Earlier this year I came across a commencement speech author David Foster Wallace gave where he talked about the purpose of education being as much about teaching one how to think as it is filling one up with knowledge. Wallace believed the idea of teaching one how to think, whilst sounding like a banal cliche was “shorthand for a much deeper, more serious idea: learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience.”
In this area I can say with complete certainty that IGS exceeds. In the opportunities afforded to myself, my cohort and everyone at IGS we are constantly provided with experiences in which we can exercise our critical thinking and learn outside of the classroom, pushing ourselves and our abilities to new, practical and invaluable heights. These experiences, like Red Earth, SAGE, space camp and more challenge us as students, and more importantly as people, to extend our knowledge and curiosity beyond the confines of a classroom. It is this environment of opportunity designed for our growth not only as students of a school, but students of the world that make IGS an incredibly unique place, and one for which I will always be grateful.
I cannot imagine another school in which, during my time there I would also have been able to write an opera in a week, visit central Australia and Tasmania, try muttonbird, spear throwing and weaving all whilst learning about the complex history of the local indigenous communities and partake in the uniquely IGS tradition of ArtFest every year.
One memory I am particularly fond of was during Red Earth where, amongst other things like eating witchety grubs, making clapping sticks and bush medicine and learning the history of the land I call home, I, with my fellow classmates, slept in swags around the fire. One night I found myself lucky enough to wake up at some point while the sun was still out of sight. Devoid of clocks or phones I did not and still don’t know what time it was, but what I do remember is that I saw another world above me. One which, as a city dweller I had never had the ability to see so clearly. It struck me then how fortunate I was to go to a school like IGS which treated experiences like that one with a sincere seriousness.
This is what I love most about IGS, the fact it has not only provided me with academic opportunities but life experiences. Wallace said in his speech that the “real value of a real education has almost nothing to do with knowledge, and everything to do with simple awareness”, with being able to think critically, purposefully and with an open mind about the world around us. I can say with absolute certainty that IGS, or more specifically the incredible teachers and administrators who make up IGS, have more than succeeded on this front.
What I began learning at Red Earth and Tasmania, about the history of the land which I am lucky enough to call home, I continued back at IGS in Aboriginal studies. A class which managed to more than fulfil Wallace’s criteria for a real education all on its own. Not only was I filled up with knowledge which made me more conscientious about the history and current standing of my home, but it also taught me an awareness of that same world that is unquestionably important as I enter the so-called real world.
It is classes like Aboriginal studies with Miss Carr, History extension with Dr Westcott and both English extension 1 and 2 with Mr Marchbank, Miss Bolt and Mrs Colnan which have challenged both myself and my classmates to test our academic and empathetic mettle. To consider all sides of an argument with complete sincerity and to not give in to the comforts of our own preformed opinions.
One of my closest friends who moved to IGS last year from a much different school said something recently that all but summed up what it is like to become a part of IGS. She said that at IGS she no longer felt like a crazy person screaming into the void. I think this comes down to two main reasons: the first being that we’re all at least a little crazy at IGS, the second being that IGS seems to instil and encourage in its students a genuine and passionate curiosity and an interest in understanding the people and world around us. At IGS you don’t need to scream to be heard because there is always somebody who is interested in whatever interesting and potentially odd thing you have to say, in fact, they likely have something equally if not exceedingly odd to say back. I’m reminded of a certain debate in English extension 2 about the values and limitations of AI that eventually led to a discussion about the population control of cane toads.
It is this curiosity and openness that also make IGS students some of the kindest people I know. It is this unending kindness and sincere curiosity that have made extension classes ending at 5:00 not only tolerable but enjoyable. Especially when English extension 2 not only provided the ability to create rich new worlds of our own but also included a baking roster so that each week, be it cookies, brownies or cheesecake, there was always something to fuel us through that final hour of the day.
While writing this speech, I revisited a poem by EE Cummings in which he writes, “in time of all sweet things beyond whatever mind may comprehend, remember seek, forgetting find”. Like many of Cummings poems I didn’t immediately understand his meaning, which in any case is often amenable to his audience, and so ultimately found, or rather choose to believe that what he means is this: to find the extraordinary beauty of the world in your journey through it, by remembering to seek, to be an always curious and open student of life, venturing to learn constantly and grow through that learning rather than find any one single answer to be satisfied with.
In the opportunities afforded to myself and all students at IGS I know that we have been thoroughly prepared to be students of the world. To remain constantly curious, constantly seeking and to do much more than, as Wallace put it, “be lords of our tiny skull-sized kingdoms”. I have had some incredible discussions at IGS over the years, with friends, teachers and entire classes that have pushed me to be critical of my own assumptions and beliefs, to think as deeply as possible and to not hesitate to add to the discussion based on the fear that I might be wrong. And a place as wonderful as this cannot exist on its own so I would like to thank everyone who makes IGS what it is. Thank you to all my teachers who have guided me and my cohort. Thank you to Miss Duma and Mr Dennehy for your unique guidance and reassurance to me and Lachie over the last year in our positions as head boy and head girl. And thank you, Lachie, for being a wonderful Headboy and ally throughout the last year. Thank you also to Miss Colnan, for continuing to work to make IGS the incredible place it is. I would also like to thank my parents for their constant support and my grandparents, without whose encouragement and endless kindness I certainly would not be on this stage today.
To finish, I would like to return one final time to Wallace’s speech. He, like many, believed that education is power, that from a real education freedom grows. He said that “The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day. That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think.” And so my last thank you goes to the incredibly kind and unwaveringly genuine group of people I am glad to call my cohort. It has been incredible to go through the last 6 years with you all and see so many of you learn and exercise this freedom with ease and generosity and I look forward to seeing you all join the dreaded real world which I know is all the better for having you enter it. Thank you!
