At the recent Senior School Honours and Colours Assembly we learned of a series of remarkable achievements that included numerous boys being selected in state and national sporting teams. In the Summer Term alone, there were three boys selected to represent Australia and forty five boys selected to represent Western Australia in a diverse range of sports. The rate at which the boys are being selected for state and national representation across a broad range of both sport and the Arts has continued to be a feature in Autumn Term.
With so many boys achieving at such extraordinary levels, we risk underestimating the scale of these achievements. A short announcement followed by applause at an assembly does little to help us understand the true nature of these achievements and the attributes for their success.
Too often people attribute success to ability and sometimes even luck but this is a limited and misleading view. While all the boys who were acknowledged at the recent Honours and Colours Assembly no doubt have ability, talent alone would not have seen them selected for these representative teams or elite competitions. Effort and application are the keys.
In a review of the qualities of highly successful people, Art Costa and Bena Kallick, in their book, Discovering and Exploring Habits of Mind (2000), identified traits such as persistence, attention to detail, responsible risk taking and flexibility, as just four of the sixteen qualities identified as common amongst those who are highly successful. In another recent publication by Malcom Gladwell, Outliers, he refers to the work of Ander Ericson that led to the notion of mastery requiring 10,000 hours. The evidence is clear and consistent; success, regardless of the activity, requires extended periods of deliberate practice.
After watching the rowers arrive at the boat shed at 5.30am during the Summer Term, boys in the upcoming Senior Production rehearsing three days a week, including all day Sunday rehearsals and a group of boys in Year 12 coming together to study on Saturday afternoons, to name just three examples, there is no coincidence between the level of effort made and the level of achievement experienced.
Two other recent examples where effort and attention to detail were the primary causes for success was the outstanding Year 11 Dance and last Saturday's Pipe Band Concert. Year 11 boys and their partners arrived to a spectacularly decorated Memorial Hall in the theme of Arabian Nights. The boys enjoyed high tech audio-visual effects and generous catering throughout the night thanks entirely to the efforts of a team of parents who worked hard preparing over many months. Similarly, the precision in both the musical performance and drill that was on display at the Pipe Band Concert reinforced the hours of rehearsal and discipline that are required to perform at the highest level.
With effort and attention to detail firmly in mind, I encourage all boys, regardless of the activity, to identify the essential and do it to their best of their ability - the rewards will come.
Dr Rob McEwan
Head of Senior School
