Farewell to the Graduating Class of 2025

Today is my 35th birthday.

By my reckoning by the time this year’s Kindergarten class graduate in 2025, I may well be in a position where someone might ask me to give a graduation speech for them.

So in the spirit of being prepared, here is what I hope to be able to say:

May I present to you, the Year Twelve Class of 2025.

It only feels like yesterday, when these kids walked through the doors of Kindergarten for the very first time. Some apprehensively, in tears clinging to their parents while others were more confident, wide-eyed with wonder and eager to take on all that school had to offer.

The changes we have seen in the education system since that summer’s day in 2012 have been remarkable. The Prime Minister of the time, Julia Gillard, believed that a back to basics curriculum along with overpriced school halls would bring about a revolution. Yet as we have seen in the past three decades that philosophy was never going to stand the test of time.

Regardless of how new the surrounds, how could a back to basics curriculum possibly have met these students’ needs?

You can read the rest of this speech at Online Opinion…