Great Scot Archive
Issues from 1998
Issues from 1998
 
 
 
 

Publications

Valuing and celebrating the differences

The Junior School is helping boys to value and embrace the differences and the similarities that exist in cultures across the globe.

As a boy growing up in the northern suburbs of Melbourne, I attended a school that, like much of Melbourne in the 1960s and 1970s, was populated by students from very Anglo-Saxon backgrounds. We had a few classmates who had parents from Italy and Greece, but the vast majority of us were born and bred Aussies with very similar cultural backgrounds. We had a very limited understanding of the world outside our shores; even our television programmes were either home grown or from the US and Great Britain. I would also feel confident in suggesting that very few had the opportunity to study another language at school, particularly in primary school.

‘The true spirit of conversation consists in building on another man’s observation, not overturning it.’
Edward G Bulwer-Lytton

As we reached our early adult years it was extremely rare for anyone to consider travelling ‘abroad’; to travel overseas gaining experience was not part of our mindset. For most of us, the plan was to complete secondary school and then either go into an apprenticeship or head off to university for further studies, and then into the workforce. Taking time out to travel and explore the wider world was not really a consideration.

Fast track to today’s youth, and it is a completely different perspective. Through the wizardry of technology, the world is a much smaller place and our young people are very much aware of other cultures and countries. When I consider the boys here in the Junior School at Scotch, it is fair to presume that the majority of them will have travelled quite extensively already, even though they are not yet teenagers. Even if they haven’t travelled outside of Australia, their understanding of the wonderful variety of cultures that exist in our world far surpasses my limited knowledge at the same age.

Melbourne now prides itself on being one of the world’s most multicultural cities, with people from every continent and nation calling it home. Our boys go to School with other boys who have parents from a wide range of home countries, and they have access to media services from across the globe.

The School curriculum has changed significantly in regard to how we focus on our place in the world. Whereas in my primary days the extent of international perspectives would have meant a Year 6 project on a country, with us all racing for the World Book Encyclopaedia to research facts about population, capital cities and national anthems; our current students have a completely different experience. Our focus now is to assist the boys to value and embrace both the differences and the similarities that exist in cultures across the globe.

We want to develop an understanding that, while we may speak a different language, follow different customs and live different lifestyles, we are still all citizens of the same world. It is important that boys in the Junior School today are able to value and celebrate the differences that exist between us and also to be seeking to find those things that connect us.

In the Junior School we attempt to achieve this in a myriad of ways. Whether it be through specific studies on countries and cultures, valuing the opportunity to learn a second language (in our case German), our after-school Chinese Club, the boys’ different cultural backgrounds themselves, whole School activities such as the recent Olympic Games, the literature that the boys are exposed to, in music, drama and sport lessons and in so many other ways, our boys now have a much greater opportunity to explore both their own heritage and that of other nations.

Our boys are going to inhabit a world that grows smaller each year, and the need to be able to work collaboratively across national and international boundaries will be crucial if we are to live in harmony and live sustainably. By providing as many opportunities as we can for the boys to develop greater awareness and understanding of our brothers and sisters across the globe, we hope to equip them to achieve this successfully in the future.

Updated: Monday 24 June 2013