The Human Experience
I had always thought “that tuning an engine” meant adjusting the settings on a car to allow maximum driving power and effective fuel efficiency. Years ago, when cars had carburettors, it seemed that “tuning” was more of an art form than a science. Now I imagine tuning an engine means plugging a laptop into a USB port and working with data on a screen.
I was surprised therefore, when I heard an advertisement for a high-end car that mentioned “tuning the engine”. You might reasonably ask why this might be surprising, a high-end car will no doubt have an engine that is finely tuned for both power and efficiency and this is reasonable. Amazingly, the ad focused on how the engine sounded; tuned like a musical instrument rather than a formidable machine.
Here, the makers had been intent on the human experience of how the engine sounded. Researching and working for years, they had determined how the sounds of an engine affected the driver. Composure and elation are what you would feel when you sat in this car. You put your foot on the accelerator pedal, gently, attentively and intently, press down and the sound of two notes, pitched at 400 and 800 Hertz caress your ear drums from the thrumming engine. The human experience, composure and elation.
At Eddies the human experience has always been integral to our community. That feeling of connection and belonging, coming about in all that stems from this place on the hill is what makes our school special. This year with the restrictions we have faced we needed to adjust, modify and adapt how we approach providing an Eddies Education. We have also adjusted, modified and adapted the human experience of our community and for some the human experience of Eddies has suffered. While life goes on relatively normally for our students and staff, our parents and caregivers have had to engage in Eddies life remotely, from mobile phone, laptop and computer screens. While remote involvement is something, it’s not the full Eddies experience.
The human experience of our community, our team, includes the relationships between all of us, the face-to-face involvement that is at our heart. It’s about our young men, our staff and our parents and caregivers. The last few weeks have been hopeful. With the leadership induction, formal and valedictory dinner, drama performance, rookies graduation and rite of passage celebrations we have been able to begin a return to the full Eddies team where our human experience includes all of us, face-to-face, in person, sharing this Eddies life with each other.
Thank you to all our parents and caregivers for your support this year. Your commitment to being part of our team, in partnership for your son’s education, amongst all that has certainly made a difference. Participation through live streaming has hopefully alleviated the distance that social restrictions have created between us, but it is no match for being there, having the human experience. I look forward to a year, next year, where we see our young men celebrating their milestones and successes, their challenges and opportunities, their joys and sorrows, as we always have, together, face-to-face, as a community, as a team, as Eddies.
Ray Celegato, Principal