On Monday, 9 May, Ms Thomas co-ordinated arrangements for a group of year 10, 11 and 12 students to attend a Gifted and Talented Conference at St. Hilda’s College in Perth.
We had the privilege of listening to high level university lecturers and coaches who discussed the variety of different sources of information and knowledge – and allowed us, based on the information and examples they provided, to choose for ourselves what we personally believed as truth. In the motivational workshop we explored how believing in our capabilities and our ourselves is just as important as physically going out and trying to achieve these goals; that the fear of failure is, more often than not, the cause of failure itself.
Several moral and ethical issues were explored throughout the day, which really made us think – for example: Whether being the aggressor of an attack, or a by-stander remaining indifferent is better, worse or the same. Very intriguing philosophical ideas were raised as well, like: does something exist if it isn’t being observed; does a tree fall over if no one is there to see it happen? Yes, we all had very sore brains by the end of the day.
It was great to be an environment with like-minded individuals who genuinely wanted to know more about the world and be exposed to the various ideas out there, so that we could be sure of what we believe – which for me reiterated my belief for an almighty and righteous God.