Principals Reflection
“This is your life, joys and sorrows mingled, one succeeding the other.” Although written 200 years ago, this quote by the founder of the Sisters of Mercy, Catherine McAuley, resonates clearly and with truth today as it did 200 years ago and I thought it appropriate for this, my final report as principal of a school founded by the Mercy Sisters. Mercy values of Respect, Hospitality, Mercy and Compassion are as universal as they are ageless; it is not until we are in the depths of our sorrows or at the heights of any exaltations that we come to appreciate the importance and impact of these four Mercy values appreciating that these values are not assigned solely to the Sisters of Mercy, but are found in all the world’s major religions because they represent the love of God that is expressed in the varied faith traditions. Catherine McAuley experienced significant opposition to her desire to do what she considered God’s work in displaying mercy to the poor – her life that acted as an inspiration to others, was certainly a life of joys and sorrows. I believe she would have agreed with the American poet Ralph Waldo Emerson when he said, “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honourable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”
The importance of ‘values of service’ that we ascribe to as compass points for our relationships with others is intrinsic to who we are of people of character and it is hopefully inculcated to our students. We are in many ways curators of our own life story, relying on our perception of reality, which is anchored to our memories, to provide us with what we assume to be a broad and deep repository of knowledge, understandings and skills that equip us with life’s engagements. Our beliefs become the foundation for our actions and behaviours and form the core of who we believe we are and, subsequently, what we believe we can do in the world. Our Visible Learning project has as one of its goals students taking a significant degree of responsibility for their learning. As people who promote the virtues of being intrinsically caring, compassionate individuals, we are sometimes challenged by others who have a contrary perspective of our self-belief. As I have become older (and unfortunately not necessarily wiser) I have come to accept that I need to ask myself three questions prior to responding to those who challenge my ‘self-belief’:
- What is it that I find most challenging about the other person’s behaviour or attitude?
- Do I present with the same or similar behaviours or attitudes – how do they view me?
- How should the answers to the above questions frame my response?
Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19th century German philosopher stated that, “All things are subject to interpretation; whichever interpretation prevails at a given time is a function of power and not truth.” Our attitudes, our consciously held beliefs or opinions, lead to behaviours that, through repetition can become quite fixed and automatic - we often fail to self-reflect and we are all prone to accept the ‘truth’ of our memories and thoughts, accepting them as facts, which we come to believe, correct or not, as how we define ourselves and others. There is significant research that highlights that, whilst we ‘are’ our memories, there is a danger in underestimating the fallibility of these memories; the acceptance of thoughts, opinions and memories as facts, which leads to a distortion of the truth. This is a phenomenon that affects us all and it is one reason why I am often asking myself the three questions that I mentioned above. I hope that all in our school community continue to offer each other support of the Mercy values, however, I hope, too, that we are willing to engage in challenging what we consider to be unsubstantiated self-belief in others in a respectful manner with the realisation that we, too, need to be prepared to have our self-belief critiqued.
Julia Shaw, a Canadian scientist, focuses her studies on implanted memories and she highlights how each time we tell a story, we change our memory; we can internalise a thought or opinion into a memory that convinces ourselves that it is fact. One of our goals as educators is to assist each person to form healthy attitudes and to have confidence in any application in life. To enable integrity in this life-long undertaking, research in attitudes and beliefs compels us to be honest curators of our life, which may challenge our current perception of ourselves and others. We expect our students to be open to new information, understandings and skills in the nexus between such endeavours and the formation of not only knowledge, but character; we, too, as adults should engage in this process that has at is heart the notion of humility in that we accept that we are one part of a varied and quite complex community - humility does not mean you think less of yourself; it means you think of yourself less. In every person’s life, in every person’s day, there are examples of people who live humble lives - acting out of a ‘common good’ and often not gaining recognition or favour. However, through their actions, they are living out the Golden Rule of treating others as they would like to be treated, always with respect. Communicating through words and deeds is the finest form of communication.
As I engage in the quite mad busyness of a typical end of term workload, I remain profoundly grateful for all the ‘sorrows and joys’ that have been associated with the role and in all humility I align my no doubt expected sadness in no longer being part of St Patrick’s specifically, and education generally, by reflecting on the aspirational words of the American poet and wit, Ralph Waldo Emerson, who stated, “To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children...to leave the world a better place...to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
Regards
Rod Linhart (Principal)