Great Scot September 2018 Gt Scot_154_September_online | Page 7

will see Professor Cox’s ‘emerging divide’ shift back
in favour of those of more rational bent. But Monash
wasn’t just the engineer: he cared about people,
particularly those for whom he was responsible. Setting
his mind in ‘the field’ rather than in the manual
ensured his detailed plans and strategies were translated
meaningfully to, and gained support from, all involved
at each level of implementation. It would seem Monash
knew the significance of how he was perceived by those
around him (Aristotle’s Ethos); and how he, and those
closest to him, were viewed by those he would need to
rely on (Aristotle’s Pathos).
Over the mid-year break, I attended a professional
development programme at the Judge Business
School of Cambridge University before heading to
the Gold Coast for the Annual Conference of the
International Boys’ Schools Coalition at Southport
School. At each event, my mind was again drawn both
to the continuing disruption of the clear pathways of
industrial and post-industrial ages, and the values and
practices that have stood the test of time and enabled
institutions to grasp the opportunities of change, rather
than succumb to its challenges.
At both Cambridge and Southport, I observed
and pondered the growing influence of ‘clustering’.
As the market refines to the level of the individual,
mining her/his data and using it to form profiles,
so individuals are doing likewise: using networks to
connect like and unlike minds, share interests, and
unearth the best people to identify and solve problems.
That I was the only educator on my professional
development course, and, that, though the majority
of my contemporaries worked in London, they hailed
from Russia, Switzerland, Holland, Nigeria, Croatia,
Pakistan and Italy, provided an exciting vista to all that
is now possible.
On the Gold Coast, I witnessed teachers of different
disciplines increasingly clustering around areas of
shared interest, particularly around common aspects
of action research. Such clustering around research,
action and reflection marks, to my mind, the future of
our great profession. It is the reason why, from 2019,
we have given time for Scotch teachers to be involved
in our new Teacher Action Research and Career
Development Programme.
With our educational strategy and future plans for
the Keon-Cohen Building in mind, it was particularly
affirming to learn that recent work at Cambridge
aimed at targeting the most significant factor in the
University’s success as a dominant force in its field
across the centuries, concluded that it was the manner
in which its community dined. That people were sat
next to those they didn’t generally come into contact
A COPY OF THE LETTER JOHN MONASH WROTE TO THE BOYS OF SCOTCH COLLEGE IN 1918
with, and came from different fields of study; and that
the culture around the dining table was one of engaged
conversation. Minds were expected to collide, and
share views and ideas with no set directory to where
their interactions might lead, other than to a better
understanding of how the world came to be as it is, and
how it might be improved for the benefit of the many.
One hundred years on from his date with King
George V at Bertangles, the values and attributes
of our greatest Old Boy, General Sir John Monash,
continue to be those that underpin a Scotch education:
a belief in enterprise, service and self-responsibility; an
appreciation of how the world came to be as it is and
confidence in those principles that will make it better;
a commitment to hard work and embracing challenge
with fortitude, rigour and purpose. But perhaps it
lives no stronger than in our fundamental belief in the
inherent dignity of each person and the determination
that Scotchies do their bit in building something better,
and do it well.
www.scotch.vic.edu.au Great Scot
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