Good morning colleagues,
Yesterday we heard some incredible keynotes and workshops.
Leora talked beautifully, as she always does, about the mission that drives and unites us. We heard a fascinating and moving account of belonging from Chris Lubbe, and we closed the day with a beautiful, and I think deeply significant keynote from Stephen Unwin. We also heard from the Secretary of State and the shadow schools minister about their respective plans for education.
To kick off this morning I wanted to talk to you about a book I read recently. It’s this one, by John Higgs, called ‘Stranger than we can imagine.’ No, it’s not a book about the government’s A Level reform announcement.
It’s actually a history of the twentieth century but told through the prism of the unfolding growth of individualism.
The story starts at the turn of the twentieth century, at the Royal Observatory – men with pocket watches awaiting the birth of a new era. As it progresses we hear about the early days of modern anarchism, scientific discoveries like Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity and quantum physics. We get to know the nihilists – though their role in the story felt a bit pointless to me.
The narrative moves on, through rock and roll, teenage rebellion (curiously it turns out this was a thing before mobile phones) and the growth of the 1980s economic agenda.
It culminates in the observation that the twentieth century was largely a journey towards the primacy of the individual. In some ways, this journey brought freedom and benefited people immensely. But there have been costs too - from socio-economic effects to the growth of relativism. The reality, Higgs argues, is that individualism has brought benefits but also costs.
One of these is the notion of truth. In a world where everyone has the freedom, rightly, to have a view, how do we navigate the differences between us that this can create? Where every view is inherently valid because it is emergent from an individual - and all individuals are equal, as I’m sure we all agree – how do we understand each other?
And how do we build together, when the direction of travel has been the betterment of the individual rather than the betterment of the group?
Yesterday, Leora spoke about the difference between social mobility and social justice. Armed with Higgs’ narrative, I would argue that the first of these, social mobility, is about the elevating the individual and the second, social justice, is about the elevating the group.
I don’t know if Higgs’ tale of the twentieth century is right. But it seems to me that we do live in an era marked by an overarching emphasis on individualism.
But Higgs’ book is not a pessimistic tale. He believes that the last days of the twentieth century and the years that followed saw the arrival of a balancing force: the network.
He argues that the arrival of the internet, social media and the proliferation of devices has connected humans together in new and profound ways.
Now, I think he is more positive about social media than me – but that might just be down to the people I follow on twitter!
In any case, I think his point about connection is significant. Whatever the delivery mechanism, be that email, social media, or good old in person events like today – my strong sense is that connection is increasingly the narrative direction of this story of ours.
Higgs uses a beautiful metaphor to summarise his thesis, which I’ll read to you. I think there are perhaps some parallels with the story of our sector too.
"Imagine that the people of this planet were points of light, like the stars in the night sky. Before the twentieth century we projected a constricting system onto these points, linking them in a hierarchical structure beneath a lord or emperor. This system informed our sense of identity, and governed how we orientated ourselves. It lasted for thousands of years. It may have been unfair and unjust, but it was stable.
At the start of the twentieth century that system shattered and those points were released to become free-floating, all with different perspectives…
But then a new system imposed itself on those free-floating points of light, just when we were least expecting it.
We began to understand that what we were connected to was an important part of ourselves. A person that is connected to thousands of people can do things that a lone individual cannot.
Instead of being actors in markets, we are collaborators in determining the public good.”
Just like Higgs’ historical narrative, we find ourselves at a pivotal moment in our journey—a path of connectedness and mutual development. In our pursuit to craft a future steeped in equity and opportunity, we must embrace the notion of a ‘networked system’.
In this network, our collective knowledge, our shared experiences, and our united aspirations are the catalysts for building a sense of belonging – which is of course, the theme of our conference.
Beyond the confines of your classrooms, beyond the boundaries of your schools, now more than ever, our connectedness brings with it the promise of a brighter tomorrow.
So, as you enjoy the rest of today, my ask of you is to not only be an individual in the crowd, it’s to be part of the network, part of the community.
Connect with each other, and by doing so you will create the conditions in which you, your colleagues, your children and your communities can belong.
Thank you.
