Beyond the Podium

As the Commonwealth Games begin this week, millions of us will watch athletes for a matter of minutes. I am guilty of many late nights watching incredible feats over and over again. Some events will be over in less than ten seconds. Years of preparation, decided in the blink of an eye. It strikes me that we're very good at applauding the moment, but not always the months that came before it.

A medal is easy to recognise. So is an high mark in an exam, a standing ovation, a premiership or a place in a representative team. They are visible. They give us something to celebrate. What we don't often notice are the decisions that made those moments possible: choosing to practise when there were other far more tantalising options, asking for help instead of pretending to understand, trying again after getting something wrong, turning up when motivation had disappeared. As a school, those are the moments that interest me most. They don't make headlines or social media posts, but they tell us far more about a young person than any ‘final’ result ever could. They reveal perseverance, humility, discipline and courage. They are the habits that shape character long before they shape achievement.

One of the privileges of working in a school is that we get to see those moments every day. A student staying back every day after school to study. A musician rehearsing the same passage again and again. An athlete putting in the work and running around the oval after everyone else has gone home. A teacher going the extra mile because they know one more piece of great feedback might make the difference.

As parents and educators, I suspect that's where our attention should be too. Not only on the outcomes, important though they are, but on the choices that lead to them. Because while medals, marks and trophies are wonderful milestones, they are never the whole story. The story worth celebrating is the young people they are becoming along the way.