The night janitor knows more about how a school actually works than the brochure does.

REFLECTION

WHAT THIS MEANS

People with the least formal standing in a place often understand it best, because they see it with the performance switched off. Who stays late, which rooms get wrecked, which rules exist on paper only, which adults are kind when there is no audience. A brochure describes the intended version. Somebody emptying bins at nine knows the real one.

Talk properly to one of those people this week, by name, about something other than the task. You will learn something about where you spend your days, and you will be one of the few who bothered.

A QUESTION TO SIT WITH

Who at your school sees how it truly runs?

MORE IN MEANING & PERSPECTIVE

Free, with nothing to buy inside it.