In addition to the impact of the COVID pandemic , the Class of 2021 are members of the first generation that has grown up only knowing communication of information through smart technology . From the onset of cave paintings to the viral presence of big data via the written word , printing press , telephone , radio and television , computers , the internet , wifi and social media , we have seen how significant changes to the way we communicate and are influenced bring social upheaval .
The Class of 2021 represents a generation born into time when old wrongs are being readily exposed and discussed and , with ticking clock , the conversation on necessary climate intervention for their future reaches point of decision . Much has been invested and much is expected . Amidst the restrictions and regulations , the values upon which their School was founded have shone through to , in turn , equip them to meet the challenges of their times .
Their Movie on the Main sold 200 tickets and raised over $ 4000 to provide more than 400 books to remote Indigenous communities across Australia . Under their watch , over $ 50,000 was raised through the 24 Hour Hike for Bo Children ’ s Hospital in Sierra Leone that has purchased a minibus and two motor bikes for immunisation outreach . Their Charity Week saw close to $ 5500 raised for Beyond Blue and the Starlight Children ’ s Foundation . They led our first marking of Denim Day , raising money for the You Matter charity that assists families fleeing domestic violence . Trivia nights and a fun run with the students of MLC and Lauriston raised monies in support of cystic fibrosis research ; and with strong voice , they led fitting recognition of the International Day against Homophobia .
Amidst the graduating class are an Australian chess champion , a member of the Australian debating team and two members of the Australian Mathematical Olympiad team . There are winners of state and national prizes in debating , biology , natural history , physics , chemistry , mathematics , German poetry recital , visual communications and design , music and the Parliament Prize .
Most importantly , there is a generation of Scotchies who , in the spirit of those who have gone before , expect to use their gifts to challenge that which needs challenging and support those in need of supporting .
Over the years , in conversations with teachers of English , I have often mused that their subject is different to most because , grammar and linguistics aside , its discipline is ‘ us ’. That it is by the intimate discussion of our ambitions , fears , loves , strengths , failings and hopes that we form the basis for what is important , and that it is this that provides each generation template for the navigation of its times .
In her moving poem of remembrance , Last Post , Carol Ann Duffy reflects on the lives of servicemen in World War 1 and on the aching desire of poets to tell their tales backwards , away from the point of conflict to times when all possible future paths seemed open . Duffy ’ s rewinding of the tape takes us from the moment of scything shrapnel back through the kissing of photographs from home in the trenches , coffee and warm French bread in the village square , to the moment a young soldier ponders his several million possible future lives crammed with deeply ordinary human desires : ‘ love , work , children , talent , English beer , good food .’
As with their predecessors , the members of the Class of 2021 step into the excitement of the unknown to do their bit . There are many possible paths . At some point , possibly at a reunion gathering , they will cast their minds back to days of greater innocence and the things that bind them together .
As they do so , they might take inspiration from the life of holocaust survivor Eddie Jaku , who died in October having survived the horrors of Buchenwald , Auschwitz , death marches and the murder of his parents in a death camp , to start a new life with his family in Australia in 1950 . Mr Jaku called himself ' the happiest man on Earth ' and often expressed that ‘ Life is what you want it to be , life is in your hands ’.
‘ Life is what you want it to be , life is in your hands .’
EDDIE JAKU www . scotch . vic . edu . au Great Scot 5