2001 School Magazine

^4 : social and environmental studies

Celebrating the Past and Preparing for Tomorrow As we all know, this year has seen the centenary of our federation as a nation and a celebration of our unique form of nationalism. indeed Australia has had much to celebrate as our birth as a nation in 1901 was not the result of blood-stained wattle but rather it was a triumph of the great skill of our founding fathers and the vision they had for a unified and peaceable rule of law based on the sanctity of individual freedom in such a climate men such as Deakin, Grimth and Clarke devised a system of parliamentary government imbued with the processes of federalism that has endured for a century and has provided all Australians with a system of government remarkable for its stability and security

This year the Social and Environmental Studies Faculty has celebrated our nation hood and revered and critical Iy reviewed our past at the same time as we have continued to push ahead the frontiers of student learning, ever mindful of the new challenges that have emerged and will continue to emerge in our era of techno-global evolution New syllabi have continued to be unpacked in Geography. Economics and Study of Religion whilst the new senior Modern History trial pilot syllabus is to be developed and refined at the School in the coming years. Nothing in this post modern era stands still and it 15 essential that the practices and pedagogies of the past are refined and maintained whilst at the same time new frontiers are forged and devised, in order to inculcate a love of life long earning so essential to the rigours associated with effective citizenship in a changing era. NellTyson, President of the History Teachers' Association of Victoria when examining some of

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