Principal
There are a myriad of reasons why parents choose to send their sons to Nudgee College. Some of these reasons were made evident in the parent survey conducted nationally by EREA in 2018. These reasons included a school with a strong sense of community, a school with a broad and diverse curriculum, academic success and strong sporting opportunities.
I would endorse each of these but would add that one of the reasons I choose to work in our school is because of the unique qualities of Catholic schools in the Edmund Rice Tradition. This uniqueness is described in their Charter and found in its four Touchstones. One of these is liberating education. Liberating education means that we attempt to educate the hearts as well as the minds of our young men. This is a distinct difference to many schools whose focus is simply on the intellectual and academic dimensions of the learning process.
Academic endeavour and achievement are foundational, of course, to any school. As I mentioned last week in the newsletter, it is the main game. At Tuesday’s Assembly our focus was on the education of young minds when we presented the Academic Award winners for Semester 1. I congratulate all the winners of Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards. Amongst this large group are students who are consistent, talented achievers and they deserve recognition for this consistency of effort and application. Equally, it is always pleasing to acknowledge students who have won these awards for the first time, perhaps after months, semesters and even years of consistent effort without quite reaching the award level. Well done to all.
Learning, of course, is a lifetime journey. This journey begins with parents who are always the primary and first educators. Schools, TAFEs, universities and other institutions are subsequently formal learning settings in this journey. But the modern world demands that we all continue to learn and become more qualified whatever our career occupation and position. This demand is placed upon us because the modern world is itself an ever changing place.
An article posted on Modern Workplace Learning 2019 refers to R. Buckminster Fuller’s estimation that up until 1900 human knowledge doubled approximately every century, but by 1945 this was doubling every 25 years, and by 1982 it was doubling every 12 to 13 months. The article reports that IBM now estimates that by next year human knowledge will be doubling every 12 hours.
It has become evident that the faster the pace of knowledge change, the more valuable the skill of learning becomes. The working world of the future will demand even more of today’s young people. It will be less about what you know and more about how you learn new things. Hence, the school’s focus on the Habits of Mind framework and its learning dispositions such as being able to question and problem solve; to able to create, imagine and innovate; to be able to think flexibly; and to be able to communicate with clarity and precision. The journey for the lifelong learner that our young men are expected to be will demand continuous learning.
But learning in the Nudgee College context has another dimension. We see education of a young man’s heart as being equally, if not more important. The fractured and divided world of today needs young people who are generous, who are prepared to serve others and who treat others as equals (particularly those on the margins). The world needs young people who are grateful and not entitled. At Nudgee College our religious education program, our retreat programs and Immersion, as well as our regular commitments such as the Big Brekkie, attempt to educate the hearts of our young men to become Signum Fidei – ‘Signs of Faith’.
There are of course informal ways that we can live out the heart dimension of education. Earlier this week I received an email which spoke to me about what liberating education really means, and I shared this email, in part, at Assembly. In brief, the mother wrote to me about how two of our Senior students, as well as two members of staff had taken the extra step to engage, welcome and involve a young boy, who is not a Nudgee College student, in our Activities Program. The impact of these actions has made a significant difference in the wellbeing and self-esteem of this boy and captures the essence of what it means to learn in a Catholic school in the Edmund Rice Tradition.
Mr Peter Fullagar
Principal
