The Leaning Tower of Pisa, or simply the Tower of Pisa, is the campanile, or 850-year-old freestanding bell tower of Pisa Cathedral, known for its nearly four-degree lean, the result of an unstable foundation. The tower is one of three structures in Pisa’s Cathedral Square, which includes the Cathedral and Pisa Baptistry. Many will argue that it teaches us valuable lessons in different areas, including soil testing, patience during construction, and creative problem-solving when dealing with structural flaws. Much can be learned from it, without question.

Amazing though the Tower of Pisa is, let us consider for a while Pizza – after all, October was officially designated as National Pizza Month in the United States in 1987, and here we are in October. Pizza is arguably one of the most popular foods in the world. It is a party favourite, a great choice for potlucks, and a famous dinner option on those nights when we just do not feel like cooking. So, what is so special about pizza? And what makes a really great pizza?

There are many possible answers to that question. Some will base their argument on the crust though there are plenty of different options to consider, from thin crust, regular crust, hand-tossed, or pan crust – as someone has quipped, “In crust we trust”. Then there has to be a special sauce with care given to balancing sweet and savoury flavours along with all the spices that go in it. Next, cheese is really the star of the show, with some people not even wanting other toppings. And, of course, the toppings give pizzas their own distinctiveness – we can easily check out the numerous different toppings that people love! Finally, there is the importance of a fine line between a nice char at the bottom and the edges of the crust, plus balance in all the combinations, be it between the sauce and cheese, the crust and toppings. How the pizza is prepared, cooked and presented is all so important.

There are plenty of people offering advice, coincidentally, about how pizza fits into life. “People who don’t like pizza are weirdoughs”, says one amusingly with a pun. Another exhorts us to “Do good. Be nice. Order pizza. Repeat.” Aubrey Plaza, an American actress and comedian, argued simply that “Time is money, money is power, power is pizza, and pizza is knowledge, let’s go!” That is it: pizza is knowledge! We have got it! So how is pizza knowledge and what it has to do with education?

The fact is that pizza can teach us a lot. Jeff Bezos of Amazon often spoke of “the two-pizza rule”, arguing that a meeting should never have more people than can be fed by two large pizzas, (in other words between five and eight people) if it is to be constructive in achieving positive results and motivation.  Life and education should be measured in pizzas! The education that we offer all our children should also be along the lines of a pizza. To do that, we may reflect on the apparent enigma about pizza that it is almost always round but is delivered in a square box while it is cut into triangular individual slices. That might be where the weirdo comes in! How we prepare education, deliver it and present it is encompassed in that very mathematical picture.

Crucially, we can learn a lot by ensuring that our education has the key ingredients mentioned above about a pizza. The crust or the base is important, essentially being the same but offering different types, flavours and even depths, according to taste. We must get the basis of education correct or else all else fails – and that base must be values. How we pack it, the way we present education, is crucial if it is to be tasty for the children – too much of teaching, sadly, is drab, tasteless. Then the toppings, the choices we want to place on top of the base, will be according to each person’s tastes and requirements; education must not be the same for everyone. And then above all, education must not be overdone but rather have exactly the right balance of all the ingredients; it must not lean, however towering, to favour one side more than another.

Someone once remarked that “Life happens; pizza helps” and pizza can help us understand not just life but also education. Perhaps the person who commented that “Whatever the question, pizza is the answer” was also thinking of education. The one who wittily said, “’Exercise’? I thought you said, ‘extra slice’” was actually onto something important; in truth, with education, exercise and ‘extra slice’ are both necessary. There is power there; power is pizza! That will be educational pizzazz!