Farewell Catriona Arcamone

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. There was much wisdom, there was much foolishness… (Charles Dickens, Tale of Two Cities – and my teaching career!)

My teaching life has been bookended thus – For two years I was the youngest member of staff at Auburn GHS, for much of my career I have been exactly the average age of the teaching profession, and for the last two years I believe I have been the oldest teacher at Fort Street! I completed my HSC exactly 50 years ago, and began my career in 1976, likely before some of you were born, or when you were babes in arms!

I have had the joy of teaching K-12 – from a two-teacher school in Spencer, on the Hawkesbury River, and of course in big comprehensive co-ed schools such as Arthur Phillip in Parramatta. I have also taught adults – calligraphy, pedagogy, programming, and presentations to colleagues of modules in English Standard, Advanced and Extension courses. I have taught a wide range of subjects – English of course, but also drama, history, geography, music, Renaissance dance, woodwork to name a few! Probably, some not all that well. I have had students in classes termed IM and GA, for intellectually disabled, or “intellectually moderate” students doing general activities, and I have also taught quite a number of students who have graced the league tables and received state ranks in my subjects – including several first in state.

I have seen young boys grow into fabulous young men, young girls into fabulous young, (and older women), and, more recently, young boys grow into fabulous young women and conversely, young girls grow into wonderful young men. This is the joy of teaching, and it is such a joy when you see some of your students as they mature – make successful careers, become parents, become fabulous adults.

Teaching, as you all know, is so much more than imparting knowledge – it’s hopefully about imparting wisdom, teaching critical thinking, empowering the young to be creative, encouraging collaboration, cooperation, helping the development of empathy and true understanding. Teaching is full of surprises, and it’s also full of many learning experiences.

As teacher, Year Adviser, Head Teacher, of English and some varied faculties, and DP, one is privy to much in the lives of our students and their families, way beyond the confines of the classroom. I have seen and known more than I would have expected to know in my role as an educator: I have been in a school where a Year 7 girl was abducted and murdered, where one of my students was the sister of four convicted rapists, a fifth of her seven brothers was murdered, the youngest electrocuted. Her mother remained in Afghanistan, her father was a doctor, and a bully. One of the students in my year group ran away from home and became a missing person – we don’t know if she was ever found. I discovered that a number of under-age girls who suddenly disappeared from my junior classes had become wives overseas, a few became wives and mothers while still at school in my Sydney classroom. Sadly, these arrangements for most of them were not what they had hoped for. On the eve of her HSC a student and her family were taken from their home and incarcerated in Villawood, where I was able to speak to her on the phone, then secretly deported to Malaysia. Despite the best efforts of her friends and the school we have never since heard from her. Substance abuse, prostitution, drug dealing, and paedophilia have impacted a number of students who have been in my care. And of course, there has been the awful tragedy of a much too large number of suicides.

Apart from our one recent tragedy, I would just like to say that none of the incidents I have mentioned have been connected to Fort Street – but I have mentioned them because they have been significant events in my teaching career, and, have impacted the way I teach and respond to the students with whom I have had the great privilege of working. Like every other aspect of the human condition, what we consider to be humanity is part of a broad spectrum – and being a teacher gives one insight and continues to surprise one that the spectrum is so broad. One of the great pleasures of teaching English is that you can indulge your passion for literature, critical theory and philosophy. What underpins much of our teaching and discussion is the study of the human condition, the notion of what it means to be human. From Frankenstein to Blade Runner, Homer’s Odyssey to Joyce’s Ulysses, Midsummer Night’s Dream to Hamlet, we can conduct meaningful discourse which I know has impacted the way so many students, and of course our brilliant Fortians, to think and thence conduct themselves brilliantly in the world beyond the Fort. It’s an added joy when students let you know, of their own volition, as frequently happens, that the study of English literature illuminates and informs their understanding of life!

The joys of working with students at the Fort have been many and varied – from the sublime to the ridiculous, the hilarious to the tragic, the inspiring to the perplexing. There are the joys of discussing Nietzsche, Calvino or Hegel with a Year 9 student who can talk you under the table, to the extraordinary joy of receiving a few words, then sentences from those who cannot speak. There’s the wonderful contradiction of being given a published copy of a book of 206 pages from the student from whom extracting an essay was well-nigh impossible, the thrill of the student who came to school irregularly but attended every Extension 2 lesson on time with a passion and grace, the irony of working on creative and critical projects where the writing is sublime, but knowing that your edits and the teaching of the use of the semi colon is still a necessity.

My time as teacher, for about forty years, reflects a number of changes in the system – and anyone interested in history will know that although we need to learn from our past, change and reform is a slow process. There have been some good changes though. I received a teacher’s scholarship, and entered university in the Whitlam era – without Gough that would not have been possible for me – a mere female. Maternity leave was 6 weeks only – but day care was not really an organised thing – one had to make private arrangements – if you were lucky enough to find someone. Returning to school part-time was not an option, and there were still a number of men and women who resented the fact that maternity leave was even a thing! My response was that hopefully by having progeny who would need schooling, I would keep these naysayers in work! My first school, Auburn GHS, was under-resourced – there were few textbooks or even collections of novels – it certainly encouraged creativity in the classroom! The ladies in the office might type up a worksheet for you, then print up the 40 or so copies needed on the Gestetner machine. The changing population of schools has been a great change – the wonderful diversity we now see in so many of our schools was hardly there in 1976. Auburn GHS was largely Anglo, with some students from Greece, Turkey, and the old Yugoslavia, fewer from Lebanon and Syria. Today 99% of the students there are from language backgrounds other than English.

I have had some marvellous times working with colleagues here at the Fort, and trying to bring about some changes and improvements; I am happy and thankful to know that English Enrichment, the Debating program, Year 7 literacy classes, the Connected Curricula, appear now to be a permanent part of the school life. (Pity about the knot garden – the soil was too hard for Year 7s with a shovel!) I am thrilled that the SLSO program, supporting our special gifted students has taken off, the positions filled with some brilliant and empathetic Fortians of yore. That my ten years of The Fortian magazine has now evolved into what it should be – a student-led production. That the whole school embraced our Shakespeare Day and saw Ros escorted in all her Elizabethan finery by John Bell to her throne! I have had the thrill of escorting, myself, students to Japan and the IMP to Eastern Europe, not to mention to the very many camps. I am happy that both the beautiful staircase and pressed metal ceiling in Wilkins were restored, that W16 is now a 90-seat lecture theatre and my beautiful classroom, W25 a break-out space. I am pleased that I was able to undertake the 2017 School Validation, writing about the Fort in 30,000 words, and I am pleased to be a member of the Fort Street Foundation.

During the forty years of my career there have been for me seven female principals, three males! I have really had the experience of many kinds of school, especially if I factor in my own children as well: Single sex selective, co-ed selective, co-ed and single sex comprehensive, private girls, independent, privileged, independent boys, private performing arts, Catholic, the Conservatorium, a two-teacher primary; city, regional and rural schools. It’s been a joy to work at them all, or to be closely involved in some way – but with all honesty I can say that some of my happiest times, (and some of my most difficult, I will not pretend!) have been here at Fort Street. Twelve years is not a long time – when you look around at our teaching cohort, I might still be considered a newbie – but why would one want to be anywhere else? I have had a brilliant, wonderful English faculty, many of whom will remain lifelong friends; I have worked with, as Deputy Principal, beautiful and compassionate Year Advisers and school counsellors; this is the most delightful and supportive SASS and IT staff anywhere; I have had the privilege of working with a fabulous executive, and several senior executive teams, especially the latest iteration, with whom it has been a pleasure to work and plan.

A school is of course the people who fill it – staff, students, parents. Without doubt, Fort Street is peopled with an extraordinarily delightful group of young people, who have genuine, original thoughts and ideas, which they seem to really want to share with you. Coupled with the parents, who are so engaged with their children and their teachers, and are so warm and generous, Fort Street must be one of the most glorious places to work.
I leave with much sadness, indeed trepidation, to start a new phase of my life which, I can only hope, will be half as fruitful, fulfilling, fabulous and rewarding as this my time at the Fort. There has indeed been some wisdom, much foolishness. In terms of a career, I consider my time at the Fort, to have been the very best of times. Thank you to all of those who have made it thus.

Catriona Arcamone