The Walk: Day 5
Essentially human – making connections and recognising the system
Thinking: prioritise and the energy will follow
Doing: walking the Portuguese coastal route to Santiago de Compostela
Today I really appreciated the opportunity to walk and talk. Being on the Camino made me realise how much I had missed in-person interaction. Although less time away from home travelling had been welcome during Covid, I missed those chance meetings with new, interesting people, where you learned something helpful or unexpected or they just made you laugh.
First, a little context. I work in education consultancy and leadership training and my husband is a teacher. I have one child who loved school, did well and now has a successful career – the system worked for her. Our son is in secondary school – he’s bright, loves learning (he is currently teaching himself Dutch using an app!) but struggles to go to school regularly. Getting him out of the door in the morning is a constant battle and a source of ongoing internal conflict for me. He needs an education but school every day is overwhelming and adds to his anxiety. But, we are caught in a system that requires attendance, it is monitored in school for some good reasons (safeguarding) and we get caught up in the belief that if our children aren’t there every day, we are not doing our best for them.
I got talking to a fellow traveller during one of our coffee stops and we walked together for a while. We discussed our reasons for walking the Camino, our work and our children. I knew my son had refused to go to school for the last couple of days and I suspected the same had happened today. As we talked, we realised we both had one child who had loved school and a second who currently didn’t and was often absent. As we talked, I realised I had been putting so much energy into getting my son to school, I hadn’t practised what I preach in my work life. I hadn’t identified the ‘system’ as it is in real life for us – from our perspective. I might get my son into school some days but the process of getting him there is not achieving what we want for him – a positive learning experience, nurturing a love of learning, curiosity and creativity.
Despite the long walk today, I felt a lightness. I had given myself permission to step back and look at the bigger picture and focus on what is important. I won’t have all the answers for a while but a chance meeting on the Camino means I will get better at the questions and strive to prioritise, so my energy follows. A bit like getting up and walking every day!
Buen Camino
The following published report includes some of my work using systems mapping to understand the influence of different factors within the education system and beyond on children and young people:
Report published: Smith, J. & Hamer, J. (2019) A system mapping approach to understanding child and adolescent wellbeing. DfE
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/understanding-child-and-adolescent-wellbeing-a-system-map
