The Bark final edition 2022 Issue 46

Contents:

• Note from John
• Alice Miller VCE Results
• Candlebark Christmas Picnic
• Grade 3 Gariwerd camp
• Grade 6 Graduation
• The Fete
• Junior Bike Camp
• Connect 5
• Year 7 Graduation
• Fun at the Creek
• Community Service Announcements

Note from John:

G'day to you all,

I'm writing this three days before the end of Term 4, so I hope that nothing happens in those three days to contradict my feeling that this has been a terrific school year! Of course there have been squabbles, disappointments, frustrations, mistakes, anger-detonations, but these will always happen in any place where more than two or three are gathered…! (I'm quoting from the Protestant prayer book here; I really need to amend it to 'where more than one or two are gathered!')

I had an extraordinary experience at Candlebark yesterday (Saturday); something unique in my life. I was standing looking out across the tennis court at the kangaroos and birds, when, on the other side of the court a rosella fell to the ground, in just a short drop from a tree– at first I thought it might have been two rosellas mating, as there was a lot of twisting and turning and contorting and squawking. But then it became this shape on the ground which I could barely discern (those very green rosellas are so effectively camouflaged) and for about three minutes there was no movement. So finally I walked over slowly to it, but no matter how close I got it didn't stir, and I confirmed that it was just one rosella, and the reason for its lack of movement was of course that it was dead. So what I had seen were its dying moments. I have no idea why it died… perhaps a heart attack or something as natural as that, but I did wonder if it might have been bitten by something deadly in the tree. I stared into the branches, checking if a snake was there, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

It reminded me of something I talked about to the Grade 6s late last week – a conference on education which I attended recently, where a speaker told of her interactions with the first Japanese Buddhist monk to 'set up' in the USA. She was at a seminar which he took and a member of the audience asked: 'I have been studying Buddhism for two or three years now and I'm wondering if you could sum up the essence of it for me, in just a couple of sentences?'

I told the Grade 6s that I thought the questioner was – sadly, in my opinion – showing us another example of what to me are among the dreadful ways in which the American Empire has infiltrated and corroded humanity, with its constant emphasis on shortcuts, easy answers, slogans, one-liners.

The answer given by the monk comprised just two words: 'Everything changes. '

And to me this was another example of something significant: that someone who has spent much or most of a lifetime studying, thinking, reading, reflecting, listening, can sum up something profound, something infinite in its reach, in not just a couple of sentences but in two words.

So the paradox is that what the Americans seem to want so badly (and of course Americans are not alone in this nowadays, and never were alone in this) could be achieved, but not by 'crash courses' or 'sound bites' or via Reader's Digest condensed books. It is much more likely to be the result of intensive thought and work and contemplation over many decades.

What this all amounts to is that the dying moments and death of the rosella and the distillation of Buddhism by the Japanese monk have reminded me vividly in recent times of the patterns and movements of life.

One big change which we are experiencing at Candlebark now is the departure of Taran Carter, to take up the position of Director of Music at Melbourne's well-known and long-established Preshil School. It is good to see Taran's extraordinary skills as a musician and a teacher recognised and acknowledged by the prestigious Preshil, but a sad day for Candlebark. It would take me too long to recount the story of the horrors of the music program in the first year of Candlebark's existence, but I still wake up at night screaming and sobbing with the memories…!

And then, when all was in ruins, along came Taran.

He has been here for 16 of Candlebark's 17 years, which makes him our longest serving teacher, and throughout that time I have admired and respected a person who has built, layer upon layer, an extraordinary richness of music in the school, so that the land and buildings seem imbued with it. And he is one of those rare people who has done all this without manipulating or undermining anyone, without any show of ego let alone narcissism, without a single tantrum (or if he had one, I never witnessed it!), without alienating students or colleagues… I suppose it is unsurprising then that he is so loved and respected throughout the school community.

I have never seen a primary school achieve the musical standards we witness here on a daily basis. Lucky Candlebark, to have had Taran give us 16 years; lucky Preshil to have a person of such integrity and musical knowledge joining their community.

Taran, we wish wonderful things for you.

And we wish a wonderful Christmas to all you much loved people who have been associated with Candlebark in 2022. Good fortune to students who are moving on to new school experiences; and we look forward to another year of adventures here in 2023.

John

Alice Miller VCE Results:

Candlebark Christmas Picnic:

Grade 3 Gariwerd camp