Great Scot April 2019 Great Scot_156_April_2019_Online | Page 17

The theme of this edition of Great
Scot is ‘the power of boys’ voices’, and
it is a valuable topic to consider. When
given the right environment, support
and encouragement, boys have some very
powerful messages to share. The trick is in
assisting them to know how to best do so.
Having worked with primary-aged
children for the past 40-odd years, it has
been my experience that, like so many
other factors in a child’s life, there is
great capacity for them to have a say in
their world, but they do not always have
the tools to be able to do so effectively.
Assisting young boys to have the
confidence to share their thoughts, ideas
and beliefs with others is a very important
part of a teacher’s role. Boys need to
be encouraged to feel their ideas are
important, to have the courage to share
them, and to develop the conviction to
stand up for them. Even many adults can
find this to be extremely challenging, and
the idea of speaking up is quite stressful.
For me it is all about providing
opportunities for boys to develop their
confidence and their capacity to speak in
public. In the Junior School we do this
by making public speaking a ‘normal’
activity. All of the boys regularly see
Year 6 boys leading our assemblies. They
see older boys delivering sports reports,
and making announcements about
fundraising or other activities, and they
see these things as being normal.
Equally, the boys have many
opportunities in their classrooms to
present to a smaller cohort; sometimes
to their whole class or to smaller groups
within the class. In Drama, the boys are
provided with many tools and strategies
to help them feel confident when
speaking in front of others, and to share
their personal views. Our House structure
includes a Peer Support Program, where
the boys from Years 3 to 6 are placed into
smaller groups within their respective
Houses. These Peer Support Groups are
led by a couple of Year 6 boys, and once
again they provide opportunities and
avenues for boys to ‘have a voice.’
We also have a Student Representative
Council which meets fortnightly, a forum
where each class has a representative
who takes along the ideas, concerns and
questions that are important to the boys
in his class. The SRC is an important
way for the boys to have a say in how
their school operates and what the culture
should be.
Of course, having the confidence and
capacity to be able to speak up about
things that are important to a boy is only
half of the equation. Unless others have
the capacity to listen and to consider
what is being said, it matters little how
eloquent, confident or powerful a message
may be, if it falls on deaf ears then it
counts for little. A key aspect of this, then,
is to impress on our boys the importance
of, and the need to be respectful of the
thoughts, ideas and views of others.
I am reminded of a discussion many
years ago in a Prep classroom where the
topic being discussed was sharks. One
little lad spoke up and said that sharks
were very dangerous and we should get
rid of all of them to make the water
safe. Another boy strongly objected to
that idea and began criticising the first
boy. Among the group a third boy then
spoke up, saying to the boy objecting:
‘He is allowed to have his own ideas. Let
him say what he thinks’. I felt this was a
powerful message coming from a six year
old, and one that we can all learn from.
We try to instil in the boys that they
don’t have to agree with the ideas and
beliefs of others, but they do need to
respect their right to hold those ideas
and to be able to voice them.
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