From the Interim Headmaster

I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.

John 10:10

Dear Students, Parents and Carers

It seems to me, as an historian, that this is the most difficult time in history to be bringing young people through preparatory years and adolescence into adulthood. Parents, carers, teachers and others with responsibility for assisting with this journey, and young people themselves, are navigating fairly recent phenomena. These include the toxic dimensions of social media; the rapid and deep sexualisation of our culture, including marketing targeting young people; the surge of a multi-billion dollar international pornography industry which is accessible on personal devices; the multiple voices claiming that masculinity is inherently toxic and the hyper-individualism of contemporary society, which manifests the paradox of being lonely in a crowd. In addition to all of this, and perhaps in some respects caused by the foregoing, we are witnessing a tsunami of mental health issues, mostly visible in anxiety and depression, apparent across youth of the western world. A recent public lecture by an academic psychologist presented the alarming statistic that 31% of American college students were found to be clinically depressed and dysfunctional.

The Australian social commentator, Mr Hugh Mackay AO mentions in his book The Good Life that he sees rampant individualism as leading to an epidemic of loneliness and a fragmentation of community. American psychologists Twenge and Campbell, in a book I have recently read, The Narcissism Epidemic. Living in the Age of Entitlement, diagnose a litany of hyper-individualism, narcissism, hedonism, consumerism, superficiality and a fixation on celebrity culture as contributing to a lack of emotional strength and resilience amongst youth. Professor Nancy Hill, Professor of Education at Harvard University, to whom I have been listening recently, argues that to current youth the haziness and apparent insecurity of the future leads them to live very much in the present moment. She notes that they often concern themselves with community and meaning as well as an emphatic concern for identity and a hunger for a sense of belonging. She says that they sometimes ‘hide’, including through oppositional behaviour, because they want adults to look for them and find them in a deep sense, and they want to know they are loved unconditionally. This explains the ‘boundary riders’ often seen in schools: those young people who, when presented with a boundary, immediately rush up and push against it to see if it will hold. Perversely, it seems, they want it to withstand their challenge as they need to know, despite their apparent defiance, that the adults are actually in charge.

The present angst of young people is not the way it was meant to be. Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly” or as some translations put it, “I have come that you may have life and have it in all its fullness” (John 10:10). How may we assist our young people at Shore to achieve a life of abundance? It seems to me that parents and staff can continue to come together in helpful ways which both create and enhance community; which promote a sense of belonging through friendship, pastoral care and wellbeing programmes. Such programmes are fundamental to Shore and are strategically led by Housemasters, Tutors and School Counsellors, amongst others. An experience of success, in whatever domain, and the huge value of sport and of cultural pursuits, which are in themselves an antidote to depression, are hugely important. I would hope also that young people seize the hope which is found in the Christian world view, which is in itself an antidote to despair.

My expectation is that the strength of the Shore Community manifests positive mental health amongst our young people, who are well above the national average. Clinical surveys, which have been rigorously pre-tested and validated, affirm that this is the case. This is not an argument for complacency. A litmus test of our strength is the extent to which we reach out to assist those in our community who are struggling. Great schools look after their people and help deliver an abiding sense of purpose and meaning. This is our challenge and our commitment.

Dr John Collier
Interim Headmaster