Michael Pettavel: How to live in turbulent times

With news of an entirely unthought out expansion of Early Education in the budget, the heart-breaking news of Ruth Perry’s death, and closures of nurseries on the rise, it’s difficult not to feel infuriated. Inadequate plans demonstrate that there aren’t any plans at all. Looming strikes, dilapidated school buildings and the lack of provision for vulnerable children and their families are hard to escape.

When children start at nursery, it has been a long-time habit to speak to parents about the importance of supporting the whole nursery community. I explain that when I am older, greyer and (more) infirm, it will be these children that are giving me my medication, taking me to the loo and brushing my hair (amongst more unsavoury elements of old age that I don’t want to lower the tone with here).

If, as part of a community we simply focus on what matters to us, (for parents, their own child) then this is not to anyone’s advantage. The future paramedics, doctors, care workers, teachers, early years educators – the list is inexhaustible, are right there in front of us every day and we ignore this fact at our peril.

As children grow up and go through school into their adolescence and adulthood, they need others around them to be the best they can be. If we support everyone and see this as an investment for ourselves as well as for others, we could create a world that is safer, supported, and inclusive when things get tough.

It is easy to be outraged, angry and continually disappointed. There is much to be ashamed of in the state of our services as those who so brazenly cling to power make us feel we are being taken advantage of. Polarisation can make extremists of us all, whether we are incensed at the latest political lie, Ofsted, or inequality, however it touches our lives.

It is difficult not to get drawn in, but solutions seldom lie in outrage, they lie in planning and compassion. I am not saying that we should ignore or accept the inequality we see every day, but there is a need to be pragmatic and make sure our reaction to it is measured, not a knee-jerk that further divides and polarises. Few solutions lie in opposites.

I was touched in a recent radio obituary of Ben Ferencz, the last surviving prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Court, a man who had seen such extreme levels of atrocity yet never lost his sense of compassion. His view was simply: ‘Don't leave a place the way you found it; leave it the way you would like to have found it.’

In these turbulent times, maybe we need to take a step back, appreciate we are part of the solution, and we should allow ourselves to feel some small pride because our contribution is perhaps making the future a little bit better for everyone else.