Newsletter 1: 7 February 2023

Dear Colleagues,

The New Year

The commencement of a new school year has a unique energy. After the relative calm of the preparatory staff days, schools start immediately in top gear with the arrival of the students. Like a long planned for party or wedding celebration, there is a sense of relief once the guests have arrived and everything is underway. As Marists, we are particularly attentive to those guests who may not know others quite so well, the students new to our schools.

The renown of our Marist schools in providing supportive and caring school environments is a consistent experience for so many of our families. In recent weeks I have had the pleasure of meeting a host of remarkable health professionals who have been caring for my elderly mother. Unsolicited reflections on experiences as students and parents in three different Marist schools highlighted a palpable and abiding sense of appreciation and gratitude for the patient, respectful and encouraging teachers they had experienced at their respective Marist schools. Words such as “transformative”, “life changing”, “inspirational”, “forgiving”, “patient” and “affectionate” sprinkled the conversations with such spontaneity, these were privileged moments on behalf of all Marist educators.

As we commence the new school year, we must never underestimate the intuitive recognition by students for teachers who show they care in so many ways. Sometimes, in the careful, detailed preparation of opening liturgies, assemblies, induction programs, orientation and, indeed classes, one might naturally question effort versus impact. However, a teacher’s example is often a slow burning influence that continues to prosper in the hearts and minds of young people for decades. As the initial euphoria of the first weeks level to sustained enthusiasm, these well known sentiments from the esteemed American author, Pearl S Buck are shared for your reflection:

Only the brave should teach, the men and women whose integrity cannot be shaken, whose minds are enlightened enough to understand the high calling of the teacher, whose hearts are unshakeably loyal to the young, whatever the interests of those who are in power.

There is no hope for our world unless we can educate a different kind of man and woman. I put the teacher higher than any other person today in world society, in responsibility and in opportunity.

Only those who love the young should teach. Teaching is not a way to make a livelihood. The livelihood is incidental. Teaching is a vocation. It is as sacred as priesthood; as innate as a desire; as inseparable as the genius which compels a great artist. If a teacher has not the concern of humanity, the love of living creatures, the vision of the priest and of the artist, they must not teach. Teachers who hate to teach can only have pupils who hate to learn.

Great and true teachers think of the child, dream child see visions, not of themselves but in the flowering of the child into adulthood. They think of the child first and always, not of themselves.

It takes courage to be a teacher, and it takes unalterable love for the child.