Issue 18 SJC News 2020

This Monday we begin our ‘Headstart’ program with each year level commencing in their new 2021 year level, classes and subjects. The rationale behind the program is that it promotes higher levels of student engagement in the final days of the school year, ensures meaningful work is undertaken rather than ‘winding down’ activities and it allows us to make any timetable adjustments. In a normal year we would have two weeks of headstart however this year it is shortened to allow additional time for classes to complete 2020 work requirements. On Monday it is really 2021 in each class and I encourage all students to take the opportunity to start the year on a positive note.

This week we held our Waterford and Westcourt Award Ceremonies. Award winners are acknowledged elsewhere in this newsletter but on behalf of the College community I would like to congratulate all these who have excelled this year. I make particular mention of the winner of the Principal’s Award at each year level Callum Wiggett at Year 7, Michael Ahern at Year 8 and Jaeger Fawcett at Year 9.

In recent weeks I read a book called ‘Humankind – a Hopeful History’ by Rutger Bregman. Its central premise is that human beings are inherently good, kind and trustworthy, not nasty, untrustworthy and selfish (as most news reporting would have us believe). Bregman suggests that life should be in communal, rich, joyful and altruistic, not ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short’ as philosopher Thomas Hobbes believes.

The book suggests that we are programmed to think the worst of everyone else by an endless diet of disaster and tragedy fed to us in our news. This resonated with me. We tend to assume that if we leave a bag, bike or car unlocked or unguarded it will be stolen… the vast majority of the time it won’t! We drive our children to school or to the bus stop so they won’t be kidnapped or run over… the likelihood of either is miniscule! We insist our children have phones to ring us when there is an emergency… there almost certainly won’t be.

This week I took a call from an elderly lady who wanted to tell the school how delighted she was that two boys had spent half a day cleaning her overgrown garden. “Better than professional gardeners, they worked so hard and they were so polite” she reported! The boys were Connor Azzopardi and Jacob Hill who were doing it as part of the St Joseph’s community service program. It is gratifying to see the essential goodness of human beings demonstrated to so many in the community by our boys. Congratulations and thank you to all boys on their commitment to completing your community service.

While community service is a wonderful way to show the best of our human nature locally, the St Joseph’s community also has a proud history of supporting the provision of education for the poor of Kensekka in Uganda. You may have seen an email explaining that an appeal is running until Friday 4 December to assist this to continue. The email includes further detail and a link should you be in a position to provide support.

As we come close to Christmas and our celebration of Christ’s entry into the world, I’d like to share with you a beautiful prayer / reflection from theologian Karl Rahner:

God’s message to us is the source of our joy and our hope:

I am here. I am with you.

I am your life.

I am your time.

My love is unconquerable.

I am here.

It is Christmas.

Light the Candles!

They have more right to exist

than all the darkness.

It is Christmas –

Christmas that lasts forever.

Stay well and God bless.