Make Your Bed
It’s the season of commencement speeches as northern hemisphere students return from their long summer break and one of the most famous was delivered by Admiral McRaven in what has become known as the “Make Your Bed” speech. He gave insight into what he had learned as a Navy SEAL in a talk that went for over 18 minutes, but the part that everyone remembered was:
If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed.
Admiral McRaven was making a speech about getting the little things in our day right in a belief that this will prepare us to tackle the bigger things. We know that learning is more likely if our working memory, which has a limited capacity, is not overloaded with additional activities. By making something a habit, we effectively make it “mindless” and free up our working memory for learning.
Following this theme, I’ve asked teachers to send me the names of students who are repeatedly turning up to class without the correct materials. Next week, I will follow up with each one and discuss this impediment to their learning.
Now, you may be like the young person in the Year 8 class in which I am assisting and ask: “Sir, why are you here? Don’t you have better things to be doing as the principal?” To which I replied: “I hope I’m helping you to learn.” To that extent, I have other things that I need to do, but none are better!
Catholic Secondary Principals Association (CaSPA)
I have the privilege of representing the 101 Victorian Catholic Secondary Principals as a Director on our national association, CaSPA. While each state and territory have a slightly different education system, the role of CaSPA is advocacy for Catholic schools at the national level. As the main source of funding for our schools is the Australian government, it is important to keep reminding the Federal Education Minister of the critical role Catholic schools play in providing high-quality education for our youth and Mr Clare assures us that he understands that our families are not the “wealthy elite” stereotype that our media like to portray. CaSPA also works closely with the National Catholic Education Commission (NCEC) and a number of other peak bodies to help ensure our interests are represented.
