The Headmaster's  Message for 2007
	January 2007                                                             "When one of us is threatened we are all at risk.........."           "We are all involved in this journey called life....................."

I have a new book and I must start the year with a quote from it. The book is called "Re-imagine" and is written by Tom Peters.

He says the following of culture change and a changing society:

Culture change is not corporate
Culture change is not a programme
Culture change does not take years
Culture change does not start today
Culture change starts right now
Culture change lives in the moment
Culture change is entirely in your hands as teachers.
The way forward is:
We will survive
We will thrive
We will do the Wow work
We will seek out pioneering parents and young men to fill our schools
We will go with modern ideology and technology
We will focus on things that make us special and distinct
We will push to the hilt the things that we are best at
AND We will start NOW – this minute.

The Boss of IBM, Thomas Watson, was asked – "How long does it take to become excellent?" – he replied – "One Minute".
 

I have a story, which some may have read. It’s a Mouse story and I think it has great relevance to us in Zimbabwe and our community at Falcon.‘. A mouse looked through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open a package.

"What food might this contain?" the mouse wondered. He was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap. 

Retreating to the farmyard, the mouse proclaimed the warning.   "There is a mousetrap in the House! There is a mousetrap in the House!"
The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said:  "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is of grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him:  "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The pig sympathized, but said:   "I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse, but there is nothing I can do about it but pray. Be assured you are in my prayers."
 

The mouse turned to the cow and said:  "There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the house!"
The cow said:  "Wow, Mr. Mouse, I’m sorry for you, but it’s no skin off my nose".

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and dejected, to face the farmer’s mousetrap – alone.
That very night a sound was heard throughout the house – like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught.  In the darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer’s wife.  The farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever.
Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup, so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup’s main ingredient.
But his wife’s sickness continued, so friends and neighbours came to sit with her around the clock. To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig. The farmer’s wife did not get well – she died. So many people came for her funeral, the farmer had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness.
So, the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn’t concern you, remember ---

WHEN ONE OF US IS THREATENED, WE ARE ALL AT RISK.

We are all involved in this journey called life.
We must keep an eye out for one another and make an extra effort to encourage one another.
I really do look forward to the year ahead. The boys at the top of the school are those who came in when I did and I think that’s a positive.