When our girls were school age, we had five days in Melbourne in December. It was pre-google maps and so it was my first experience with a Satellite Navigation system. With its dulcet tones, we christened her ‘Sally SatNav’. She reliably guided us to my sister-in-law’s late at night and then to the city, train station and the Dandenongs. Other than occasional acts of open defiance (to pick up dinner on the way home), I dutifully followed her directions.
However, for Sally SatNav to do her job, she needed to know our desired destination. The parallels for our lives and for those of our children are obvious. Through adolescence, time and natural processes will bring development. But this development can be much more fruitful if we have identifiable goals. One thing for sure is that, if you don’t know your destination, or how to get there, you’ll never arrive! Almost as perilous is to blindly follow directions prescribed for you, without reflecting and evaluating and plotting your own path.
Please take time to sit with your child and consider whether they have “plotted” their course in 2017. Asking children about their goals in school-based learning, their relationship with God, their involvement in the sporting / cultural and service life the College can prompt positive internal thinking. Moreover, establishing goals for their relationships at home and with peers, as well as for their physical and emotional health can be invaluable. Is their SatNav aligned with both determination and the desire to honour her/his God-given gifts? If the SatNav isn’t set, there is a chance of ending up in an empty paddock.
Mrs Sue Skuthorpe
