Crawford Times 60 ONLINE

FEATURE ARTICLE
In a school where diversity and acceptance are key driving
values, our non-prescriptive multiform remains significant.
It isn’t simply a more comfortable clothing option: it allows
our students to identify their own preferences, to present
themselves as individuals and to celebrate their diversity.
While other schools may be defending their extensive
uniform restrictions, Crawford looks to the future – focused
on change and relevance. As an educator, I have always
valued the freedom around the multiform – rather than
monitoring and defending clothing regulations, I would
rather we focus on relationships, intellectual growth and
addressing topical issues that could potentially make
a difference.
Right from their pre-primary years, children at
CrawfordSchools are offered options and alternatives.
While this allows for individuality and identification of
unique talents, it also teaches discernment and decisionmaking,
as well as self-awareness. Choice forms an integral
part of the Crawford ethos – choices of subjects, choices
of activities, choices to ensure that every child has the
opportunity to engage and explore. From exposure to Art,
Music and Dance as our children enter a Crawford school,
through option and enrichment subjects at preparatory level,
right through to customised timetables and extensive subject
choices at college level, these choices mean that every child
has the opportunity to choose the track best suited to them.
It may be the norm in CrawfordSchools for our young
learners to have access to a wide range of developmental
arts and activities from pre-primary level, and for students to
have up to 22 subject options in our Colleges; but there are
few other schools in South Africa that can accommodate a
timetable that gives students such freedom of choice.
Pablo Picasso, a pioneering artist of the 20th century
asked, “What do we teach our children? We teach them
that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital
of France. When will we also teach them who they are?
We should say to each of them ‘Do you know who you
are? You are a marvel. You are unique. You may become a
Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven – you have the
capacity for anything’!”
Crawford teachers passionately support an educational
methodology which gives every child the opportunity to
flourish. They actively embrace a growth mindset where
they firmly believe in ‘The Power of Yet’ (Carol Dweck). We
know our children have different talents and characters,
that they face varied challenges and develop at a different
pace – but we also know that many simply haven’t reached
their goals ‘yet’. But we have proven time and again that
with the right support and belief, every child can indeed
become a masterpiece!
16 | Crawford Times