College Headmaster’s Report
This year was marked by the celebration of the century of the Brothers arrival in Australia — one hundred years of delivering Catholic education. The focus of the work of influential, behaviourist psychologist, BF Skinner, has never really appealed to me but these words of his on education do. He said: “Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten.” Most of us do not explicitly remember much of what we were taught at school, but we do know we grew in knowledge. What survives from my education as a boy at De La Salle, however, more than knowledge acquired, much of which is long forgotten, are the values and attitudes I learned from my parents, my teachers and my peers, values that are the beginning of wisdom as one seeks out the fundamental basis of a good life: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind and all your strength and your neighbour as yourself.”
A quality education teaches one to think and to make good decisions. It is not simply a matter of Skinner’s behavioural conditioning, although parts of schooling may become so. Perhaps this is why Mark Twain would remark, somewhat cynically: “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” The poet, Robert Frost, stated insightfully: “Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or self-confidence.” This is a key part of a good education — and also of maturation — developing confidence in who you are and in what you value, as well as a growing ability to respect the opinions of others without angst. While it is important to ensure that students at De La Salle are given quality access to technology and the modern tools of learning, it is worth reflecting on that simple gospel passage which describes Jesus growing up: “Jesus grew in wisdom and age and grace with God and men”. This picture of the growing child, Jesus, sits well with one of the descriptions of education which most appeals to me. It was that of the Nobel award-winning poet, W.B.Yeats, who said: “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” More than filling boys with knowledge, we are trying to light fires of self belief, fires of compassion for others, fires that lift us out of selfishness and possessiveness, and give us the burning hearts described by the disciples as Jesus walked with them to Emmaus: “See how our hearts were burning within us as he walked with us on our way”.
In Shakespeare’s play, the tragic figure of Macbeth says: “Out, out, brief candle. Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets across the stage for one brief moment and then is heard no more.” Born some 302 years after Shakespeare in 1856, George Bernard Shaw would write: “Life is no brief candle to me. It is a splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations”. It is the torch, the spirit engendered, the ethos, the tradition, of a school which make the most impact on the students. I believe the Year 12 of 2006 have indeed made the torch burn more brightly before handing it on to the next class. I congratulate Jacob Gotch and the leaders of 2006 for their wonderful year “at the top” and for the extra sparks they have given to our splendid torch. In the tragic death in July of Year 8 student, Daniel Lagastes, the torch burned brightly in powerful support of his grieving family and friends. More importantly, Daniel left behind some stirring evidence of the torch that burned within him in his short life. His personal motto for this year, “No regrets” became a rallying point for others gifted with a longer hold on the splendid torch of life. A new flame is burning with some of our Year 12 students now preparing to go to India with Brother Denis on the “Coolies” initiative to build homes for people who don’t have the opportunities we possess. There is no more important lesson to learn than that of becoming unselfish and willing to use one’s talents to help others. It is noteworthy that next year three young, Indian, De La Salle Brothers are going to Bereina in PNG where they will join Brothers Bede and Robert from our Province in working with the people of PNG.
