Principals Reflection

I remember hearing a conversation between an interviewer and former Federal Senator Amanda Vanstone during a radio conversation in which she implied that, regardless of our intentions (and sometimes regardless of the facts), one person’s relationship with another is tempered by the particular perception that the person has for the other; it is this perception which may result in fruitless, frustrating conversations and disappointing outcomes. Michel de Montaigne encapsulated the influence of perception when he stated, “A straight oar looks bent in the water. What matters is not merely that we see things but how we see them.” Michel de Montaigne was an important philosopher of the French Renaissance and his writings, which espoused the strength and worth of supporting a spirit of the importance of appreciating doubt, helped ensure his writings have resonance today. Montaigne believed that a child's curiosity could serve as an important teaching tool when the child is allowed to explore the things that the child is curious about, setting fluid boundaries and encouraging questioning and respectful critique.

Experience also was a key element to learning for Montaigne – he espoused the need for tutors to teach students through experience rather than through the mere memorization of information often practised in book learning, which he believed would become lead to the development of ‘passive’ adults, blindly obeying, and lacking the ability to think on their own. I believe our staff at St Patrick’s share Montaigne’s philosophical ideal of students becoming active learners, who can claim knowledge for themselves. Our perception of each child’s engagement in their learning is very much a reflection of not only our sometimes subjective observations, but also very much a determination of the considerable amount of objective data that we gather from each student’s engagement in a variety of tasks and activities – on their own, in a group, in different contexts and in a variety of independent-to-greatly supported activities.

Montaigne's views on child education continue to have an influence in the present. Variations of Montaigne's ideas on education are incorporated into modern learning in some ways. He argued against the popular way of teaching in his day, encouraging individualized learning. He believed in the importance of experience, over book learning and memorization. Ultimately, Montaigne postulated that the point of education was to teach a student how to have a successful life by practising an active and socially interactive lifestyle. I am grateful that, as much as possible, I am able to visit all our classrooms and, if appropriate in the light of the respective teaching that is occurring, spend time with students and listen to and observe them making sense of the world of knowledge creation; St Patrick’s staff certainly aspire to creating a carefully crafted curriculum that supports student outcomes across a wide spectrum of criteria. Via our school Online Feedback and Reporting Guidelines, staff are in their first year of communicating to students and parents, snapshots of a wider body of student work pertaining to each student’s engagement with carefully crafted learning opportunities. These guidelines are available via our school website and a summary is enclosed in this week’s Newsletter.

Thank you to all families who are actively involved in our collective responsibility in supporting student outcomes and staff welfare.

Regards   

Rod Linhart (Principal)