thrupp@waikato.ac.nz
Every year or so I try to break out of my normally sedate European backpackers with trekking poles, pushing up the valley life and do something physically demanding, harking back to and climbing to the highest point above the Emerald Lakes. This my earlier days as a keen tramper and mountaineer. And so it was pre-COVID of course. was that back in January, I decided to do a day walk around the As I walked along and joined them I struck up a discussion cinder cone that is the mighty Mt Ngauruhoe: massive, uncaring, with a young man from Sussex in England. I told him about how humbling. I had first visited 40 years ago and how I had camped in solitude In this column I’m going to draw some parallels between this where thousands of people now passed each day. My new friend wonderful experience and aspects of school leadership. Some of was interested in this, and he held back with me, chatting now them I thought of while I was actually doing and then as flatter terrain allowed. To be the walk, and some afterwards. honest, he might have been slowing down The only answer To begin with, the idea for the walk was born to look after me, or perhaps he was enjoying when my wife Marika and I were finishing a to the problem meeting someone local. But it was only once tramp in the area the previous year. As we we reached the highest point that we said our hobbled towards the end on blistered feet, a was to put one foot goodbyes, both richer for the conversation. young woman ran by, carrying only one of in front of the I think about this in relation to passing those hydration packs. She cheerfully slowed on leadership skills and knowledge. There down to tell us how that day she had run the other and keep are times when sharing the benefits of one’s entire Northern Circuit (the tramp around experience is utterly pointless. But there are Ngauruhoe) and was now completely done in. walking, and the only other times worth savouring, as with my I was intrigued by this as I had also done comfort was that I young friend from Sussex, when someone the 45km circuit as a tramp several times but is genuinely receptive and will hang on your never considered that it could be done in a had often been in every word. day. And certainly I knew I couldn’t run that When it came time to descend to the far: I would keel over in the first hour. But this situation before. Emerald Lakes, there were little groups of after some thought, I was quietly confident hikers picking their way gingerly down the that I could walk it over a long summer day. volcanic scree, unnerved by its looseness and the prospect of New innovations or directions in our schools are also like this. falling. Most of them were the same people who had passed me Most of the time we don’t invent a new idea but we build on by as I’d puffed my way up. But having descended lots of scree someone else’s, often cleverly adapting it to suit our own context. slopes over the years, I was more confident. Giving them a wide Preparation was the next step, and as the trip approached I berth, I was off and running, soon leaving them far behind. started to do a few walks around our neighbourhood in suburban The relevant point for school leadership here is that energy is Hamilton. I also thought about food and drink, and I put a little important but experience counts for a lot as well. Experienced ‘bivvy bag’ shelter in my daypack in case I got caught out in the principals/tumuaki can often cut to the nub of a situation, open with an injury. But that was about it: I was busy with other frequently resolving it far more quickly than newcomers can. things and so there was no extensive training, nor any personal After the Emerald Lakes I left the Tongariro Crossing and locator beacon given it was such a well-trodden path that I headed east and then south on the Circuit, passing through the would be walking. remarkable lunar-like landscapes that the Desert Road is named It seems to me that school leadership is a lot like this as well. after. By mid-afternoon I had arrived at Waihohonu Hut. This We prepare, but only rarely do we have the time or resources to should have meant the hard part was over because the rest of prepare optimally. School leadership is much more the art of the walk back to Whakapapa was like a highway by comparison doing the best job in the circumstances. with the track already done. Unfortunately it was still a long I stayed the night in Whakapapa and set off in darkness at about way, more than 15 kilometres, and by this time I’d already been 5.30am, with stars above and the lights of the Chateau receding walking for eight hours or so. behind me. By the time the sun had come up over the mountains, The only answer to the problem was to put one foot in front I was already well on the way to the Mangatepopo Valley, where I of the other and keep walking, and the only comfort was that I expected to join the tourist hordes doing the Tongariro Crossing had often been in this situation before. Over the years I have had which shares some of the path of the Northern Circuit. Sure many long walking days, sometimes by choice, sometimes not. enough, there were already dozens of people, mainly fit young And so I trudged along for more than four hours with those lyrics
from the band ‘America’ playing in my head as an earworm: ‘I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name, it felt good to be out of the rain . . . ’ Eventually I got back to Whakapapa almost 13 hours after leaving it: tired and sore but happy. It seems to me that there is a big helping of this sheer endurance in school leadership too. Tumuaki develop resilience because having been in similar situations before, they recognise their power to hold on and win through. And that understanding of their proven strength begets confidence from others around them as well. Of course there are many other parallels that could be drawn between school leadership and a walk such as this. These days, it may seem that school leaders are being asked to hop, skip, or even fly a jetpack rather than walk! Also there is little doubt that being able to be autonomous and move at our own speed is often motivating. It would be a very different daytrip – or leadership experience – if someone else was forcing the pace. And don’t you think that, like my circuit, school leadership often involves returning again to places we have already been, perhaps seeing them through new eyes after time and other events have passed? There are also limits to such analogies. In particular, mine was a solo walk. School leadership is much more of shared challenge, even if principals are those with the most responsibility. Perhaps the most important point here is that there are numerous school leadership lessons to be learnt from our other life experiences and the key thing is to take the time to reflect. I hope this column makes you think about some challenging but good times in your own life and how they have left you more prepared for being a school leader.
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