From the Principal
Today is World Teachers’ Day, which is celebrated a little later in Australia than the UNESCO World Teachers’ Day due to our different school calendar in the southern hemisphere. The intent of the day remains the same, however; that is to celebrate those who devote themselves to the important work of educating young people – the work of caring, teaching, challenging and empowering.
The theme for World Teachers' Day this year is, “The teachers we need for the education we want: The global imperative to reverse the teacher shortage.” Today we are provided the occasion to celebrate the teaching profession worldwide, to celebrate the transformative and critical role that teachers play in realising learners’ potential, and to acknowledge the worldwide teacher shortage.
During the various Year 12 graduation events over the last few weeks and evidenced by the generosity of parents gifting morning tea for our staff today, I have witnessed the keen sense of gratitude for the high quality, expert teaching that is evident at the College. Perhaps it is time for this advocacy to ‘jump the fence’ of the John XXIII community and permeate society more broadly.
Over the course of the last few months there has been much media discussion about teacher shortages and the difficulties currently being faced nationally in attracting enough new members to the profession. Interestingly, Professor of Education at the University of Sydney, Nicole Mockler’s research, Constructing Teacher Identities – How the print media define and represent teachers in their work, examines how teachers have been represented in the print media for the past 25 years. As part of Professor Mockler’s research, she studied more than 65,000 media articles from all 12 national and capital city daily newspapers, including all articles that mentioned teacher and/or teachers three times or more.
Amongst other interesting findings, Professor Mockler’s research identified that, in her words, ‘teacher bashing’ has become the norm with stories about teachers being disproportionately negative in their representations, concluding ‘as we consider what to do to improve teacher numbers in Australia, we need to think about the way we talk about teaching and teachers in the media. If all people hear is that teachers are to blame for poor standards and they should be finding their demanding, complex jobs easy, this is hardly likely to encourage people into the profession. Nor does it give those already there the support and respect they need to stay.’
With all of this in mind, and as UNESCO facilitates a global independent alliance of over 150 members working to narrow the gap in terms of the quantity of teachers and the quality of teaching practice, let us take this opportunity to appreciate our teachers and support staff by expressing our gratitude for the incredible work that they do, and thank God for their passion, perseverance, compassion, skills and commitment to lifelong learning.
For as Mother Gonzaga Barry wrote,
“…it is a great work, the education of youth, when rightly understood.”
(Mother Gonzaga Barry to Aloysius Macken and All in Ballarat, 24 July 1898).
Lastly, our thoughts and prayers are with our Year 12 students as they prepare in earnest for their upcoming WACE examinations starting on Monday. We pray that they will be suitably rewarded for all of their hard work and dedication to their studies. Also, Pope Francis has asked us all to observe a Day of Prayer for Peace.
St Francis of Assisi Peace Prayer
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred,
let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Daniel Mahon
Principal