The Higher School Certificate(HSC) has the capacity to bring out both the best and worst in students, parents, schools, educational systems and the media.
Its imprint on our society’s collective psyche is such that it promotes, allows and normalises behaviours that under normal circumstances would be frowned upon.
In students it can lead to self obsession, a disregard for others’ needs and feelings of desperation and/or inadequacy.
It can rupture relationships and friendships and scar individuals unprepared for the constant pressure placed on them (by themselves, their parents, their school and their society).
Or the HSC can be an experience that allows you to grow in knowledge and skill, teaches you the power of resilience, develops your inner strength, shows the value of family and friends and reveals to you the generosity of others.
So as the year unfolds, the question is: Is the Higher School Certificate the key to the future or an unnatural stressor that promotes poor behaviour? Or both? Centre of the educational universe and/or bad at the core?
The HSC “facts’:
Parents, the greatest contributor to academic success (take a big pat on the back because every researcher knows and can prove how great your contribution to academic success is), can only do so much to physically, emotionally and financially support their HSC child (and I use the term child because the antics of these students can often be most childlike).
Teachers can only provide so much time, experience, care, knowledge, access to skill development and dedication to support students undergoing the HSC.
The school can only provide so many resources, experiences and facilities to support their HSC students.
The fact is that, in the end, despite all our best wishes and best efforts, the Higher School Certificate and how it is approached and the success or failure it brings is the responsibility of the student. Not that he/she might be willing to acknowledge this fact.
Facing the end of Secondary education, our students may need to consider the following:
As we approach the “pointy end” of Secondary education my advice from going through the HSC years as a student, a teacher and a parent is:
They survived. You will too!
Mr Terry Muldoon Principal, St Columba Anglican School |
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