Why we might need more tortoises and fewer hares in education

We have heard Aesop's fable of 'The Tortoise and the Hare.' In this tale with a message, a tortoise challenges an arrogant hare to a race. The hare quickly leaves the tortoise behind. Being so confident,  he decides to have a sleep midway through the race. When the hare wakes, he finds the tortoise, who has kept slowly moving forward, has arrived before him, and has won. A common interpretation of the message of this fable is 'slow and steady wins the race.'

Thinking of schools and education, I believe we celebrate hares too much, and tortoises not enough. School systems are full of people racing to do lots of things, as quickly as possible. Education is not a race. Education is a relentless process of personal enlightenment, growth and development. There is no end point. In that case, it is through adopting the dispositions and characteristics of the tortoise in Aesop's fable that we are most likely to keep making strong, steady progress. Such a relentless approach to personal, and professional growth, is more likely to produce deep sustainable change for ourselves and our systems. Adoption of a slow and steady approach to our growth may also help us deal with some of the difficulties we face with regard to teacher retention and leader recruitment.

We live in a society that is driven by instant results, instant success, and which celebrates those who have 'overnight success,' often ignoring or failing to see the hours and years of effort people have put into achieving what some characterise as 'overnight success.' You only have to look at the life stories of people like Mo Farrah, Ed Sheeran, Rodger Federer, Nelson Mandela, Bill Gates, to name but a few, to see how their successes were grounded in a mix of years of hard work and application, set-backs, good luck and bad luck, but driven by a relentless desire to succeed and get better. If you have read any of Malcolm Gladwell's books, he recounts hundreds of cases of successful entrepreneurs and outliers, who have gone on to great success. Their histories grounded in the same characteristics displayed by those mentioned above, as well as the tortoise in the fable.

We have politicians and system leaders who demand instant impact and success. With each initiative, especially those with funding attached, the demands to demonstrate impact in shorter and shorter time-frames become ever more incessant. As a result, and to mix metaphors a little, we set  hares running throughout the system. Those inclined to act before they think too much, push on with the next initiative, with little thought to the consequences for themselves, learners, colleagues, or the system overall. They are confident and determined to act speedily, and show results quickly, before they move on to their next focus. Politicians, and some system leaders have very short attention spans. For them, the key driver is career goals, having lost sight of what is truly important. They fail to understand what makes a difference, or have forgotten, in their rush for impact. Impact for them and their careers, often at the expense of teachers, learners and education.

In the meantime, the tortoises of the system keep moving on. They move on their thinking, their understanding, their practice and the experiences for all their learners. They keep their focus on where it should be, the learners. They are committed to each and every one of them and their holistic growth. They tend to collaborate with like-minded colleagues, being happy to share experiences and insights. They are, as Michael Fullan says, 'relentless' in their pursuit of personal and professional growth. They are not deflected by the latest new shiny 'silver bullets' appearing from time to time. They understand what, and who, makes a real difference for all their learners. Fullan has also recommended that teachers and school leaders 'exploit policy.' The tortoises in the system are exploiters. Each day they focus on what is important and what needs to be done. When they have identified these, they are relentless in their pursuit, finding ways to fit what they need to do into school, local authority and national policy.

The tortoises in the system are less likely to attract, or look for, headlines and acclaim. They are steadfast in their desire to keep moving forward through thinking, reading talking and collaborating with those who share their commitment. They are the backbone of any school and any system. When the hares have disappeared out of site, burnt out, or sought respite elsewhere, they are what remains in any system. It is interesting to note that the average lifespan of a hare is five to seven years, whilst that of a tortoise is eighty to one hundred and fifty years! I have long advocated the need to slow down in order to achieve more. It would seem that Aesop was sharing similar thoughts some two and a half thousand years and more ago. We can be quite slow to catch on at times. We need to adopt more tortoise dispositions, than those of hares. We may survive longer, and our impacts on the system will have more sustainability.