Great Scot December 2017 GreatScot_152_Dec_Online | Page 4

Chairman
THE HON. DR DAVID KEMP
SCHOOL COUNCIL
CHAIRMAN
The Hon. Dr David Kemp AC ('59) – School Council Chairman
Burns’ ideal of ‘the
brotherhood of man’
marches on
Scotch College provides an amazing diversity of
opportunities and experiences for its students, not
only through a broad curriculum and extracurricular
activities, and through opportunities to travel with
school parties to every continent, but also through
the relationships formed between boys with a range of
backgrounds and characters.
While Scotch provides a Christian education in
association with the Presbyterian Church of Victoria, it
is open to students of all faiths and backgrounds.
In 2015 the Scotch Council adopted a vision
statement to guide its own decisions, which said in
part: ‘Scotch College aims at a school community that
embraces boys from families of all countries, faiths
and backgrounds. Through partnership with schools
and cultures, locally, nationally and internationally,
Scotch seeks to equip boys with an enduring empathy
for the needs and views of others, and the awareness
and adaptability to meet challenge and forge lasting
relationships of respect and purpose’.
The original meaning of the term ‘public school’
was that the school would be open to all, and from its
foundation, Scotch has sought to give reality to that
commitment. Indeed, when our founder, Rev. James
Forbes, earlier established a primary school in Collins
Street called The Scots School – before establishing the
secondary college that became Scotch – two Aboriginal
students were awarded prizes in its first year. Scotch has
always been non-sectarian in its admissions, and some
of its most distinguished students have been Jewish,
notably Sir John Monash and Sir Zelman Cowen.
Today Scotch boys come from families who adhere
to the whole range of Christian denominations, as
well as those of Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist and other
faiths. Many boys come from families who do not
acknowledge any religious affiliation, but who value
the education Scotch provides. International students
now make a valuable contribution to the diversity on
4
campus. Recently, as a result of a visit by the school, a
Scotch Family branch was formed in Hong Kong.
As a school which traces its origins back to Scotland,
with its long Presbyterian tradition of the dignity of
the individual person, it is perhaps not surprising that
Scotch should have taken to heart the vision of the
great radical poet Robert Burns, who foresaw the day
when ‘man to man, the world o’er, shall brothers be, for
a’ that’.
While the world has still a long way to go to
realise ‘the brotherhood of man’ and the common
humanity of all people, there can be no doubt that the
vast expansion of communications, trade, and travel
among nations, and the immense efforts to maintain
international peace, have done much to advance the
world towards that goal.
In our own society we are living in an era when
liberal ideas about the equal entitlement of all people
to respect and dignity are rapidly advancing. People
who have been neglected, ill-treated or discriminated
against in the past for their differences, whether on
grounds of race, nationality, religion, culture, gender,
sexuality or mental capacity, are now being recognised
and appreciated as full members of our communities,
entitled to equal respect alongside all others. Prejudice
is retreating before the recognition that we are all equal
in our humanity.
Scotch College embraces the ideal of the equal
dignity of all people. One recent example has been
the magnificent response of the Scotch Family to the
invitation to fund the Tony Briggs (‘85) Indigenous
Scholarship, with donations far exceeding the $750,000
target over a 24-hour period. A second recent example
was the gathering initiated by the boys of Year 12 to
confront and address the prejudice of homophobia.
Scotch College has for many years recognised its
obligation to help open doors of opportunity through
its educational skills beyond the school grounds.
Great Scot Number 152 – December 2017