Headmaster's Message

Greetings, tena koutou katoa, talofa lava

When you receive this newsletter the end of the rush and roar that is Term 3 will be in sight. The wonderful production “Great Expectations” will be a lingering memory and the Winter Sports Season will be winding to a close with some of our teams having just been on Tournament action which tested the lads in competition up to national level of performance.

That said, I want to thank you for your support as coaches, as side-line supporters or as willing supporters of your son in all the activities that occupy him and which will help make him into the man he is to become.

If I focus on the First XV for a moment, I do congratulate Tom Christie and his team as well as the team’s parents and coaches/managers Alan Lindsay, Warwick Taylor, Brent Spicer, Phil Dixon and John Fox.

The Final on 22nd August was a wonderful occasion.  Hundreds of our Shirley family (students, friends, parents, staff and Old Boys) gathered to enjoy the action. We did not win against a St Bedes team that was not to be denied on this occasion but our spirit was strengthened.  There is some consolation in the fact that we can rightly claim to be in the Top 10 teams in New Zealand in this country’s premier winter schoolboy sport.

Being on the side-line on the 22nd got me thinking about 'The Shirley Man', to the work we are putting in to get it right, to the staff who are committed to developing character, because that comes before academic achievement or, indeed, before any achievement.

There is a famous study at Stanford University done many years ago.  This is what they did.

They took four-year-old children and put them in a room by themselves with a large piece of marshmallow. They told the children that if they stayed in the room and didn’t eat the marshmallow, they would get two pieces of marshmallow at the end of the fifteen minutes.

Fascinatingly, only 1 in 4 children managed to delay gratification long enough to get a greater reward.

They then took the study and made it into a longitudinal one.  They took all the children, when grown, to first and second year university level and compared their level of success.

Without exception, the 25% who were successful in delaying gratification were also successful in their endeavours. This study was replicated in Columbia and in Korea.

The observation I would make is what does this mean for our world and for us as educators?

Consider this:

· We live in a world where instant gratification is the norm.  Aren’t credit cards and easy Hire Purchase about reinforcing this expectation?

· Consider television, isn’t this about instant gratification, also Playstation, X Box, 3D Cinema?

· Now that I have you going, what about the pub on a Friday night, or KFC, or BK, Subway and all the rest.  Isn’t that about instant gratification?

So, last point.  If we are to be producing children to take their place in the world, should we be educating for instant gratification, or for something else?  If we are to be educating them for something else, literally to put them into the 1 out of 4 category, how are we to go about this?

I don’t need a response, but for what it is worth I say that development of character is what 'The Shirley Man' is all about; Character that can handle victory and defeat, and keep going.  Is that still relevant for the 21st Century?  I don’t need to tell you what I think.

Finally, on a sombre note we are saddened by the passing of Old Boy Matt Ngataki this week in a tragic accident.  Matt will be remembered for his many contributions to Shirley during his time here (2010-2014).

Regards

John Laurenson