Just wondering about "rocks".

A few professional lives ago, in a different school, I witnessed something that has stayed with me throughout my career. The Secondary Principal got up on stage during assembly and demonstrated what is often referred to as the rocks, pebbles and sand analogy. It was inspiring and visually convincing. When I became Principal myself, I often used this story with students at the beginning of the year to help them reflect on time management and priorities.

The rocks became a key theme in both Quito and London, as I liked to stretch the metaphor and use other rock stories. Another colleague of mine, when he was Principal before me in Quito,  regularly shared another story I love: once upon a time, a person met someone carrying rocks and asked, "What are you doing?". The person responded, "I am carrying rocks". Later the first person met someone else, carrying rocks and asked the same question. This time the response was different, "I am building a house". When they met a third person still carrying rocks, they were surprised to hear another response: "I am building a castle". One interpretation of this story is the importance of setting ambitious goals and keeping an eye on them during our journey.

I shared these stories with High School students in both Quito and London when I was Principal and they became a kind of a running joke - one with meaning. Students would talk to me about what those stories meant to them and parents would even comment that « rocks »  had popped up in conversations at home.  Recently one of the students I graduated in Quito contacted me and said that in Spain, they met another student that I graduated in London. They realised that I had been their Principal in their respective High Schools. They remembered the rock stories and laughed at the connection with me. After sharing this with my family, it also reminded me how important it is to consider what we share with students and the bits and pieces they might remember about us.

In London, during COVID, I tried to keep the rock metaphor alive and I intentionally sought out new rock-related stories to tell in assemblies. For example, I shared the rock soup to emphasise collaboration and how we can thrive together. I also used the warm pebble story to highlight the need to avoid getting stuck in routine, and instead take risks, try new things, fail and try again. In London, we even created a house competition called the Rock Challenge, a rocky adaptation of the Amazing Race, which we ran with staff in Istanbul.

Now in my new role here in Rabat, I have once again recycled the rocks, pebbles and sand story using it to clarify and prioritise the school-wide teaching and learning focus areas for the year. I find myself stretching the metaphor to further highlight the interconnectedness of everything we do as a team. As I am about to launch the badminton season as Head coach, I am even contemplating using a rock analogy to set goals with the 50+ middle and high school students who have signed up for badminton this year.

Now that the dust is settling in after the first few weeks of school, let’s all ensure that we have clarity on our rocks because pebbles and sand will nicely fit afterwards anyway.

For it’s worth…