At home, whenever I begin to reminisce about my childhood, my thirteen year-old stepdaughter pipes up, “Yeah, but that was back in the old days,” and of course, she’s right.
When I was a child there were no mobile phones, no computers, no Xbox, no electronic games, no iPads, no internet, no cyber bullying, no selfies and life was grand! We were the first house in our street to have a TV, a 15 inch I believe, and black and white! I was the envy of my friends. Of course programs were limited and I was only allowed to watch for one hour a week, on a Sunday afternoon. No big deal, because I seldom spent any time inside the house anyway. I played on the street and in the paddocks with my friends, we played football, cricket and AFL (VFL in those days). We’d sneak onto the golf course behind our houses, each of us with our one club, we shared clubs, and we’d play a few holes, mine was a three iron, still my best club! Bedtime was when it got dark.
Life was far less complex then. For me personally, this was despite living in a time when money wasn’t plentiful, and in a family where I’d lost my mother at the age of only nine and my father remarried the original wicked stepmother, but as I said, for me life was good. I was a happy child, successful at college and active in sport. I believe that I was lucky to have had several teachers, sports coaches and club leaders who were worthy role models. This is particularly important for boys. I remember waking one morning to learn of the assassination of JFK, I was shocked. Shortly after, Martin Luther King was also murdered. These two events left very strong impressions on me that later influenced my relationship to world politics.
I look today at the busy, self-centred and intense lifestyles of our students and young people in general. The pressures are immense; peer pressure and the need to comply to external expectations of what it means to be a young person, what they ‘must’ wear and how they ‘must’ look. The question that has occupied my thoughts now for many years, is how does a boy become a responsible and mature young man these days? In some tribal cultures boys are still sent out into the wilderness where they remain overnight and have to kill a wild beast to prove their manhood. Our rites of passage today are far less meaningful, a drinking session with the mates perhaps?
Steve Biddulph is an Australian author who has written a number of excellent books tackling the question of childhood to youth to responsible adult, and I can highly recommend his work if you want some good advice about raising children. Steve Biddulph has also written about girls and puberty. Another avenue is a group called Pathways who do workshops and hold wonderful camps for fathers and sons, daughters and mothers. Just something to keep in mind, you see, adolescence is, in my view, one of the most challenging times of our lives; the physical, chemical and emotional changes that go on during this time are some of the most significant changes we will ever experience. Is it any wonder both girls and boys of 14, 15 and 16 find themselves in life threatening situations?
All students attending IFS have something in common – their passion for tennis or football. This enables the possibility of positively channeling their adolescent energy into a meaningful direction. Something else that is tremendously important at this age is to have worthy role models to look up to and aspire to. I cannot emphasis this enough. We are so lucky having so many incredibly worthy role models all gathered together in the same place here at IFS. Isn’t it wonderful to know and appreciate how fortunate our students are to be attending our college!
As this is my last blog for this term, I would like to take the opportunity to wish all our students, families and the whole community a refreshing term break.
Kind regards,
Rodney
Thank you Rodney,
Absolutely worthy role models at IFS, Thank you all.
So True Rodney!
I totally agree life was so good then and yes our children are VERY lucky and fortunate!
Awesome blog!! & exactly why we feel our son is in gr8 hands at the IFS during these all important teen years. thankyou!!!