The new broom
There’s a new head teacher at our boys’ school. He seems like a nice bloke. He inherits an institution with a very particular and established ethos: easy-going, bordering on slacker. It’s one of the main reasons we chose the school, to be honest.
What’s interesting to watch is the subtle changes that are being introduced as this new head tries to make his mark. And we’re only just coming to the end week two. They’re not bad changes. They’re not big changes. But they are changes.
What is it with the ‘new broom’ obsession? It’s something I’ve never understood. I’m much more for waiting and listening and watching and supporting – as a first port of call, anyway.
What the new broom approach so often speaks about is not so much who you are and what your intent is, but more what you thought was wrong with stuff before. Call me easily-pleased, but I couldn’t see a lot wrong with how things were.
I’m struggling to wrench a broader, more philosophical point out of my micro-observation here. But it might go something like this: you don’t always need to change things straight away to prove yourself. You don’t even always have to change things in order to develop and improve them. Sometimes it’s more gracious to see where you fit – and so where you can then speak from and who you will be speaking to – first. For quite a while. And then to get sweeping.
Now, here’s the big leap.
I’m reminded that Jesus didn’t do anything of public note until he was 30. Apparently. That’s a long time waiting. I overheard someone saying recently – struggling with the vagaries of the institution called the church that Jesus somehow seems to have bequeathed – that they were a ‘great fan of Jesus’ early works’. They meant, of course, that what’s followed on after Jesus’ life on earth has not grabbed them as much as that initial album’s worth of material.
I guess I’d want to put the church continuation part to one side for a moment and say that I’m a fan of Jesus’ later works. In other words, his wielding the new broom only after a period of waiting and watching. Somehow, because of the wait, his broom seems to have had more effect.
