Cutting a hedge as a metaphor for learning fundamentals

I am still on a quest to try and get my garden in order which I undertook and pledged I’d due during our various COVID pandemic lockdowns of 2020 and 2021.

It’s happening – just not as fast as I hoped. I’m still struggling with recognising that there’s 24 hours in a day and only 7 days in a week. Gosh dangnabbit where does the time go?

Two areas where I do tend to be relatively (ahem that might be an overstatement) conscientious is on keeping the lawn cut and trimming my hedge.

Except not with the hedge. I used to be conscientious and then I let it lapse. I mean I’d hack at it and then try again. My hedge is a very valuable piece of the property because it faces the ocean view and is the first major barrier on the compound that would get to experience hurricane winds. It is able to dissapate some of that destructive wind power. However it does also need to be kept in check otherwise it can seriously block our wonderful view of the ocean (I know, I know not the most critical thing to consider when we look at the state of the world around us).

On top of which, the hedge is at one point very close to our neighbour’s property and it now started to droop over the fence and now hang substantially into their compound. This particular neighbour is about 8m below my garden level.

On the left, the ‘back of the hedge that we don’t see from the house. Totally overgrown. On the right, I’m about ¼ of the way through trying to clear it. Our neighbour’s house can finally be seen. You can see how much mass of the hedge is hanging over into their compound.

I decided that there was nothing for it but to start getting to grips with the hedge at the end of the winter months. This is where I made a startling discovery which was the way that the hedge was growing.

From the outside the hedge tended to look quite healthy and substantial. However, since I was trying to par back the hedge substantially to restore the ocean view I had to chop back quite a bit and then I realised that from the inside the actual structure of the hedge was foundationally weak. Much of the leaves on the outside of the hedge, were actually the ends of very long stringy shoots that went horizontally across the inside of the hedge and then popped out. This sounds good because it could create a lattice, but it was bad because much of the hedge was supported by very few stems that were actually in the ground. The result, a hedge that was top heavy, with little to actually hold it into the ground. Should a strong wind come along, the result could easily be that the mass of the hedge would be moved to collapse out of the soil and possibly land in the compound of my neighbour, taking my fence with it. Not neighbourly and not safe for us either, particularly when family with young children come by who want to play in the garden.

This exercise made me think of how we are trying to do our education system at MIS and how it compares with the education system of the main public schools. Part of this comes from reports that say that our children that did not attend school during the pandemic months, are seriously behind. I am of the opinion that they are probably not as behind as people think because the things that they are behind at, are like the long whispy horizontal hedge stem that contributes to the outside, ie superficial, look of a good hedge, in this case we think our children are getting a great education – but are they under the ‘traditional’ education system. It seems that we’re really missing some foundational core elements in our education. The result is that when a strong wind blows, the middle and top heavy aspects of our children’s learning is unearthed and collapses.

Take another neighbour but who is a business neighbour to my wife’s business. He recently approached me and was totally frustrated: “I don’t know Robin, our education system is totally failing us. How so, I mean I have employed graduates who absolutely do not know how to answer the phone! How is that possible that they go through primary, secondary, and tertiary, pass all their exams, have a graduation photo to share of them receiving their degree – and they cannot answer the phone!“

I actually know what he means. Obviously they know how to pick up the phone but they don’t know what to say after that. Recently I was rung by a person that wanted me to send them financial information. They didn’t say what for, they did not say who they were, they did not even give me a place to send the information. I gently asked them ‘Who are you?‘ to which they replied FedEx and then I said ‘Yes ok I understand but who are you?” to which the young man said ‘Federal Express‘. He finally gave his name. I explained that his approach was kind of forward – well rude actually – and he hadn’t even given a place for me to send the information to.

[A quick aside, here in Fiji we need to provide details for shipments coming in mainly for our customs folks which includes information linked to the tax department – hence courier companies often need to get a lot of paperwork including this information related to finances, just to receive a package.]

Incredibly the same gentleman rang the next day and gave me EXACTLY the same treatment as he need more information! My wife’s neighbour is totally correct there are educational fundamentals or foundations that are not being addressed.

Just like my hedge, I think that our education system needs to be chopped down substantially to get rid of these ‘side stems’ that give the appearance of an education system, but overall that is probably doubtful. Quick thought experiment, which would be the more useful skill for most students – learn how to do calculus; or learn how to answer the phone properly?

Not sure why it’s my hedge’s structure that gives me these insights but I’m happy to get them anyway.

This was our hedge in 2010 on a morning when fog drifted over Raiwai and Raiwaqa early one morning. Different neighbours house but the hedge was more manageable. I’m trying to get back to something similar to this.