Over the holidays I stumbled on the 2004 autobiography A Passion for Life written by Australian educator, Paul Brock. I had met the author on a number of occasions at English teachers’ conferences at the University of Sydney and read his many articles and essays about the rich and diverse landscape that constitutes teaching and learning. His love of literature was one of the defining elements of his life, which ended in 2016 after a twenty-year battle with Motor Neurone Disease. 

I remember Paul passionately and consistently articulating the power and significance of language. ‘It is through language that we develop our thoughts, shape our experiences, explore our customs, structure our community, construct our laws, articulate our values and give expression to our hopes and ideals. We aspire to an Australia in which its citizens will be literate and articulate, a nation of active, intelligent readers, writers, listeners and speakers. Such a nation will be well educated and clever, cultured and humane, and rich and purposeful, because of the knowledge, skills and values of its people.’

As well as an outstanding educator, Paul was a devoted husband and father. I have included below an extract from A Passion for Life which captures Paul’s fundamental philosophy on teaching and learning. Here he lists three essential principles that should underpin the ‘knowing and caring’ profession of teaching. They were formulated as a father’s plea to the future teachers of his daughters – aged then 13 and 8 – anticipating that MND would not allow him to see them complete their education. Thankfully, Paul did live to see his daughters finish school and embark on their careers. His words below – which have retained their validity, relevance and salience – continue to challenge us today. 

Therefore, not just as a professional educator, but as a Dad, I want all future teachers of my Sophie and Amelia to abide by three fundamental principles that I believe should underpin teaching and learning in every public school. 

First, to nurture and challenge my daughters’ intellectual and imaginative capacities way out to horizons unsullied by self-fulfilling minimalist expectations. Don’t patronise them with lowest common denominator blancmange masquerading as knowledge and learning; nor crush their love for learning through boring pedagogy. Don’t bludgeon them with mindless ‘busy work’ and limit the exploration of the world of evolving knowledge merely to the tyranny of repetitively churned-out recycled worksheets. Ensure that there is legitimate progression of learning from one day, week, month, term and year to the next. 

Second, to care for Sophie and Amelia with humanity and sensitivity, as developing human beings worthy of being taught with genuine respect, enlightened discipline and imaginative flair. 

And third, please strive to maximise their potential for later schooling, post-school education, training and employment, and for the quality of life itself so that they can contribute to and enjoy the fruits of living within an Australian society that is fair, just, tolerant, honourable, knowledgeable, prosperous and happy. 

When all is said and done, surely this is what every parent and every student should be able to expect of school education: not only as delivered within every public school in NSW, but within every school not only in Australia but throughout the entire world. 

I’ll finish with one piece of advice I remember so well from his many talks: ‘No matter what happens during your day at work, the sun will almost certainly go down on that day and, almost certainly, rise again on the next.’