Deputy Principal

Last week I had the pleasure of being a guest in Ms Angelopoulos’s Year 10 English class. The students had a group task where they had to teach the rest of the class one of Robert Frost’s poems. While Frost may have passed away in 1963, his poetry and its relevance to modern day society was alive in Hanrahan 12. 

Simon, Kevin, Christian, Steven and Joshua talked us through Frost’s poem entitled Mending Wall. A poem about neighbours and the question about the need for fences. The students challenged us to think about the need for fences between neighbours and also made us think about the conflict that can occur when we build fences between neighbours.

I couldn’t help but think that fences, whether it be between neighbours with boundary fences or from a geographical point of view in relation to sovereign states with borders. Fences build order and order can be good. However, the students also challenged us to think about how walls/fences can lead to segregation. My mind cast back to a number of things while they were teaching us. At the height of COVID-19, while people in the eastern suburbs of Sydney were still relatively allowed to enjoy places like Bondi Beach, people were locked down with artificial fences put up as police closely monitored people’s movements out of this area. We were locked out of different states in our own country. It will be interesting to see how history judges these decisions in years to come.

It challenged me to think that we need to look within ourselves and talk about the boundaries that exclude people from our groups. One of our Touchstones is being an Inclusive Community. Do we include everyone, or do we leave people out because they do not look or think the same way we do? Do we find difference confronting? What do we teach our children about difference? Do we teach them to leave people out or open their arms and accept everyone?

I was also challenged to think about the times when boundaries have been broken down and we have seen change. What do we do when walls are broken down? Sometimes we rebuild them because we like to call it ‘tradition’. I am always challenged by tradition. While tradition is a good thing, we must always remember that our traditions must also serve our current community. There are a lot of good things that we need to preserve, just the same way as we need to break down stereotypes and walls that have been built, because there is a safety in doing things the same way because it makes us feel comfortable even if it does not serve the current needs of our community.

Lastly, I thought about the geographic walls that exist in sovereign states. As humans most of us belong to a country. However, we have seen more so lately with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, that even sovereign state boundaries can be broken down due to the power of other nations. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as of 15 November, there are 7,841,359 refugees from the Ukraine across Europe. This is a statistic that as a community we must not forget, and we need to ensure these people are not forgotten. As Russia breaks down the border, we must play a part to ensure that we preserve the human dignity of all people regardless of their nationality, and that we do not forget the people of Ukraine. 

I must commend the boys for a presentation that was both thought-provoking and well explained. It was another example for me of young men who were continuing to ‘let their light shine’. I would like to thank Ms Angelopoulos and her class for allowing me to share this experience.