B) Ten Regional Township Teams notes that the 'Aboriginal Teenager Life Skills' Programme employs the term 'township' not 'school' in order to foster pride in the Accepted Year 9 Aboriginal Students from all residents in the township with the hope that some of them will develop into 'Role Models' for their towns that other students will try to be like. And as they become adults, that other adults in their towns will be influenced to emulate.
Aboriginal Teenager Life Skills Coverage Period notes that Enable New Role Models In Isolated Country Towns By Building Upon Valuable 'Survival Skills' - Enhance Pride In These Towns is one of the Thirteen Deliverables From 'Aboriginal Teenager Life Skills' Programme and there may be merit in extending the Aboriginal Teenager Life Skills Coverage Period by a further five years and follow the old precedent of the 7 Up Series produced by Granada Television, and revisit some or all of the 140 Accepted Year 9 Aboriginal Students say five years later to profile some 'Role Models' to enhance pride in these towns. Pioneer Accepted Year 9 Aboriginal Students who have completed their tertiary studies (or trade certificate) and found employment could visit schools in their region for say one week each year (under a Social Inclusion Programme) to deliver Mentoring Support Messages, in particular how to avoid the Four Nasty Pitfalls Besetting Teenagers, in order to Maximise Life Opportunities. Promoting 'New Role Models' would be a powerful tool to influence future generations of Aboriginal School Student - specifically the Socially Disadvantaged living in the Lowest Socio-Economic Regions - to the importance of 'learning and knowledge', initially available through school education, because of the 'power to achieve' that permeates and flourishes.
Richard Vidler's 55 min chat on Monday, 20th May '13, with TV journalist and current affairs presenter, Stan Grant on "Conversations" (mp3) highlighted distinctive features of Stan Grant's upbringing and character that may well be evident in a disproportionate number of the -
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140 x Accepted Year 9 Aboriginal Students; and
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20 or so Year Eleven Work Experience Recipients.
Stan Grant is a proud member of the Wiradjuri tribe. Stan was fortunate to draw two marvellous, loving parents. As a wee nipper a young Stan slept in an abandoned car with his parents, and his grandma slept in the boot.
Stan's father was an itinerant saw miller who chased work wherever it was available. Hence, first son Stan, and his mum moved from town-to-town and from-state-school-to-state-school as Stan Snr. sought work as a saw miller. Both of Stan's parents passed down valuable survival skills. However, because they had grown up in an era when Indigenous Australians were patently treated as second rate Australians, Stan Snr. and his mother, were unable to teach young Stan skills to 'break that shameful mould' of not enjoying equal opportunities or equal respect.
Stan commented that "Dad would do whatever he could do, to get by and put a meal on the table.....but I didn't have a road map to improve my lot. There was no real expectation that life was ever going to get any better for me. It was a hand-to-mouth existence........ It was often a life of broken glass and mangy dogs.........However, there was a great sense of family and belonging."
It took two mentors to 'jolt' Stan into self-belief that he could be successful in ostensibly a "white-man's world" and to 'match-it with the best'.
Stan Grant's family moved to Canberra when he was a teenager, where rather than Indigenous Australians in his school being in the majority, Stan was the exception. In fact, Stan was often the only indigenous Australian in his school class. John Bevan, father of Michael Bevan former Australian Test Cricketer, was one of Stan's high-school teachers. Stan recounted:
"One day Mr. Bevan took me aside and said. Listen, I am on to you. Every other kid in this class, well their life is set out for them. Life will largely fall into place for them.... For you, I know your background, life will be what you bring to it. You have to make it happen for you. I know what you are doing, you are pretending because you just want to be accepted by your class mates as another member of the class. However, you can make it in life, but you have to make it happen. You are going to have to bring something to it.... Mr. Bevan's advice jolted me and instilled greater self-belief within".
Marcia Langton, AM (born 1951, Brisbane) is one of Australia's leading Aboriginal scholars, was then a researcher in aboriginal studies. Marcia met Stan shortly after he had completed his HSC. Stan recounted: "I don't think that I even looked at my HSC results...... Marcia looked up my HSC results and got me enrolled at the University of NSW in Journalism."
Stan is enormously indebted to both his former high school teacher, Mr. Bevan, and to Marcia Langton for mentoring him, without which Stan readily acknowledges that he would have not enjoyed the success that he has.
An ambition of the Cross Section Of Mentors in delivering the Six Mentor Guidance Topics For Ten Regional Township Teams, in particular -
10 x Employee Work Experience Providers,
will be to build upon valuable 'Survival Skills', that many Aboriginal School Student in isolated country towns develop, from amongst the -
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140 x Accepted Year 9 Aboriginal Students; and
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20 or so Year Eleven Work Experience Recipients,
that teacher, John Bevan, and Marcia Langton, were able to identify and ignite within Stan Grant.
Enable New Role Models In Isolated Country Towns By Building Upon Valuable Survival Skills - Enhance Pride In These Towns is one of the Thirteen Deliverables From 'Aboriginal Teenager Life Skills' Programme.
See also: