Great Scot September 2018 Gt Scot_154_September_online | Page 9

ABOVE: YUKI GOH (YEAR 11) ENTERTAINS SENIOR CITIZENS WITH HIS MAGIC TRICKS AS PART OF THE IMMERSION PROGRAM.
which require selflessness, and selflessness is a hard path
to travel.
Jesus did not mince his words when describing it:
‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself
and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants
to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for
me will find it.’ (Matthew 16:24-25)
This is the path Jesus took. He does not ask us to
do anything he did not do himself. He was on the
path of losing his life to save ours when he spoke these
words. But if our motivation is the same as his, then
selflessness has a governing purpose: love. All through
the Bible, love is defined as a commitment to others
over self.
When we look at the Gospel and we ask why God
sent his Son, and why the Son went freely to the cross,
the answer given is love:
‘Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes
from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God
and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know
God, because God is love. This is how God showed his
love among us: he sent his one and only Son into the
world that we might live through him. This is love: not
that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his
Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends,
since God so loved us, we also ought to love one
another.’ (1 John 4:7-11)
Love feels the obligation and takes it to heart.
The command to love God and your neighbour is to
open your heart to the troubles of others and feel the
obligation to serve them; to do something about their
plight. Not to be content with the greatest good for
the greatest number in principle only, but to give of
yourself for the solution. This is why we educate not
just for the mind but also the heart, lest our boys get
the impression the sum total of solving the world’s
problems is only by having an opinion on a matter.
For these reasons I am proud to say the development
of the Year 11 Immersion Program, under the direction
of Mr Michael Waugh, is taking us there. The program
uses service-learning pedagogy to engage boys in
community development projects. It explicitly teaches
them about the ethics and values of service, as well as
allowing them opportunity to learn about the wider
community, social inequity and about themselves.
At Year 11, we have been fortunate to partner with
Habitat for Humanity (Cambodia), Ballarat Specialist
School, e.motion 21 (dance therapy for people with
Downs Syndrome), the Nepabunna Indigenous
community in the Flinders Ranges, Eat Up, FareShare,
St Vincent de Paul, the Les Twentyman Foundation,
aged care facilities throughout Melbourne and
World Vision.
Community development projects include house
building projects to eliminate poverty housing,
education programs to engage young people with
intellectual disabilities and young people living
in impoverished communities in Melbourne,
environmental reclamation projects, tackling food
insecurity, music therapy, food therapy and yard
maintenance for people living in housing commission
houses.
Our boys have hands-on experience in using their
strength for service, not status. Experiences, no doubt,
they will carry with them into many a field throughout
life. Perhaps some of them will be men of church and
men of state, but no doubt even more of them will be
men of influence and men of weight.
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