Principal's Message

Welcome to Term 4

You will hear much about education being the fundamental building block of a prosperous society. That’s true, of course. But it would be sad if that is all we think a good education is for – that we send our girls to school so that they can have an excellent preparation for the jobs and tasks they will undertake as adults in the work-force. A good education aspires to be so much more than contributing to the national economy, important though that is. A good education also aspires to contribute to the development of a thoughtful, contented and generous personality.

One of Salvador Dali’s striking paintings pictures a mass of clocks and time pieces of various sorts fused and melted together and set against a background that is entirely empty.  It is a profound commentary on modern life; our fascination with time – obeying it, watching it, being oppressed by it, being frustrated with it, dreading it…even trying to make the most of it!  What Dali is suggesting is that this obsession with time is ridiculous if the real landscape of our life, our inner self, is empty and unfulfilled.

Image : Salvador Dalí The Persistence of Memory 1931 sourced from https://au.phaidon.com/agenda/art/articles/2016/may/10/salvador-dalis-the-persistence-of-memory-explained/

The writer Fyodor Dostoevsky in his novel, The Gamblers, has a related theme. Men in particular, he suggests, are too often characterised by the following:

• An unspoken belief that the world consists only of winners and losers; you are either at the top or going there or you are at the bottom or going there.
• A focus on results and achievement, accompanied by an evasion and even a fear of the softer things of life; a passion for hard work to avoid the inner ache.
• The building up of a false world of success around them so that they can continue to deceive themselves; a fear of looking at the inner self and seeing the real emptiness within.

In another form of literature, T.S. Eliot’s poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, highlights that sense of emptiness and loss that so many feel, even after a lifetime of intense activity and even great material success:

Do I dare

Disturb the universe?

In a minute there is time

For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

For I have known them all already, known them all –

Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,

I have measured out my life with coffee spoons…

Would it have been worthwhile,

If one, settling a pillow or throwing off a shawl,

And turning toward the window, should say:

“That is not it at all,

That is not what I meant, at all.”

Such stories and imagery point us to the importance of cultivating our inner world or our inner thoughts.  And as we all know, having a sense of fulfilment or satisfaction with our lives has little to do with success or material comforts or status or security or career paths. 

It is not hard to acknowledge or understand that at a rational level. What is more difficult, though, is actually finding a way to get off the treadmill that we as adults sometimes find ourselves on. What is most difficult of all, is finding that path towards an inner sense of satisfaction.

I suppose if I had the definitive answer to that problem I would be rich and famous by now!  Nevertheless, I think there are constructive things we can do to help us find or re-find that pathway. I am inclined to think that for a lot of people failure to find that path is a safety issue.  If we wait for the ideal day, the ideal moment to do things, we will wait forever. There is no perfect time, there is no failure-proof time. Excessive caution cheats us of the life we could live and often want to live. Our lives takes on an enormous predictability: the same meals, the same emails, the same meetings, the same thoughts, the same sorts of decisions. Noble insights and dreams are curtailed for fear of criticism or failure and we find that our life becomes ‘the life I almost lived.’

We want our students to aspire to a life of zest and generosity and adventure. We want them to think that life can be trusted, that dreams and hopes can be trusted. We don’t want them to cling to over-caution or inaction or a fear of failure.

Let none of us be the person we almost were.

Second Hand Shop

Please consider selling or buying your 2019 uniforms on line using the Sustainable School Shop at following link:  https://www.sustainableschoolshop.com.au/

A reminder of the uniform requirements for 2019 are as attached.

Scholarships

Students in years 4 to 12 can now apply for a share of scholarship funding. More than 140 scholarships, ranging in value from $600 to $30,000, are available to Year 12 students undertaking further study in 2019. Recipients are able to use their scholarships to pay for iPads/computers, tertiary fees, and accommodation.

More than 100 scholarships, ranging in value from $300 to $1,000, are available to students in years 4 to 11.

Previous recipients have used their scholarships to purchase textbooks, school uniforms, and computers.

Apply for scholarships

Applications for all scholarships are now open.

To explore the scholarships available and for information on how to apply, see: Student scholarships

Our students are encouraged to identify and apply for all scholarships where they meet the criteria.

Ms Michelle Crofts 

Principal of Matthew Flinders Girls Secondary College