“Excellence” is the most important school value, and also the most ubiquitous

Please have a read this wonderful Argumentative / Discursive Essay essay written by one of our Year 11 students, Vincent Arnaud. It is on the School’s core values, notably Excellence, and especially at exam time this may be very appropriate.

“Excellence” is the most important school value, and also the most ubiquitous

At the International School of Helderberg, there are seven values which are touted as being crucial to good living and learning practices. These values are Pride, Integrity, Empathy, Excellence, Accountability and Respect.

Pride is taken to mean a reasonable degree of self-respect and the acknowledgement of one’s own achievements. It is not to be confused with arrogance or conceit. Integrity is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as being a firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values. It is closely linked to Accountability, the quality or state of being accountable or the practice of holding oneself responsible for one’s thoughts, words and actions. Empathy is the practice of taking other people’s feelings or points of view into account, whether you are or are not in support of their ideas, in an effort to be as constructive and helpful as possible and to minimise needless negativity and callous cruelty. Respect is defined as the act of giving particular attention to something or holding it in high regard. At our school, most people seem to use the word as a way to describe a combination of etiquette, kindness and the preservation of other peoples’ dignity. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Excellence as the quality of being excellent(eminently good), and connotes the word to virtue.

I am of the opinion that Excellence is a quality which, by virtue of being inclusive of all others, is the most important to remember and to strive towards.

Firstly, Excellence and Pride are mutually inclusive qualities: if Pride is a justified respect for yourself or the work you create, then Excellence is the standard to which you aspire. To achieve Pride you must first achieve Excellence. Virtue, a word which is semantically similar to Excellence, connotes a quality or trait which is deserving of merit, meaning that Excellence is something to be earned – just like our school’s definition of Pride.

Integrity implies a certain firmness of belief and an adherence to chosen behaviours, usually positive ones. It is an excellent quality to have, as it informs the manner in which we view and treat others and ourselves, and influences the ways in which we will approach tasks.

In pop-culture, specifically the Bill and Ted franchise of movies and television series, the word ‘excellent’ is sometimes used to describe a way of treating one’s fellow person: “be excellent to each other” is one of the duo’s most memorable quotes. In the very nonchalant and oft-immature language of the characters, this would mean to treat others with Integrity, with Respect and with Empathy. I believe that there are many people, especially Americans who were children or teenagers in the 1980s, who knowingly or subconsciously use the word Excellent in this way due to this influence, and that it would be justifiable to canonise this definition of the word by adding it to the English dictionary. I mean – they added ‘lol’ in 2011, and pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (I typed that perfectly first try) is still in the dictionary, despite just being a synonym of the word silicosis, but specific to volcanos.

Because of this additional way of defining the word, Excellence can be used to stand in for at least three of our school’s values with a minimal need to explain its inclusion.
But what should Excellence mean to you? How can you practice Excellence in your life, in and outside of school? I will share my answer to this question by explaining the ways in which I behave which I believe are Excellent, and also some of the things I would like to change in order to be more Excellent.

One of the main ways in which I try to let Excellence dictate my decisions is in my efforts to keep all of my friendships emotionally open and trust-based. I try to be available for people when they are struggling, because I understand how it feels to have no one available and ready to listen or offer advice and support.

Another way in which I strive for Excellence is the effort I put into my subjects at school, even subjects which I don’t enjoy. I am of the mindset that I will benefit from doing well in my studies consistently in the event that the unforeseen occurs and I underachieve for reasons which I could not have countered, for instance having to take time off being sick for a long time and falling far behind.

One of the ways in which I am lacking Excellent behaviour is in my conflict resolution skills. When disputes arise I am often described as being condescending, stubborn or aggressive. Although this is often unintentional, I can often recognise that the criticism is a valid one, and I would like to avoid this sort of behaviour in the future.

I hope that I have demonstrated both the ubiquity and the importance of the value of Excellence, and proven to you that it is the most important school value.
Written by: Vincent Arnaud, Helderberg International School