Shining Lights, Week 4, Term 2
In a previous Shining Lights, I wrote about the Leading Learner Award, the characteristics of leaders and leading learners. The first encouragement for leadership is to “model the way”. This is when leaders reflect deeply to clarify their values to find their voice. Student who lead, share values in a way that aligns and affirms shared or group values. For students this can become the beginning of a life long journey toward effective community involvement. It is an almost natural extension that those people who understand deeply their own values and positions become charismatic to others looking to find partnerships to understand the world.
Admired leaders are recognised because among other characteristics, consistently, they are honest, competent and inspiring. I suspect that first of all, honest leaders are worthy of people’s trust; they uphold the honesty of others, respecting people and embracing authentic relationships. Competent leaders enhance characteristics like honesty, because competent leaders are able to do what they aim for. In short, competent leaders get things done.
Leading Learners inspire a shared vision in their classes, in their friendship groups and families. That vision may be one of simple goodwill and cooperation that begins with greeting the teacher and fellow students, to sharing equipment or making way for others. Our students have identified this in their learning saying, “I got people to come play footy so that we could have a team for the year”, and “When we were building the noodle tower, I got everyone to share ideas”, and “I got my sisters to band together and help make the dinner”.
Leading Learners keep putting out invitations to others to share values, teamwork and community. Leading learners take values to the next level asking questions about the future- What’s next? What’s new? What can we do? And what can we become? It is the optimism and hope of the leading student that drives learning in so many classrooms.
Be the light of Christ.
One of the best ways to support your child's development is to encourage them to read for pleasure regularly. As parents there are some simple steps you can take to help support your child with reading at home.
For younger students it is important to find a regular time to read with your child. It is important to read to and listen to your child read. Allowing your child to choose books they like can give them a sense of ownership of their reading.
For more independent readers there are still ways that you can be supporting them at home. Encourage a set reading time each day when the child is not busy with other activities or distractions. Talk with your child about what they are reading. Ask questions about the book they are reading but also about the types of books they like to read.
Encourage your child to take advantage of the school library to get books to read at home. Students also have access to our electronic library, ‘Oliver’ to borrow ebooks to read at home. Where possible visit your community libraries. Community libraries can order in books that you request so your child can get access to the type of books they like to read. Many will even buy requested books if they do not have them.
Lumen Christi Library Staff have signed our students up to the Premiers Reading Challenge this year to encourage them to read more at home. Take some time to ask your child about this great initiative and encourage them to take part.
Over the last term, I have touched on concerns such as bullying, vaping, sexting and mental health and so on, so you might be surprised if I pose that one of the most contentious issues in education, at least at a local level, is uniform. Indeed, it is a truism in schools that few other topics evoke such entrenched, extreme views (aka it’s a Principal killer). Given this, I should probably invoke the, I was only following orders defense… but let me recklessly sally forth.
At Lumen, the situation as I understand it, is that our founders (Bless Them) back in 2001 instituted the College uniform and that over the years it has been presided over by the College executive and more recently a Uniform Committee which presents suggestions to the Community Council for ratification. So that all sounds complicated, but there are a few things to distill from these levels of governance. For example, consultation is wide and the various bodies above have, and do, include parents, at time students, as well as College staff. More specifically, don’t blame me (or Mr Giles). As you know, refinements have been made and, of course, further changes are possible-desirable-likely as time marches on. Students, parents and staff are, and have always been, encouraged to make their views known.
This sounds very defensive. I don’t mean it to be – I think our uniform is important.
The broad arguments generally, I think, probably come close to identity and common purpose as opposed to stifling individuality and conformity, perhaps expense as well. There are millions of words written on the topic if you want to go looking.
I’ll make some personal observations:
- Do I think that one Year 12 student with a nose stud, or bullring, is a threat to society and has imperiled their learning? No.
- Do I think that generally allowing nose studs and bullrings might lead to non-academic focus and cause issues of copy catting, social envy, with the potential to impact, for some, on mental health? Yes. Hamlet would say ,”there’s the rub.”
- Do I think that a person should be judged on their appearance? No.
- Do I think that the grooming that LCCC encourages in its students assists, for the majority, in securing part time work in the community? Yes.
- Do I roll my eyes (on the inside) when a student argues that they can’t afford school shoes, when the casual alternative they are wearing at the time costs many time more? Ah…Yes.
- Has any family, to my knowledge, in financial need ever been turned away from uniform assistance? No.
- Do I know that domestic wardrobe malfunctions happen all the time? Absolutely. (I have kids of my own!)
- Is there a difference between the occasional malfunction and regular obstinate non-compliance? Yes. (As with attendance, there was the uniform deal made on enrolment).
- Do I find obstinate non-compliance often contrary to the students’ broad educational experience and somewhat disrespectful to the whole community? Yes.
- Do I see Lumen kids working shifts in the community out of their employers’ corporate uniform? Never…
- Do our kids in full uniform out in the community look really good? Yes.
- Do I know that a sizable number of kids, with heightened anxiety, find mufti days difficult? Yes.
- Do I think that uniform issues sometimes correlate or are symptomatic of broader issues of non-engagement? Yes.
Does this make any sense? Like many things in education, it’s complicated, if not downright contradictory.
I’m sure that the world wouldn’t end if uniform was abolished.
But, do I think that LCCC kids are better off with it? Yes.
And, if you are going to have it (as with all things), let’s do it right.I am not sure if you are aware, but National Careers Week is on 16 - 22 May, which means there is plenty of great articles hitting my inbox every day! I could babble on myself, but this piece by Lucy Sattler from Study Work Grow was just too good not to share!
Welcome to the first in our National Careers Week series – the theme for 2022 is “Career. More than just a job” and we’ve taken an in-depth look into what your career actually is, and what you can do to take control over it.
First up, we’ve defined what a ‘career’ actually is, and in future posts we’ll look at:
- What it means to be a lifelong learner
- What you can do with your Core Skills
- When things go wrong and how to handle career chaos
- What is digital literacy and what does it mean for your career?
- When is the right time to start learning about careers
- How to find career-related information you can rely on
What is a career? ‘Career’ is a word we use to describe the work we do throughout our lives.
It comes from an old word for ‘chariot’, and can also be used to describe forward movement (as in, “the car careered off the road”).
In the past, the only people who got to have a career were those lucky people who had choice over what they did, such as men who worked in management. Back then, a career was seen as something that moved forward in a pretty predictable way, and as long as you turned up and did ok you could expect to be promoted in due course. Other people (like women, factory workers, minorities, and those with less money) were unlikely to have a ‘career’, instead they would have ‘jobs’ which didn’t give them clear paths for advancement.
Now, we know that those straight and shiny careers are actually the exception, not the norm, and that people could only have them because they relied on others in their lives to do everything else (like raise kids, clean the house, cook meals, and plan holidays).
Your career is unlikely to look like a straight line – there will be times when you make great leaps forward, but there will also be times when you seem to stand still, or even go backwards.
If you move into another field entirely then you may feel that you have ended one career and started another – we call this a ‘career change’.
What’s a job? A job is a much more static than a career – it’s a set of tasks that you perform on a regular basis in return for a set benefit. To move forward in your career you may be promoted from one job to another – the job itself is static, while you move around.
As an example, you may have a career in nursing, but your current job is a ward nurse in the respiratory unit of your local hospital. In future, you could move into a job as a nursing unit manager, or a job as a research nurse. Your career will still be in nursing (or another health related field), but your job will change.
So, what’s work then? We use the word ‘work’ to refer to something that we need to do. This means it’s an activity that serves a purpose – it isn’t just something you want to do. You can also want to do it, but it must meet a need. Your job is a form of work – if you weren’t paid, then you wouldn’t turn up.
Most people think of work as something they do in return for money, but there are other things we do that count as work that won’t earn you a cent. It’s just easier to track and measure paid work, so that’s what most people (including the government) focus on.
Unpaid work includes caring for family members, cleaning and maintaining their living space and clothes, managing their professional networks, even growing food.
Why is this important? How you see your work, job, and career can have a big impact on how successful you feel. For example, parents who have to spend time out of the work force to care for their children may feel less successful than their peers who can work fulltime without distractions, but they only feel this way because they don’t count all their unpaid caring work as ‘work’.
We know that feeling successful can have a big impact on your wellbeing, so reframing what you think of as success could be a good idea.
The world of work is changing, and those shiny, linear careers I spoke about earlier have largely disappeared, so if you can reset your thinking before you begin your career, you’ll be more prepared for the ups and downs when they appear.
About The Author Career Education has been a part of Lucy’s life since she was 10 years old, and would spend her pupil-free days putting up Careers Bullseye Posters in her Dad’s Career Advisor office.
Now, Lucy believes that everyone has the right to feel good about their career, regardless of its shape or size.
Lucy Sattler
The Careers Department
www.thecareersdepartment.com
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For further information please contact Tamika Gaudie on 6495 8888 or via email at tamika.gaudie@cg.catholic.edu.au.
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