The Thistle - An E-Newsletter of Scotch College, Perth, Western Australia

Residential Life News

Year 10 Tomorrow Man

Last week, Year 10's participated in their third module of Tomorrow Man.

The session was focused on the importance of making the time to 'acknowledge a mate' and it began by trying to identify why as males we don't let those close to us know why we value them. Initially, boys were sharing that they found this difficult because of the fear of showing their feelings and the ridicule they might receive from the others within the group. This led to a discussion on what it means to feel safe within 'this' group with a general feeling of while they felt safe in a physical, and to a certain extent, emotional state (not bullied or harassed), they were not completely safe in a social sense with the underlying impression that for some of them they couldn't show who they really were, which meant that they were trying to 'mask' their true personalities.

To watch 15/16 year old boys stand up and share this with their peers was extremely powerful and moving and to a certain extent contrary to the last statement.

For the final activity of the night the boys were asked to place themselves on a sliding scale of how they felt they may have impacted on the group. This was measured in three ways; positively, negatively or no effect at all. Once the boys had positioned themselves our presenter Zac then asked for volunteers to 'call out' other boys who they thought had wrongly positioned themselves. Part of the rule of this conversation was that if you called out someone you were asked to talk to them and not about them. Again, another extremely powerful moment within the group as the boys openly, and extremely detailed and personal, told boys why they valued their friendship and/or why they were considered to be an important member of the group.

The important learning from this is the feeling the boys received from both sharing their thoughts about why they value the friendship of others and conversely what is valued by others from their friendship.

This program is outstanding, and the Year 10's are extremely fortunate to be involved in it.

Catch up on all the latest Residential Life news here.

Mr Marcus Wilkinson
Director of Residential Life