Year 9 Pastoral Guardian

Congratulations, parents, for surviving the first term with your daughters as they have transitioned into Clare School : )

This term we have been clearly sending the message to the girls that we need to raise the bar and strive for success.  Success is, however, at times difficult to define as it means different things to different people.  With this in mind, we certainly need to ensure our girls, particularly those in Clare School, do not put limits on what they believe they can succeed at.  It is this time we need to ensure that our girls do not limit themselves, not allow them to decide that they cannot do something.

This brings to mind a good story - a story about elephants.

A man was passing by some elephants.  He suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front legs.  No chains, no cages.  It was obvious that the elephants could, at any time, break away from the ropes to which they were tied but, for some reason, they did not.  Seeing the elephant trainer nearby. the man asked why these beautiful, magnificent animals just stood there and made no attempt to break away.

“Well”, he said, “when they are very young and much smaller, we use the same size of rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them.  As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away.  They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”  The man was amazed.  These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but, because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

Like the elephants, we do not want our girls hanging onto beliefs that they cannot do something, simply because they failed at it once before.

Let’s instead embrace the following strategy:

Conversation Starter

Do you know the story of the elephants?

If you are brave, feel free to tuck them into bed while you tell them this story : ) 

Therese Dooley