Dean of Identity | Mr Charles Brauer

The Way of Wisdom

Often, I catch myself being carried away with my own ‘teacher-talk’. More accurately, it is my wife who catches me out most of the time! I experienced this same sensation during our parent information nights this week when attempting to describe our approach to forming young men into ‘The Terrace Gentleman’. Fortunately, our College crest proudly watching over our gathering in the Campbell Centre was there to assist me and save our parents from being drowned in my ‘teacher-talk’.

The book of learning within our crest symbolises the wisdom that knowledge and humility may lead to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ who, as the Greek letters of the alphabet, Alpha and Omega depict, is the beginning and the end of all things. Have I lost you yet?

Our Terrace Gentlemen are on ‘the way to wisdom’. An experience of liberating their hearts and minds, empowering them to action difference for the common good of society. As a Catholic school, we know that wisdom is the education of the mind, heart and hands to make a difference which is a pathway to God. Are you still with me?

The concept of wisdom has been wonderfully articulated by the Episcopal priest Cynthia Bourgeault, who writes:

The ancient tradition of “wisdom,” sometimes known as sophia perennis, is in fact at the headwaters of all the great religious traditions of the world today. It’s concerned with the transformation of the whole human being. Transformation from what to what? Well, for a starter, from our animal instincts and egocentricity into love and compassion; from a judgmental and dualistic worldview into a nondual acceptingness. This was the message that Jesus, apparently out of nowhere, came preaching and teaching, a message that was radical in its own time and remains equally radical today.

Perhaps I would do well to avoid the ‘teacher-talk’ by simply describing the mission of forming ‘The Terrace Gentleman’ as - educating young men so that they become more loving, more compassionate and more non-judgmental. These virtues have been at the core of a Terrace education for 143 years, and by the energy and dedication displayed by our new and continuing Terrace Family members in these early days of a new school year, they will continue to be signposts on ‘the way to wisdom’.