I have been thinking a lot about compression recently and how to speak and write economically without sacrificing substance. It’s an art. The girls who participated in our Chatterbox evening last Tuesday and had to keep their reflections to three minutes understand what I am talking about; so does Grade 3M whose engrossing assembly on the power of cultivating a growth mindset was summed up memorably in the lyrics of their closing song: Have a go!

The abundance of available information and communication platforms, along with the appetite for instant edification, present schools and other organisations with an interesting challenge: how to keep our communities well informed and engaged – or should I say entertained – all the time. Add to this the blasé assertion that “people don’t read” and you are left with some stark alternatives: discard any written content that cannot be consumed by the teaspoonful, or convert all messages into images, infograms and ambient voice notes.

There are other positions, too: we can begin by rejecting the premise that keeping things brief also always means tending towards the trivial. The sonnet survives as a modern literary form (believe it or not!) owing mostly to its apparently perfect length: 14 lines, each approximately three seconds long.

Another example of profound, capsule-sized insight, and a weekly ritual in our Junior School staff meetings, is known by magazine readers as the Proust questionnaire. Misattributed to French novelist, Marcel Proust, the list of questions began its life as a parlour game and is now a staple feature of Vanity Fair where prompts like, “What is your greatest regret?”, “Which talent do you most wish you had?” and “What phrase or saying do you overuse?” yield consistently candid responses from celebrity subjects. Worth noting is that in the book Vanity Fair’s Proust Questionnaire: 101 Luminaries Ponder Love, Death, Happiness, and the Meaning of Life (published 2009) Nelson Mandela is mentioned nine times, more than anyone else, in response to the question about the person you most admire.

Lastly, something else that is universally disparaged for not measureing up but which is critically important in a world where neighbours hardly know each other and people avoid making eye contact by defaulting to scrolling on their phones: small talk. In his book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century historian Timothy Snyder instructs us to “Make eye contact and small talk. This is not just polite. It is part of being a citizen and a responsible member of society. It is also a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down social barriers, and understand whom you should and should not trust.” Also, he reminds us that banal gestures – a smile, a handshake or a word of greeting – take on great significance in politically divisive times.

The brief and the banal, perhaps, are deserving of more praise.

SARAH WARNER
JUNIOR SCHOOL HEADMISTRESS