Scotch as a place of belonging - Scotch College

Publications

Scotch as a place of belonging

Six key factors are central to the education of boys, with the ultimate goal of creating a sense of belonging for all Scotch boys.

Principal2009

During the school holidays at the end of Term 2, I travelled to the International Boys’ Schools’ Coalition annual conference in Napier, New Zealand. It was a gathering of like minds, educators united in their belief in single sex boys’ education and committed to achieving the very best outcomes for boys at a vital stage of personal development.

When asked for a comment on the case for boys’ schools, my mind generally goes back to my days as a young teacher taking my first steps in the profession at Thames High School on the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand. In addition to teaching mathematics, I coached the 1st XI soccer team and chugged around midfield for the town side. Quite often the boys from the school team would come and watch their coach play on the Saturday afternoon and offer a few well-directed words of advice. One Monday morning, while teaching a senior mathematics class, I started to chat through the weekend’s two games. After a minute or two, one of the girls in the class pulled me up short, ‘I’m not here to discuss soccer; I’m here to learn mathematics.’ I felt pretty awful, quickly returned to the joys of probability distribution functions and carried the guilt of having let down a class for some years. Until, that is, I went to work in a boys’ school in Wellington, where I came to suspect that maybe, back in Thames, I had only been letting down half the class. Boys like to feel they are being accompanied on their journey through the school years and adolescence by people who share their interests and take time to do so, and storytelling is a part of this.

My years of involvement in boys’ education have led me to identify six factors which are central to both the education of young men and their passage through these formative years.

1. Relationships: I have written about the importance of relationships at the micro level on a number of occasions. It is here we have an opportunity to impact on each boy’s journey and it is here we lay the foundations for success. Boys need to know that the adults they live and work with care about them and value them as individuals. They need teachers who take an interest in what they do; teachers who can share a joke and a yarn with them; and teachers who can offer guidance in an open, uncomplicated manner. They want, and need, adults who set and hold clear boundaries, but do so with sensitivity, openness and in a fair, uncomplicated manner.

2. Adaptability through environment: It is important that boys learn to be adaptable as individuals and as members of groups. Each time we expose a boy to a new environment we are requiring him to adapt the manner of his dealings with those around him. It may be the same teacher guiding his chemistry studies who coaches his rugby, directs his play or takes him camping in the bush; but different circumstances see subtle changes in relationships and these engender adaptable minds. By taking boys out of their comfort zone we heighten their responsiveness to others and to learning opportunities. As boys become flexible in their dealings with others they become adaptable in their thinking and behaviour, learning how to modify both to best effect.

3. Self-awareness and variety: Through exposure to the full range of the human condition boys learn about themselves and the world around them. A broadly-based liberal curriculum which embraces the performing and visual arts not only opens boys’ minds to the creativity and imaginations of others, it encourages self-expression and inculcates a strong sense-of-self. As thoughts and hands come together to paint, sculpt, compose, act, invent, solve, design, build and create, boys are asking questions of themselves, and those who interact with their work. It is by getting inside the minds of others, whether by adopting their characters on a stage, reading their thoughts in a novel or discussing and questioning their views in a classroom, that boys acquire richer texture in their own thinking. It is a richer texture that delivers the confidence and curiosity to live in a world where not everything can be controlled, or has an immediate answer.

4. Difficulty: Boys need to be comfortable and fluent with the immediacy of information which defines their generation, but not anaesthetised to the big issues of the world in which they live. Difficulty is no bad thing - in fact, quite the opposite – and it is by being confronted by challenges (physical and intellectual) at school that boys develop the resilience and resourcefulness to adapt and solve later down the track. This is why boys read Shakespeare, learn a language they may never ‘use’, and tackle the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus. There is a need to hone an interest in things which are not straightforward, ‘big issues’ and difficult problems which take a long time to decipher let alone rebuild into some sort of useful form. These challenge boys’ minds to be disciplined yet creative; they require engagement and discussion, but also reflection and research. Importantly, they provide an opportunity for self-expression rather than for rehashing the views of others.

5. Styles of learning: No one learns in only one way, but we do have strengths in certain areas. Boys are often strong visual and kinaesthetic learners and this should be reflected in our curriculum and our teaching.

6. An interest: Whether it be as an individual or as part of a team; on an oval, on a stage or in a laboratory, boys want to find that particular peg on which to hang their hat.

With these six factors in mind it is worth a quick glance back across the Scotch landscape these past few months.

Insect Play

The Insect Play

June’s Symphony Orchestra Winter Concert was not only a great success, it was a performance built on virtuosity, teamwork and a desire to take on something difficult and challenging – in this case Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite and Holst’s The Planets. A few weeks prior to this we had the boys of the 1st XVIII taking us on something of a roller coaster ride as they reclaimed the Cordner–Eggleston Cup. Teamwork gave us an early, healthy lead, but individual grit and flair took us back across the line when the going was at its most difficult. There is no doubt that public speaking sits in the challenging box for many, so our success at the National Final of the Rostrum Voice of Youth is certainly worthy of mention in this category. Then there are those, who through coaching, encouragement and talent can stand up and do the same in a foreign language, as was the case with the group of boys who swept all before them at the state finals of the Indonesian Speaking Competition. Our senior debaters not only had judges to worry about, they had to face down the press before taking the prize at the Monash University Viewpoint Economics Debate grand final held at Federation Square. By pursuing their particular areas of academic interest, five boys from Years 9 and 10 were selected for The University of Melbourne mentoring Program where they will be guided in their research into areas of politics, history, French and engineering. Year 9 and Year 10 boys were joined by Ruyton girls to form the cast for an outstanding performance of Karel and Josef Capek’s The Insect Play. It was a demanding challenge which required mature, considered performances by individuals and the cast, and that is what it got. Then, over the first weekend of the mid-year break, I was able to get up in the High Country along the Howqua Track and meet up with boys and staff of our Outdoor Leadership Group. They were just coming down from a couple of days of hiking and setting up their tents for the night. The mood was positive, even though some, just as intended, were clearly learning a good deal, and quickly! It was a break which also saw our boys in Thailand working with the Global Village Building Project, crossing the Outback from Darwin to Broome and participating in the NASA Space Tour.

Schools are busy, exciting places and none is busier or more exciting than Scotch. But busyness and excitement can be ephemeral traits and they require support through qualities of substance and permanence. If my six factors could be rolled together to form a single principle it would be that a boys’ school should be place of belonging. For 158 years, Scotch, as a school and a family, has looked to establish a sense of belonging, for its boys, staff and wider community, and, as we enter the review phase of our educational planning, this remains central to all we want to achieve. GS