Welcome to Term 2. I trust your Easter break was a good one. It will be great to see all our students back and keen to get into routine again.

I began this term with teachers and staff by reminding them of the purpose of education. You may note that I do this regularly with you as well because in the busyness of school and life, it is easy to get so focused on the details that we forget why we are doing something.

Let me begin by highlighting what we do not think the purpose of education is.

The purpose of education is not:

to enable a student to earn a good income;

to preserve our Australian (or Western democratic) system of government and political freedom;

world unification or peace;

to teach young people a trade;

to encourage the never-ending search for truth;

to put the student in harmony with the universe;

to raise the consciousness of students and train them for world revolution;

to prepare students for productive careers;

to integrate the races;

the social adjustment of the child;

to stay ahead of other countries in technology;

to create good citizens;

to contribute positively to economic prosperity.

While many of these things may be useful and form a part of the result of education, it is not what a Christian school like GPCC sees as the main goal of educating.

We would align ourselves with the great Christian poet, John Milton (Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained) who wrote that, “The end (purpose) of learning is to repair the ruin of our first parents (Adam and Eve) by regaining to know God aright and out of that knowledge to love him, imitate him, to be like him.”

In other words, to regain our original design and purpose as those made in God’s image. To desire again, to share fellowship with Him through caring for and utilising the creation to bless others and glorify Him. Right from the beginning of creation God gave humankind a purpose to be the stewards of what he had made, to build civilization and to enjoy close relationship with him as their Creator. Ultimately, education is to equip children and young people with the means to fulfill this purpose.

This term, as our children engage in learning, it is incumbent on us to help them to understand this purpose and work hard to fulfill it.