Newsletter 5: 7 May 2024

Dear Colleagues

The wonders of Term 2

When speaking with a parent at one of our schools in recent weeks, a reflection was shared that captured the essence of our purpose as Marist educators in our enthusiastic embrace of all things cocurricular. Having asked this young father how his son was enjoying school, he smiled and said, “It’s really a wonderful education and as important, great formation!”

Intrigued, I asked him to illuminate further the appreciation for the formative experience of his son. The young fellow was standing close by but was engaged in a conversation with a friend. The Dad said, in hushed tones, “They’ve had a bit of a rough start to the footy season, having had a few losses in the early rounds and as he left the field last week, I asked, how was it mate? He looked up to me and said, Dad, I’m not sure how much more of this character building I can take!”

There is no time like Term 2 in the school year. The day light hours shorten, the weather cools, every year group has periods of major assessment and reporting, and winter sports are in full swing with all the attendant preparations, training, highs, lows, and drama of match days. In the midst of all this, most importantly are precious learning moments, impossible to realise in the formal setting of a classroom.

Two of Australia’s great Catholic educational thinkers of the past four decades, both spoke and wrote of the importance in education of the enthusiasm of the teacher. Father Chris Gleeson SJ, in his popular anthology of reflections, A Canopy of Stars, and the prolific Brother Michael Green fms in his book Now with Enthusiasm, both shine light on the transformative effect of the enthusiastic teacher. May Term 2 2024 be for each of our students, one to remember. I hope these words from the great Irish author George Bernard Shaw provide some encouragement for the weeks ahead.

This is the true joy in life:

being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one …

being a force of nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances

complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy …

I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community,

and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can.

I want to be thoroughly used up when I die –

for the harder I work the more I live.

I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me.

It’s a splendid torch which I’ve got to hold up for the moment

and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.