Junior School Presentation Night, 2006

Principal’s Address

Graham Leo

Invited guests, parents, staff and students…

What is the secret to building a prosperous future for Australia?

This secret will also be the secret to building a prosperous future for every individual in Australia.

It won’t be in greater regulation and law.

It won’t be in installing some water tanks and water-saving shower heads.

It won’t be in making rules about whether people can wear head scarves or not.

It won’t be in more and more courses in schools trying to fix social problems such as the road toll, STDs, alcohol and drug abuse and so on.

Writing better History syllabuses or English tests won’t make our nation strong, though I do agree that they are needed.

Have you noticed how much our government, whether it is Federal or State or local is falling back on regulation and compliance whenever there is a social problem? I wrote some weeks ago in a newsletter, that the only way to avoid having to place a policeman on every street corner is to place one inside every citizen’s head. What we are seeing is that regulation and compliance is the only alternative remaining when the citizens lose their own internal restraints.

Reading the newspaper, it appears that most governments seem to think that the most important way to build a successful nation is to improve people’s skills and knowledge. So they promote more literacy and numeracy and national testing and assume that this will secure our nation against an uncertain future.

But skills and knowledge – the stuff you can measure with tests – are only the most superficial elements of a successful future because they try to improve the education of students without addressing their underlying character as human beings.

Goals and goal setting are very popular, but all that goals do is to turn low achievers into medium achievers, in the same way that regulations and compliance turn complacent people into controlled people.

Really successful people concentrate, not on goals, but on behaviour. They know that life success has more to do with character than with goals and rules and step programs.

Major-General Peter Cosgrove said this about character: “In my opinion, people of rock solid character are generally people who have a simple but solid faith in God.”

It was with this in mind that our College Board worked with our Senior Executive Committee to write a new Strategic Vision this year. That Strategic Vision, unlike most corporate Strategic Plans, does not mention a single building or program. It does not list a single easily-measurable objective. It does not mention one specific area of school life that is deficient and needs to be improved.

In short, it does not take the easy way out to find a materialist, or organisational, or financial fix to establishing what it believes is the best way to build our school’s future.

It is based on the notion that a person or organisation with the kind of character that is likely to be capable of changing a nation will have a clear sense of what their core values are, and will live them out in the daily arena of life.

Values are based in beliefs. Without beliefs there are no values. The kinds of beliefs you hold determines the kind of values you will have.

Emmanuel College’s Strategic Vision for the next seven years is based firmly on the belief that a set of values derived from beliefs about the message of Jesus, is the best way to secure our College’s future, and at the same time, the future of every child sitting in this hall.

Here are the elements of that Strategic Vision:

Strategic Goal 1: In a complex world, Emmanuel College will be a place of LEARNING.

Accountability and responsibility, risk-taking, curiosity, fun and excitement will be hallmarks that we will be trying to engender in our school as we learn together how best to build our futures.

Strategic Goal 2: In a self-centred world, Emmanuel College will be a place of COMPASSION

Charity, gentleness, kindness, sharing are the kinds of touchstone characteristics that will demonstrate this value in action. Jesus is our model of compassion.

Strategic Goal 3: In a deceptive world, Emmanuel College will be a place of TRUTH.

Wisdom, strength, courage, faith, transparency, replacing spin with genuineness of communication – these are the kinds of attributes that we intend to cultivate, not just amongst our students but also in the way our whole community interacts with each other. This is not truth just to be safe. This is truth because it is right. It is truth because God’s whole character is based on truth.

Strategic Goal 4: In an uncertain world, Emmanuel College will be a place of PEACE.

Forgiveness, contentment with what we have, hope and purpose – these are essential if we want to be people of peace. Global peace must start with peace at home. Jesus is the Prince of Peace.

Strategic Goal 5: In a dislocated world, Emmanuel College will be a place of SAFETY.

Trust, physical fitness, balance of life’s activities, financial management, the careful management of change – these are all important in the quest for safety.

Strategic Goal 6: In a disordered world, Emmanuel College will be a place of BEAUTY.

Respect for tradition, creativity, beauty of landscape and architecture as well as of relationships are vital in what may be a surprising inclusion in a Strategic Vision.

It would be a fair question to ask whether this vision runs a risk of just being consigned to a heap of good ideas and wishful thinking. The answer is yes, it does.

It would be a fair question to ask whether this vision runs a risk of being overtaken by practical demands, such as the need to raise funds to build new buildings or the need to improve academic and other programs. The answer is yes, it does.

It would be a fair question to ask how we would ever know whether this vision has been achieved in 7 or 10 years time. The answer to this question is more significant, and it is this:

We may not ever be able to say that we have reached a particular point when this vision has been definitively fulfilled, but we will most certainly know if it has not been fulfilled.

It will not be a case of whether this Strategic Vision fails to meet our needs, but whether we fail to meet its challenges to us.

Over the coming years, and especially as we commence the new year in 2007, you will hear me talk about these Strategic Values over and over again.

There are many good schools on the Gold Coast. We will continue to be one of them. But it is our determination that what will define us after the next five years will not be merely excellence in academic results – though we will attain those;

It will not just be high achievements in sport and the performing arts – though these will continue;

It will not be fine buildings and classroom facilities – though we intend to go on building these.

What will define us, if we can all work at it together is that we will be a school where our community values are known and shared.

Where peace, safety, beauty and truth are recognisable amongst us. This is not just a call to being nice. This is a call to the genuine expression of these as described in the Gospels.

Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims can all do ‘nice’. We are talking here about Gospel-based expressions of these qualities.

Where students learn, and parents and teachers and students relate to each other in compassion and sincerity.

Where people will strongly desire to enrol their children here because they can be confident that we will be training their children to cope with whatever our uncertain future throws up at us.

This Year 7 group will graduate from Year 12 in 2011. They will be our touchstone for success.

Water shortages, Islamic fundamentalism, terrorism and war will all be able to be met with confidence, if our students and our families hold these values in good measure.

These values are not new. They are as old as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

When Jesus spoke the Sermon on the Mount, it was regarded as being idealistic and unreasonable. Still today, people read it with longing and wishful thinking. But the fact is that when Jesus spoke it, he brought into the public arena, a set of ideas which were totally radical. They challenged the beliefs and traditions of his day.

When Jesus was on earth, pity and mercy were regarded as character flaws by both the Greeks and the Romans. They valued strength and firmness. They defined courage by a man’s willingness to face or to inflict death or harm in military battle.

Jesus taught that mercy, pity, graciousness, kindness and love were greater than all of the warlike characteristics honoured by the Greeks, the Romans and the Assyrians.

To live in such an environment is to live in the Kingdom of Heaven. That is a possibility open to us as we open ourselves to Jesus and to his teachings. It is a journey worth embarking on. Excited? Get your tickets, and hold on!