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We have a wonderful, diverse and dedicated group of staff at Tenison Woods College, but we often don’t know much about these individuals, even though they spend a great deal of their time at the College! Now and then, it’s nice to hear from staff; what they enjoy doing outside of work, any advice they may have for our community, any interests or passions they want to share. ‘Beyond the Role’ is a new addition to the Tenison Woods College newsletter which we hope will be warmly received by our College community. This week, we introduce to you, Tom Linnell, Teacher and Sustainability Coordinator at the College.

I grew up in a house my parents built on top of an old shearers quarters. We had paddocks around us filled with crops and cattle as far as the eye could see. On the horizon I could see the Canunda range, where the windfarms now sit. As a kid living 10 km’s from the nearest town, we relied on the outdoors to entertain us. When I was little, my parents would always say whenever they saw us cooped-up inside; ‘find something to do outside’ or ‘I don’t want to see you kids again until tea time’. It seems harsh and a far reality from how we parent in today’s society, but it gave me something I couldn’t get any other way. It gave me a sense of wonder, beauty and an appreciation for nature.

This sense of wonder and appreciation for nature has continued to guide me every day since. Over the past few years in my role at the College as Sustainability Coordinator, I’ve asked students and staff members about one moment in their lives that filled them with wonder. Nearly all of these moments given by the respondents were a direct link to an experience outdoors, outside, or in nature. Finding wonder has always been easy to me. It can be found everywhere, in the simplest of places and in many of the activities we undertake everyday - You just need to know how and where to look. And, of course, wonder is amplified tenfold when you head outdoors.

As a child, each time I stepped outside, the outdoors quickly became a mix of the magical and the practical. A densely leafed shrub was a hideout from monsters, our dogs and - every now and then - Mum. Our large willow tree was a home away from home. Everything was dragged up there including the cat and my entire set of toy cars and motorbikes. It was also where we went when we got cranky or when we decided to run away from home. The drain across the road from our house was where magical creatures lived and where my sisters, brothers and I often set-off on hunts for aquatic life. The muddy paddocks beside our home was the ideal place for baking mud cakes and jumping in puddles. We had the perfect herb plot which we would attempt to utilise in our cooking – and where I experienced my first bee sting. We became little explorers and collected an extraordinary array of objects, some of which I still have today.

With no structured play, we unwound, recharged and spent plenty of time sitting still and watching nature do its thing. Being outside also taught us many lessons about the environment and our place within it. We learnt not to fear the outdoors, but to respect and embrace it. We also took the advice of our parents to not eat anything without first checking with them and never to touch furry caterpillars. We fought with free-range hens, ducks and geese for a patch of clean grass and still they rewarded us with delicious eggs each day. We tended to our very small veggie patch with enthusiasm and love, the resultant vegetables, used to cook simple, delicious meals, made us wriggle with pride at kids.

I know the world we live in today is different to the one from just 20 years ago when I was the ‘angelic’ child pictured above, but I wonder if we are doing our children any favours by allowing unrestricted screen times. A recent statistic I read was that the average child spends 46 hours a week in front of a screen and just 4-6 hours outside in comparison. At risk of sounding like a Grinch, I wonder what the next generation are missing out through an over indulgence of entertainment. As a new father, I am yet to fight the screen/no screen battle, but I do worry what the world will look like for them - or for their children. If the world we create and accept today is one with less life, less beauty and less places to wonder for them, have we really done our job in creating a ‘better’ world for our children.

It won’t happen overnight but try to show your children what it is like to be a kid again. Put the phone down, model to them what a full life looks like. So go on. Open the door, step outside and find some magic together.

Tom Linnell 

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