Assistant Principal - Pastoral Care

Creating A Hope-Filled Future

Armidale Catholic Schools has as its vision ‘A Christ-centred inclusive learning community that supports young people to realise a hope-filled future.’ And, as with all schools and systems, these are fine words but what do we do to make it our reality at McCarthy?

The phrase, ‘A Hope-Filled Future’ is influenced by the Brazilian academic, Paulo Friere, who wrote in his book ‘Pedagogy of Hope’ - “One of the tasks of the progressive educator … is to unveil opportunities for hope, no matter what the obstacles may be.” Hope is not something we want our students to find at the end of their ‘struggle’ but it is something that carries them through the ‘struggle’ itself. Hope is something we actively construct, create, not something we passively wish or wait for. Hope is an active engagement with the world - our communities (home, school, work, clubs) and a deliberate commitment to engage in transformative action.

The culture or ecology of a school environment works to build and reinforce the belief in students that they have the power (or agency) to shape their own destinies and to contribute to the building of a better society. This happens when teachers foster learning environments where students are active partners in the construction of knowledge - they are not passive recipients of knowledge but part of a collaborative process where teachers and students learn together. When students feel valued, respected and safe to voice their ideas and views, powerful learning takes place.

The Australian sociologist, Hugh Mackay, recently wrote in his latest work, ‘The Way We Are’:

“Because we are born to cooperate, we are also born with the equipment we need to achieve social harmony - the capacity for kindness, compassion, tolerance and empathy. That cluster of traits, when nurtured, brings out the very best in us.”

Unfortunately, contemporary society has eroded such qualities and therefore individuals' sense of ‘connectedness’ has waned throughout the Western world. He warns that: “When a herd animal is cut off from the herd - or when it feels itself cut off, excluded, ignored, underappreciated - the consequences can be dire.” Most notably reflected in soaring rates of loneliness, alienation coupled with anger and discontent.

Mackay argues that the key to arresting such a decline is to return to the core value of kindness - kindness being “anything we do to show other people that we take them seriously … and nothing says, ‘I take you seriously … as attentive empathetic listening.’ 

For the last four years we have worked to implement the policy Living Well Learning Well in the College and across the Diocese. One could argue that this policy, this way of being, strives to inculcate much of what Mackay is arguing.

At its heart, Living Well Learning Well, seeks to develop young people of character. It is about helping students change their motivations so that they want to lead honourable and purposeful lives. The psychologist Angela Duckworth argues that character formation means building up three types of strengths:

• Strength of the heart (kindness, consideration, generosity)
• Strength of the mind (curiosity, open-mindedness, having good judgment) 
• Strength of will (self-control, determination, courage).

Each of these strengths are fostered on a daily basis at school when students embrace all that the College has to offer. 

The New York Times editor, David Brooks, goes on to explain that “People’s characters are primarily formed when they live within coherent moral ecologies. They are formed within an institution … in this way habits and temperament are slowly engraved upon the people in the group.” The ‘moral ecology’ he refers to is the relationships, beliefs, values and ways of doing things that underpin a school. This helps to explain why the policy of Living Well Learning Well has been so transformational within the College, particularly when it is complemented with, supported and reinforced at home. When this happens, we achieve the slow engraving that Brooks refers to.

Brooks goes on to say that “People become their best selves as they begin to embody the values of a specific moral tradition.” For us at McCarthy, this is Christianity in the Catholic faith tradition which is so beautifully expressed by the prophet Micah 6:8 “The Lord has told us what is good. What he requires of us is this: to do what is just, to show constant love, and to live in humble fellowship with our God.”

Creating a ‘Hope-Filled Future’ for young people is complex with no one element being the ‘silver bullet’. Rather, it comes from many factors that are woven into the fabric of our everyday school life - small things repeated over and over have a significant cumulative effect - both on self and others. And whilst academic learning is important, so too is the way we express gratitude, the way we offer support to those in need, the way we wear our uniform, the way we leave where we have been, the way we acknowledge the efforts and skills and commitments of others, the way we accept that people make mistakes. As the singer Jewel from the 1990s reminds us: “In the end, only kindness matters.” 

A school that has rich, productive learning environments and members treating each other with great kindness and consideration will ultimately be a place where young people are able to realise a hope-filled future.

Mick Larkin

Assistant Principal - Pastoral Care

mlarkin@arm.catholic.edu.au