Scotch College

Matt and his pencils

‘Back in the old days, we cut a small nick in the end of each pencil and wrote our names on the exposed wood’, I explained in assembly. ‘In the last 10 years I have only found one named pencil, but have collected, one by one, much more than a full set of coloured pencils’. I took this as evidence of rising affluence; a coloured pencil is a much lesser thing than it once was. I suggested the children who attend the Kapumfi School in Zambia will have a different scale of values. To them a pencil will matter more. How should this affect us?

In Melbourne during November there were two different styles of gathering where such inequalities were considered. One was very formal: the G20 meeting. It brought together the representatives of 20 nations, the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, under the chairmanship of the Federal Treasurer, the Hon. Peter Costello. The other style was informal: concerts. These comprised the Make Poverty History concert at the Myer Music Bowl, which included an address by the CEO of World Vision Australia, the Rev. Tim Costello and two U2 concerts, where concerns about the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG) were voiced.

The MDG posters line the northern entrance to the Lithgow Building. These include the eradication of absolute poverty. One Christian response to these is the Micah Challenge. This is based on the words of Micah 6:8: ‘What the Lord requires is this: to do justly, to show constant love and to live in humble fellowship with our God’. My assembly talk on pencils and affluence arose from Bible readings in Micah.

In thinking about how boys become men, John Marsden provides a list of things a boy must do. Some are easily embraced by a Christian faith perspective. He says a boy must find out what he believes in, recognise his feelings and explore feelings about death. Finally, and ultimately, he says a boy must learn to give.

These issues are evident in the lyrics of U2 and the causes they espouse. Many of their songs give expression to powerful emotions and challenge our response to injustice. As Bono said before the Sydney concert: ‘We are a man band. We make men’s music’.

At Scotch we contribute to the making of men. The Kapumfi Project showed boys and the whole Scotch community we could give generously. As an end in itself, Kapumfi was good for Scotch. But Kapumfi is even better as a beginning: beginning to see the difference boys can make; beginning to see the real wealth of our School lies in its educational contribution to men of justice and generosity. Scotch will be a tiny player in the global picture. Our steps will be small and sometimes stumbling. We may have differing approaches, like the brothers Costello, but it is important that boys carry with them from Scotch the capacity to give.

To my great surprise, last week Matt, of Year 7, brought me a box of coloured pencils. ‘I don’t need them sir; they’ve been in my locker all year. After what you said in assembly I wondered if they would be useful to someone else?’ Now those pencils sit on my table. What shall I do? If a pencil in the hands of a girl in Kapumfi can be of more value than an iPod in the pocket of a Scotch Collegian, what about a whole packet of pencils? What should I do?

As you read this you will be able to reflect on what was achieved by the G20 meeting and the concerts. Meantime, Tim Costello has accepted our invitation to be guest speaker at the 2007 Scotch Prayer Breakfast. The date is March 30 in the Cardinal Pavilion. Please book in now and join me then.

Graham Bradbeer
Chaplain