Sometimes someone holds up a mirror you didn’t know you needed.
Nov 26, 2025Last week, eight school leaders from the Regina Mundi schools in Milan came all the way to the Netherlands for a two-day deep dive with me. On Thursday, after the school day ended, we walked through Agora in Roermond, a place where I could put so much of my thinking into practice, the foundation for what I now help schools build around the world. And on Friday morning, I simply asked them:
“What struck you most yesterday?”
Their answers weren’t about the building, the schedules or the methods. They talked about courage. The courage to truly start from a learner’s personal motivation and to trust that process. They noticed how openly students shared what they were proud of, where they struggled and even what the school could still improve.
They spoke about the relationships with parents: proactive, human, almost like shared parenting rather than problem-solving. They saw freedom, happiness, confidence building, and a sense of future that was visible in the eyes of the learners themselves.
And then one of them said something I will not forget:
“The way the students, the fruit of your work, Rob, express themselves shows that the tree is growing strong.”
That hit me harder than I expected.
Because when you’ve stood in the middle of your own work for so long, and then step back for multiple years and visit again (as I regularly do), you tend to zoom in on all the little details they still need to improve. And when you do that, you don’t always see what others see so clearly.
Having a group travel all the way from Italy to learn, reflect and look at that mirror with me felt like a real honour.
Thank you, Regina Mundi, for your openness, your curiosity and your courage to truly see.
