From the Interim Headmaster
The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.
Romans 8:21
Dear Students, Parents and Carers
One of the essential aspects of a really good school is to engender hope in young people. When adults look at the world through the eyes of the idealistic young, the situation can appear hopeless. Many young people see a devastating combination of enormous problems, some of them existential. Top of the list is often climate change, where the youth of this nation and beyond, contemplate the extinction of human life and are incredulous that adults, particularly those in positions of influence and power, appear to do little to mitigate a cataclysm.
Youth are aware of immense international suffering and injustice. Some 20 million people throughout the world enslaved; appalling wars and devastation in the Ukraine, Yemen, Syria; ethnic cleansing in Myanmar; and closer to home, the lack of progress in reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and apparent lack of consideration for the disadvantaged, where it is a national scandal that many Australians live below the poverty line. In terms of their own lives, the economy looks flaky and their prospects for secure housing outside of inherited wealth can appear to be poor to unlikely. The immediate virtual world in which they live, that of social media, is full of vitriol and vindictive trolls, with language which would appal most adults. On the world stage, the geopolitical scene is very unsettled with ‘strong men’, such as those in Russia, China, and North Korea, asserting themselves, such that the prospect of future warfare on a large scale is very real. The prospect of a nuclear holocaust seems more likely than at any time since the 1960s height of the Cold War. These post-war tensions were expressed at that time partly through the French Absurdist Movement of philosophers such as Sartre and Camus, who proclaimed that life has no meaning and is, in fact, absurd. The Apostle Paul quoted this view which was prevalent in his culture 2,000 years ago, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” (1 Corinthians 15:32). Such nihilism is not productive, especially for the young!
For those students who consume regular media, the dire interpretation of reality is reinforced. What we see as ‘news’ is in fact a highly packaged product designed around doom and gloom, because this is titillating, keeps people watching and sells a product. Accordingly, the script is the same every night: wars, plane crashes, car smashes, gangland assassinations, assaults, politicians and sports stars behaving badly, famine and disease, scandals and discord, the sports report, the weather and then something uplifting – a hero story or something funny or bizarre as light relief. It is the same script every night, just with different images and different people!
Given all of this, why would we expect young people to have any hope? Good schools, great schools, imbue students with hope. They help give them the skills, the agency, the commitment, the mission, and the passion to make a difference in the world, to make it a better place, and help sow within them the confidence that they can do so. This is essential. There is a dearth of real leadership in society on many levels. The nature of Shore is that it will produce leaders and we want, indeed we need them, to lead for good.
Amidst the easy default position of despair based on a relentless reality, Christian hope provides an interpretative grid to make sense of what we see and experience. The Apostle Paul proclaimed, “The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.” (Romans 8:21). According to a Christian world view, the principle of entropy is built into the cosmos, and we see this decay at every level. Real hope is found in Jesus Christ. Whether students embrace that outlook is up to them. We do, however, want and need them to go forward with hope.
Dr John Collier
Interim Headmaster
