True Grit

Surely no one could quarrel with schools 

developing resilience in anxious

and excluded children,

helping them develop ‘grit’.

And school takes up so much of their lives

it should be where the support is focused

and money spent by government 

especially in Britain 

where more grit is needed to survive.

But to address the problems of schooling,

requires the causes of the problems

as well as the problems,

so it needs to consider the curriculum,

boring and inappropriate for so many children,

to address the problem of exclusion and bullying

so often related to an inappropriate curriculum,

to recognise the stress of the pressure caused 

by constant testing and exams 

structured into schooling.

To consider the resolvable causes of problems 

as well as supporting those suffering

and, to make changes so schooling

becomes more appropriate 

to children’s needs,

now that would take true grit.

https://dsmag.in/2025/06/27/lynn-whites-poem-true-grit/