Not overly surprising

By Larry Forbes, a School governance specialist

The impressive levels of acceptance and openness that NZ’ers have demonstrated in welcoming Rugby World Cup participants and fans to NZ, should not be overly surprising to any of us who are involved in education.
The welcome mirrors a maturity which characterises many of our school settings. Multicultural classrooms are now very much the norm in most NZ schools and in the many high quality, multi-cultural environments created, acceptance of difference is being modeled, encouraged and practiced constantly.
A visitor to these schools would be hard pressed to come away without a keen sense of optimism about the future of our country and of Auckland in particular. If the children now in these classrooms carry their attitudes and outlooks into adult-hood, we will have a society to be proud of.
There are many schools well on-track to turning such future-focused idealism into achievable reality and these schools are represented in all suburbs and deciles.
Distractions created by education trends, National Standards and even events such as the Rugby World Cup will always be around.
Effective education practitioners treat the distractions as opportunities and find ways of making them work for them and for the school. These people have never stopped being effective, working in environments where standing still is not a sought after or tolerated option.
The range of innovative ways in which schools are embracing the Rugby World Cup is a perfect example of seizing opportunities for celebrating, demonstrating and consolidating our multiculturalism.
Yes, there are exceptions, but for every one of these there are hundreds, if not thousands of day to day successes in schools where positive inter-personal relationships are fostered and celebrated. The schools and their successes are deserving of our recognition and gratitude.