Again and again, we hear people narrate how a Zimbabwean youngster has gone overseas and has been noticed, respected and wanted. It is no accident, no coincidence, no fluke.
Have we ever wondered why? And have we ever wondered why so many young Zimbabweans want to come back to this country to raise their children? We should! The two questions are related, as well. In short, it is all to do with character. It is character they see — and it is character we must seek to develop. Our business is not to develop charisma, not personality, not intellect, not skill, but character. As Elmer G Letterman points out, “Personality can open doors, but only character can keep them open.”
Our modern world is too interested in the froth, the superficial, personality, and not in the truth, the substance, character.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American writer and philosopher, has said that: “The true test of civilisation is not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops — no, but the kind of man the country turns out.”
So too then, the true test of a school is not the database, the facilities, the results, but the kind of pupils that the school turns out.
Peggy Noonan, a political commentator in the US, has written that: “In a president, character is everything. A president doesn’t have to be brilliant... He doesn't have to be clever; you can hire clever... You can hire pragmatic, and you can buy and bring in policy works. But you can’t buy courage and decency; you can’t rent a strong moral sense.”
Interestingly and ironically, Richard Nixon, the US President who was impeached for his part in the Watergate scandal, had earlier written that: “With all the power that a President has, the most important thing to bear in mind is this: You must not give power to a man unless, above everything else, he has character.” That is why we seek to develop character in our pupils.
Richard Reeves has drawn a helpful distinction in this regard: “Power is what you do and character is what you are...” while Abraham Lincoln, one of the most respected of all US Presidents, saw the danger in power too when he stated that “nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.”
That is another warning to us in Zimbabwean schools. William Lecky, an Irish Historian and Essayist, wrote that “one of the most important lessons that experience teaches is that, on the whole, success depends more upon character than upon either intellect or fortune” while John Luther has commented that “good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent.
Most talents are to some extent a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece by thought, choice, courage and determination.”
Sure, we develop talent at school but we are failing if that is all we are doing. We are to build character.
In an age which is geared more to the superficial body-building, we for our part must be more concerned for the deeper character-building. Zimbabweans have been through severe trials over the last couple of decades.
We have had to persevere and that has built character. What people are seeing in our former pupils is that very character — and they see it more obviously in developed countries where they do not see it in their own youngsters who are molly-coddled by political correctness and social security.
Helen Keller, the blind and deaf American speaker, echoed this when she observed that "character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” It is in the trials and the tests that our character is formed.
JC Watts wrote that “character is doing the right thing when nobody’s looking. There are too many people who think that the only thing that's right is to get by, and the only thing that's wrong is to get caught.” General H Norman Schwartzkopf, the man who led the Nato forces during the first Iraq War, gave a similar insight when he said that: “I admire men of character, and I judge character not by how men deal with their superiors, but mostly how they deal with their subordinates, and that, to me, is where you find out what the character of a man is.” That is a very salutary word for us with regard to our leadership system in schools. James D Miles expressed it slightly differently: “you can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.” Tests and trials, all through school, reveal the true character. Is it not character that you want from a school for your child? That is why people return to this country. We must keep the door open.
- Tim Middleton is the executive director of the Association of Trust Schools [ATS]. The views expressed in this article, however, are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of the ATS. Email: ceo@atschisz.co.zw
website: www.atschisz