What does culture mean in a school?

‘What does culture mean in a school?’

This was a question asked by one of our Year 6 students in response to the School Survey this year. It is a good question and, for that student, rather than answer the survey question it became something to clarify. What is a school culture? How is it reflected and what does it say to the students and staff in our community?

Last week our primary learning support teacher, Mrs Honey shared the thinking of some of our Year 2 students with me, students aged 7 or 8 years old. For them, culture is simply “the way a group of people think and act”. I like this definition, the consistency of thought and action is an important way of differentiating personal preference from the type of deep culture that guides us whether we are aware of its effect on us or not.

“For them, culture is simply “the way a group of people think and act”.”

However, it was what came next from our Year 2 students that answered that question of culture in our School in a way that highlighted the heart at work in Calvin Christian School. Our Year 2s reflected that “in our School culture, we are allowed to talk about God and pray.  We can pray to God and pray for each other”.

What a beautiful way to describe a culture of care and concern for others built from our central relationship with God. It expresses a feeling of privilege that, to talk about God and to God is something quite unique and not the experience for all students in our state. For our students, responding to the question of whether Calvin had a ‘strong Christian culture’, ranged between 80-90%. One of our parents described this culture as a “Caring culture and strong Christian values (not just nominal, but part of school life)”.

This is the heart of Christian Education, a concern that our children not just learn the ‘head knowledge’ of what Christianity is but have the opportunity to learn it and live it in an environment where faith is valued. Experiencing this as part of a Christian learning community, we pray, is a transformational experience in the lives of our students. As parents, we invite you again to join in this journey of passing something of eternal worth onto our children, a faith and hope that leads to a life of meaning and purpose.

Scott Ambrose - Principal

Please Mind the Gap

One of the reminders of a trip to visit family in Europe eight years ago was a repeated phrase from the Underground, ‘please mind the gap’.

It is a phrase that can apply to many aspects of life (we even heard a sermon on the topic) but it has been relevant for me as I attempt to cross the most challenging of gaps, the ‘generation gap’.

How often do you notice the generation gap? For some of us, perhaps not often. For those of us who work and live with children and young people, perhaps more often than we would like – a not so subtle reminder of our aging.

“One of the remarkable things about the generation gap is that you can be in the same conversation as the young person and emerge with some limited or quite different understandings.”

Sometimes the generational gap hits me in some quite surprising and unexpected ways. Recently, I have learnt a whole new vocabulary including words like ‘scooch’ (Australian English translation: ‘slide’), ‘eshay’ (a type of ruffian), and an array of American slang that my children seem to know and I don’t. This always inspires me to educate my children in some much older Australian slang and rhyming slang (never as appreciated as I would like it to be).

One of the remarkable things about the generation gap is that you can be in the same conversation as the young person and emerge with some limited or quite different understandings. In fact, I think it is part of the thrill in adopting or adapting words and language, to separate the young and hip from the aged and less hip. It was one of our younger staff members who reminded me of my age last week when, in response to a Year 7 competition that tried to name my top 5 songs, she asked “next time could we have a younger staff member choose the songs?”. 

I was left reflecting on the generation gap that not only divides us in musical taste, but can sometimes lead to communication challenges if not absolute miscommunication. This also has a very serious side to it as we as parents and educators seek to understand the rapidly changing technological environment that our children are living in. 

This week, parents and our secondary students heard from Melinda Tankard Reist and Daniel Principe as they sought to bring perspective to some of the challenges of our social-media obsessed age. In short, there is much to be wary of and some important ways that we need to be supporting and preparing our young people for a world that looks very different to our childhoods. Seeking to cross the generational gap to understand our children’s world, to help them make sense of it and make discerning choices is an important part of our role as educators and parents. 

There are those who would seek to capture our children’s hearts and minds and lead them into habits that expose them to harm. Supporting our young people means crossing the gap, engaging with the things that they see and are interested in, gently guiding them in ‘paths of righteousness’ and teaching good and accountable decision-making. The apostle Paul strikes a note of hopefulness when he writes that “no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to man. And God is faithful” (1 Cor 10:13). A reminder that the sense of hope and purpose found in Jesus is the eternal truth that crosses generation gaps and helps to build a family and community of faith, hope and love.

Scott Ambrose - Principal

Raising tech-healthy Humans

We have an incredibly mixed relationship with technology.

If you read the volumes of commentary written about technology it is, for the optimist, the sunlit uplands of progress and potential. For the pessimist, it is a source of great challenge and temptation. For the realist, we perhaps see both the amazing potential and the pitfalls.

For those, like me, who grew up in the ‘TV generation’, we can probably remember similar discussions about the evils of television. The well-trodden lines that TV ‘rotted your brain’ or ‘gave you square eyes’ were certainly heard in my home. Go back another generation and it was radio that was the challenge to our familiar way of life. I love this quote from an Australian journal in 1927 entitled ‘The evils of radio’: “Radio does not know its place. Sooner or later, our children will be brought up almost entirely by radio. Mother is no longer the wise being who knows such lovely, frightening tales… There is nothing but a voice from the void to sing children to sleep” (Chronicle of Australia, p.534).

“As parents, we need to clearly understand our children’s relationship with technology.”

The author of this particular piece concludes by arguing that “Radio is excellent in its place as a blessing to the lonely settler, but how can we convince it to stay there?” I often wonder whether we as parents are wondering similar things about smart phones and our hyper-connected children and their world – ‘it is all excellent in its place… but how can we convince it to stay there?’

The arguments that are made strike at the heart of the issues for a new generation, how do we maintain the central place of relationship and connection whilst providing the best of the opportunities available to our children? And ultimately, how do we teach our children to become mature and discerning adults.

As parents, we need to clearly understand our children’s relationship with technology. Last year, our Community Engagement Committee ran a Parent Forum with Daniel Sih that explored some of the lessons from his book Raising tech-healthy Humans. This week, we will be sending home complimentary copies of his book to each family with primary students and I would personally like to invite our primary families to an online webinar with Daniel on Wednesday 25 October 7:45-9:00pm and a follow up, face-to-face Q&A for Channel and Calvin Christian School parents on Tuesday 5 December at 7pm at Channel Christian School. For parents, I would also encourage you to attend our Parent Forum on 30 October at the Multipurpose Hall with Melinda Tankard-Reist.

Jesus reminds us that people have been making decisions about what they truly value for millennia and that the key to our decision-making remains our hearts. If technology becomes our ‘treasure’, the thing we value most, then it will rule us in ways that are unhealthy. Conversely, if we can learn to be discerning and clear about the central place of relationship and, I would argue, accept the central place of God in our lives, our view of the world (and technology) transforms radically.

Scott Ambrose - Principal