Travelling into London on the Elizabeth Line last weekend, on my way to the annual COBIS conference, I was sat opposite a baby, and I can honestly say that this was the best train journey I have taken in a long time; it was so enjoyable! The baby – probably, I would guess, aged 10 months or so – was on her mother’s lap, and as she interacted with the environment around her, she was – very evidently, and in rapid succession – possessed by a host of different emotions, from curiosity to delight, and from astonishment, through perplexity, determination, truculence and wonder, to sheer joy. When she saw a handrail, this baby wanted to chew it; when she spotted the floor, she wanted to stand on it; and when she caught the eye of a fellow passenger, she laughed out loud.
If you have forgotten how infectious a baby’s laugh can be, then take yourself out on public transport until you find a baby, and wait for them to laugh. Alternatively (and probably more practically), do a search on YouTube – I sincerely hope that the internet contains a whole section devoted to laughing babies. When you hear a baby laughing, you must know how impossible it is to stop yourself joining in; no matter the sadnesses in our lives, a baby’s laugh does its very best to assuage these. It is a joyous experience – a sense that in that moment, the universe is aligned, and the joy you experience in the fullness and completeness of the moment is amplified by the potential that lies ahead for that little human being, if they are nurtured well and guided wisely.
This baby on the Elizabeth Line was fortunate to have an attentive mother who gave her enough rein to explore, without actually letting her lick the accumulated germs on the seats around her, or knock herself unconscious on the nearby suitcases. Consequently, this little person was very evidently in the ‘growth zone’ between the freedom to learn and develop, and the safety of the boundaries that would ensure that she could come to no harm. She was neither let loose to roam the carriage, nor constrained in her buggy; her activity was purposeful, productive and in balance.
And it struck me – given that governance was on my mind on that journey to COBIS – that, in a nutshell, this balance between safety and boundary-pushing, is exactly what we want and need from governance. At the conference, I chaired a panel of esteemed governors from COBIS schools across the world, and governance experts, on the topic ‘Governors are Trained, not Born. Discuss’. Our aim was to explore and share experiences of best practice in training and developing Boards in the skills needed to fulfil their responsibilities, and we certainly did that; we also explored how good governance thrives. This is where the analogy with the baby struck me … good governance, like the baby, thrives best when there are clear boundaries, but with room to move within these, and encouragement to explore how to fulfil the challenging demands made of Governors, who have ultimate responsibility over schools, and who must ensure every plate is kept spinning, and every tightrope is walked with resolute confidence.
No-one is ever born a ready-made Governor, and even the most experienced of us must continue to learn, and keep practising the craft, if we are to be the best we can be. A shout-out, therefore, to all Governors; may your journey of learning about governance be as appropriately free and disciplined as that of the baby on Elizabeth Line, and may you – at least sometimes! – experience infectious joy in your work.
