Year 12 of 2021

“You are the Authors of your Own Future.”

I first heard these words from the head of the Faculty of Education at the University of Glasgow, James Conroy. I had the good fortune to meet James in 2008 when he was keynote speaker at the annual Victorian Catholic Principals’ conference. I was reminded of them in a recent leadership article penned by a former principal who had also heard James Conroy speak around that time.

In one of his presentations, James stated that the single most important thing we can do in education is to inspire children to believe that they can author their own future. His point was that by encouraging empowerment and nurturing independence and interdependence within students, whilst providing the basic building blocks of life, we were leading them to achieve a rich and fulfilled future.

We would probably have to go back to World War II to find another time in our country’s history when students had two years of study impacted as significantly as COVID-19 has impacted study for the 2021 students.

Back to school, into remote learning, out of remote learning, back into remote learning, border restrictions, gathering restrictions, masks, no masks, and the list goes on.

Throughout, many of us wanted to build as much certainty into the school year as possible so that students could study well and make the most of the learning opportunities presented. Instead, we found ourselves dancing on a shifting carpet of uncertainties.

What has been remarkable has been the adaptability, flexibility, resilience, commitment, strength, collaboration, support for each other, kindliness, and strength that has been demonstrated by staff, families and students alike.

Very clearly COVID-19 has shown us how difficult it is to plan the future for our youth, but it has also certainly provided an opportunity to emphasise the role education can play in working with families to build the type of young people described by all those words I’ve just used.

Throughout the last two years we also saw many examples of how our youth have developed the skills to author their own future by learning:

to truly take ownership of their academic life and live it fully.
to push themselves beyond the limits of what is comfortable and familiar,
to keep connected to what inspires them in life; to pursue their dreams.
to avoid social conformity; to be who they truly are, a fully authentic person.
to deal positively with setbacks and failures; to persevere with determination.

Your future is now yours. From now on you author that future. From now on you make the decisions that will shape the person you will become. Your future is now yours to influence in the spirit of St Brigid. A spirit of initiative and faith and a deep sense of compassion, social justice and generosity.

Last week we were able to celebrate with our Year 12 students and their parents the culmination of their time with us at St Joseph’s. With the words above, part of my speech on the night, I also permissioned them to take more control over their own futures.

Advent

We now begin the four weeks of Advent, the Christian preparation time for Christmas. These weeks allow us time to ponder how Jesus came into this world in such a stunningly humble way. As we contemplate His birth in a bed of straw in a messy stable, perhaps, we see our own life as being a little messy too. Our life is often distracted, self-centred and sometimes leaves us wishing we were better people. But if we can slow down and refocus our attention, we might realise that God is there, waiting to love us even though we have so many unfulfilled good intentions and so many unfulfilled desires about our spirituality.

The bumper sticker that reads, “Be patient; God isn’t finished with me yet” is a reminder that, in God’s eye, we are a work in progress. Our faith is not a vaccine that prevents bad things from happening to good people. Rather, our faith is the new seed that brings forth new life and hope out of a life that contains struggle, difficulty, conflict and maybe misunderstanding.

Christians, during Advent, are like the shepherds from the Bethlehem hills; we are called from our everyday activities to allow God to re-enter our lives, even when we are feeling least “religious” or “ready” for His coming, for His arrival within us.

We are called to reflect that, like the Year 12 students who graduated last week, the book of our future is not yet finished, and we too can be the authors of our own futures.

I trust that we will all make time this advent to be still and allow God to continue to work on us and guide our hands as we pen our own future.

God bless.

Michael Delaney

Principal

Food for Design