Perception Shadows Reality

Recently, a conversation on the side of a local sporting oval led me to consider the impact perception has when it differs vastly from reality and why some perceptions are seen as a rigid dichotomy.

Why invest in education?

As you can imagine, people often ask my advice on private independent education and why I believe it is worth the investment.

When you are in the thick of education, it is easy to see the difference, in terms of what schools have to offer, but I imagine from the outside they mostly appear the same. Buildings, teachers, curriculum, pastoral and sporting programmes are fairly common among all schools. However, when you look more closely there are stark differences between schools that can only truly be compared once you fully understand the school's culture. This makes it difficult to discern between perception and reality when the current and relevant experience is hard to come by. That being the case, the perception of a school is often based on what people talk about, whether this is from firsthand experience, historical experience or perception based on some observation.

Embracing change

This poses an interesting challenge for schools as culture is constantly evolving to respond to generational differences. Fact: I do not want the education for my children to be the same educational experience as I had, even though it was a good standard for that era. Didactic teaching, chalk and talk, learning by rote and rigour through repetition were some of the highlights of an 80s and 90s education along with a generation who was expected to learn grammar through 'immersion'. Likewise, technology integration was touch typing on a computer and communication/social skills were taught through the one-off Year 12 English oral presentation! It would certainly be left wanting by this generation of young learners.

I now understand schools on a far deeper level, having taught various curriculums in a number of different systems across a few countries. I like to think of them as a complex ecosystem of intricately woven decisions. One aspect of the school and its microstructure is likely to influence so many other aspects of the school. If you disrupt one structure, it will have a flow-on effect that changes the way the organisation operates. This is not necessarily a bad thing as change is a very healthy aspect of organisational culture, however, it does explain why schools often look similar on the outside but feel very different on the inside. They have the same purpose, but how they achieve their end goal, and what they believe success to be, may vary greatly.

Rejecting dichotomies

There are a number of perceptions that I hear when people discuss schools that intrigue me. "That's an academic school, that school is good at the arts, it's a sporting school, they have strong pastoral care at …."

Sometimes I find the rigid dichotomy that is discussed when comparing schools interesting, such as, sporting schools are not academic, or strength in community and service means a lack of competitive spirit or, to be strong in the arts means you don't have a good mathematics and science programme. If this dichotomy existed in schools, then surely it would also have to exist for the students within the schools. But as we know, students who are good at sport are often very strong academically, musicians are frequently capable in mathematics, active people in the community are often successful, the list goes on. I would not dream of understanding where these perceptions are born, I only know they exist and are likely perpetuated by confirmational bias.

Our community

Like others, my perception of Scotch College when I first arrived is vastly different from what I understand it to be today. It took me a very short time to feel the sense of community, it took me far longer to understand where this is derived from and what it means to be part of this community. To explain this, I realised that over a long period of time I came to understand how the pieces of the puzzle fit together and how those pieces influenced each other.

I never expect to be able to explain in passing how intricately woven the decisions that have been made with regards to our academic programme are, but what I can say is that the care and attention given to how we design curriculum, deliver our lessons, assess student outcomes, develop skills, track and monitor progress and employ teaching staff who passionately believe in what they are doing is second to none that I have encountered.

Scotch's culture respects humility so it is unlikely we will ever be known for a long list of achievements even though there are many; it is more likely you will hear people say, 'we went to an amazing school with some ordinary people who achieved some extraordinary things in so many facets of their life'. That is a culture that I am very proud to be part of.