The Fish That Got Away

What a place to spend a birthday!  I awoke to another perfect day at Nanga Station in the North West where winter visits gently with sun-kissed days and clear blue skies.  Here the sun usually sets in a warm glow of burnt gold, melting into the sea-horizon as it dresses the skies in rich hues of red and pink.
Gazing out to sea, the wonder of this World Heritage area was apparent.  A thin strip of fine white sand sat still and warm, allowing one’s eye to travel freely over it into a set of picture-perfect strips of blue. The first line of blue was the transparent turquoise of the shallows, which gave way to the deep azure of salty sea-grass meadows rippling out to where they met the limitless stretch of baby blue sky on the distant horizon.
Movement caught my eye as a cormorant floated lazily in the shallows, holding its black wings open above the water like an umbrella propped open to dry.  Suddenly, with one huge flap he was high in the sky, hunting, as a silver fish caught his eye.  Unfortunately, this fish must have been to the Rio Olympics, as it evading him by literally jumping out of the water and dancing along on its tail with the cormorant skipping along behind him, half airborne and half submerged, before finally giving up and diving deep down into the ocean.
What a lesson that was in creatively changing behaviour, using strength and determination to meet the challenge and thereby changing an outcome which seemed preordained.  That fish decided to tail-walk instead of swim, keeping one step ahead of the cormorant, dazzling him in super silver bursts.
This is exactly how we want out students to think and act, responding creatively to challenges they may face in the future, and as educators we need to equip them with the skills and resilience they will need to tail-dance in this ever-changing world.

Tuesday 6 September 2016