A message from the Rector

By Richard Hall | Posted: Thursday November 7, 2024

Commitment is a discipline that needs constant reinforcement.

Recently I was at an after match function and an ex-Canterbury 1st class cricketer, Ed Nuttal, said something quite small, but actually quite profound. In the context of 1st XI cricket, he spoke about the fact that our 1st XI were physically as skilful as any in the country, but perhaps they lacked discipline. That meant the discipline to bowl 6 deliveries in the over in the right place, or the discipline to build an innings to win the match, and as we had just lost by close to 100 runs, you could not fault his logic.

But that word 'discipline' has really stuck with me since then, and to be frank I think it is one of the things that we as a community could focus on. For clarification, discipline is not in this context, punishment. No, I am not advocating bringing back marching parades or the cane. I mean that internal discipline that we must instil into young men. And I think I prefer the term discipline, over habits.

Too often, our boys are late to school, or their device is not charged, they have 'lost' their tie or, right at the moment their exam slip, which was only given to them last week. These small acts of self-discipline when not followed, often mean someone else on staff needs to do the same job, three or four times. In this case, our office staff have to stop what they are doing and reprint a whole other slip. Once is ok, but there were 10 boys lined up this morning.

In the junior school this is being shown up by boys who have signed up for sports, not fronting to the practices or the matches. We had an example this week in social volleyball where only 1 of the 10 boys in a team showed up. One. That lack of discipline, in this case, cost the school $50, but it hurt us more to have to default.

As a community, I think we need to be more committed to following through and do less, better. Don't let him sign up for two summer sports, if he cannot make all the training and the fixtures. Nothing, and I mean nothing makes a manager or coach feel more devalued and disrespected than boys not fronting.

As a community I ask that for the last few weeks of this term, we support the discipline of the small act, the reinforcement of the discipline of commitment, because we all know it connects us inside the school, to the real-world expectations outside of the school.

Enjoy your weekend, I am hoping to not get hailed on at cricket tomorrow!