18 years. So stepping back was not easy, and I probably would not have, had I not made a promise in 2007 to my then fiancée, Clotilde, that I would give our (future) children this French experience. Following through on this promise has been made possible by the capable hands I have left the school in.
The school our children attend here in France requires signed permission slips for outings; outings and activities that are not unlike those that most schools in Australia require permission slips for. From a parental point of view, these are not a big deal. A small annoyance – and we’ve been chased when we’d not returned the slip, so our children have not missed an excursion (yet!). On a recent outing, Xavier returned with a baguette that he’d made – now that is a very French outing, and one that we have not run at FCS to date.
When I address the question of permission slips to prospective parents (some ask about outings), I try to convey that I consider taking children to the park, pool, museum, science works, gallery, library, and on camp to be part of what schools do. Or at least, should do. As my view of a holistic education includes all of these experiences, asking for parents’ permission to provide them seems at best a little strange. The mainstream view of permission slips is of an administrative annoyance – annoying to hand out, complete, collect, and chase up. And even then, it’s not uncommon for a child or two to miss the outing. Many teachers have reflected to me that, sadly, it is usually the same children who miss out, and that these are the very children who would most benefit from joining these activities.
The school our children attend here in Bordeaux was reviewed by the education department the week they started. Given the onerous nature of these – both stressful and timewasting – I had great sympathy for the principal. She shared with me that there were many, many documents to prepare and that none of these had any positive impact on the manner in which the school ran – but the overall effect of the review was detrimental as it consumed a substantial amount of her time and energy that could better be put towards the school and the children. Sounds remarkably similar to the review process in Victoria!
I then reflected on the permission slip I had just been required to sign for a trip to the gallery – and had the thought that in a way there was a similarity between this principal’s experience with the education bureaucracy and that of her students producing their paperwork to go on an outing. My next thought was – is this process of requiring permission for normal activities over the course of 13 formative years helping to enculturate these young people into our society’s ubiquitous requirement for permission from some or other authority to conduct so many of the normal activities of life? Modifying your bathroom – permission required. Party in your street – permission required. Putting a swimming pool in your own yard – permission required. Selling cupcakes – permission required. Teaching something that you are the world expert in – permission required. We now assume, much like school students, that we need permission for just about everything. I see this as a restrictive, handicapping, and disempowering feature of society.
Another consequence of requiring permission for activities is the impact this has on interpersonal relationships. What of the dehumanised interaction between the teacher and the little girl who does not have her permission slip to go on an outing to the beach. Bathers, hat, towel, lunch, water bottle, sunscreen all packed, and all your mates excited about the adventure, but no bit of paper, you can’t go. What message does this provide to a child regarding our priorities and values? Paperwork first – inclusion, kindness, trust, fun (the human stuff!) second?
I have a worrying feeling that schools are central to the transmission of a version of society that I find quite disturbing. Is it not a central lesson, built into the very lifestyle of schooling, that we need permission for pretty much anything other than sitting still? And as we are obliged to request this permission repeatedly through these formative years, how can we not derive a general ‘rule’ that we can only act with permission? And in these constant acts of asking for permission, absorb the ‘meta-rule’ that indicates that official permission trumps any social or emotional duty to our fellow humans! I see permission slips as embedding a culture of dependency, that simultaneously weakens the communal bonds within our living, breathing human family.
People before things!
Timothy Berryman (Principal).