Recently, I wrapped up a program with a few words at the end of the night. Often these can be events which contain lots of words, but mean very little and by the end of the night you need a punchy statement that cuts through to ensure you leave a lasting impression.
 
I’d wrestled with my speech for days. First writing it and then rewriting it a number of times. To be honest, I do this for every speech I present, and often what is expressed during the speech is completely different from anything I’ve actually written down.
 
The evening had dragged on a little and the cook who’d had all day to prepare for one single meal had managed to serve dinner an hour late… but that’s another story for another time! I had a three page speech ready to go with a bunch of last minute notes scrawled all over it in marker pen for good measure. However, the energy of the room had changed and once this happens, if you go with plan A speech (which was already plan H speech), then you’re going to lose the audience and miss an opportunity to deliver something thoughtful and meaningful which leaves a lasting impression.
 
Hence, despite all the time and effort I put into the speech, out of the original six pages of ideas, one paragraph survived! It was a quick and witty interlude which set some historical context. Everything else was gone and it was impromptu speaking time!
 
At the start of the program, I’d asked all the students, “What’s something special about you that you bring to the community?” This stumped everyone, as they weren’t expecting this sort of question. However, the question wasn’t designed to confound everyone. It was designed to get them thinking. Therefore, I referred back to this conversation and asked again but in the past tense, “What did you bring to the community?”
 
This then led me to the most important point of the evening. I always find myself doing this at business functions, parties and any sort of gathering. One of the first questions I ask is, “What do you do?” This is an easy, yet rubbish question. Great for small talk, but it preloads so many false assumptions about someone based upon a job. The extension of this to the school context is that teachers always ask, “What do you want to do?” This expects a student to have all their plans in place, despite the fact that due to the rapidly changing digital world, by the time they graduate, a stack of jobs that exist today will no longer exist.
 
Instead, as educators we should be asking a far more powerful and meaningful question, “Who do you want to be?” Thus, I put this to them! After ten weeks of living in a community and building real relationships with real people, what have you learnt about the importance of community? What qualities and skills did you end up bringing to our community? What did you learn about yourself and others?
 
It’s so important that we impress on our students that their lives are not defined by a job. It’s not defined by a single result as they leave school. Instead, it’s defined by that simple statement, “Who do you want to be?” What are the qualities you bring to a community? How do you treat others? How do you take the skills you’ve learnt and not only grow within yourself, but to work within and lead others in a community?
 
Our measure of success for students should be their ability to answer this question! As the world becomes increasingly automated, jobs change. However, relationships and being able to help solve global problems through technology and communities, will become even more important for every single person so…
 
“Who do you want to be?”

Ok! Before everyone switches off and says that’s an Australian state specific topic, just hold up for a sec, as this is an important discussion that all primary and secondary education systems need to be having.
 
To put this in some context, New South Wales (NSW), which is in fact nowhere near South Wales, has one of the biggest centralised departments of education in the world! It’s a behemoth, that’s responsible for over 2,000 schools and soon to have around 1 Million students! So whatever direction they decide to head in, it will have a lasting impact on Australian education moving forward and ultimately our competitive positioning in the world.
 
It’s the first time since the 1980s that a serious revision of the curriculum has been undertaken. Long gone are the outrageous hair styles, the punchy electro synth music and stunning block colours of the 80s, which mostly went out of style 5 years before it came in. However, we still have a curriculum that was shaped by the thoughts, ideas and social influences of that time.  It’s a scary thought if you’ve ever seen Devo!
 
This is concerning and disturbing on many levels. However, it highlights the fact that despite how rapidly our world has changed, the systems of education and what’s being taught have essentially remained the same. The world seems to have lurched forward into the 21st century whilst the old school masters remain yelling from the front of the room at students, ‘What do you want to do with your life????’ (Insert kid saying, ‘I Wanna Rock!’ and have a glam rock band appear for dramatic effect)!
 
So with my future focused mind, I wrote a submission for the new curriculum and highlighted the need for more experiential education as part of the curriculum. This shouldn’t be co-curricula. This shouldn’t be an optional extra that students do after school in code clubs, or through Duke of Ed. This should be completely integrated into the curriculum. So many teachers visit Norway to see what they’re doing in terms of in and out of classroom work there. They come back raving about Norway and hold it up as a model to be followed, but why don’t we see this sort of system being implemented here in reality?
 
People often cite the restrictive curriculum that stops them from reshaping their broken systems, so if that’s really the case, it’s now time to make that curriculum less restrictive and more experiential based. Throw out the HSC or whatever other leaving certificate that’s being done. This is essentially a waste of time for most students who never go close to going to uni and is just another outdated metric, like Madonna’s lace gloves.
 
I also love the German system of education, which enables choice with three different streams. If you want to go to uni, then take that stream. If you want to do a trade, take that stream. If you’re not sure, but want a balanced education, take that stream. We only have one stream in Australia and it’s neither experiential, nor beneficial to the majority of our students, so another massive point for improvement there!
 
Education needs to be reshaped to meet the needs of a new era. We have all the information we could possibly want at our finger tips, so let’s stop wasting time trying to memorise it. Instead, learn how to use that knowledge and apply it to global problems which affect our lives and the lives of others around the world. The most effective way of doing this is through practical experience. Learning to apply problem solving skills and reflecting on the outcome is critical to the success of any future education system. If your local education office, district or state start to review what’s being taught, jump in there and insist that it really does need to be more like Norway or Hahnish and that experience will always be the best form of education.

​Canberra is an awesome place for mountain biking. With a range of well-maintained tracks close to town, they're convenient, accessible and a great way to spend a day or just wind down after work.
 
Mount Stromlo is a premiere location for Mountain Biking, with hundreds of different interconnected tracks and trails, all maintained by the local council. There's something for everyone here. For the beginner, there's an awesome playground area which is sign-posted with handy hints on how to ride each section. Full of logs, obstacles, berms, rollovers, seesaws and a pump track, this is great for basic training and skills development.
 
On the mountain itself, there are six major courses to ride, which can be combined or chopped and changed to create countless unique riding experiences. There's everything from the green beginner tracks to some wild double black diamonds for the expert rider. Stromlo has many days worth of tracks to ride and it's well worth planning a trip there with this in mind. From skills development to adrenaline pumping down hills, this is one fantastic place to ride. 

For the adventurous rock climber, Mount Arapiles in Tooan State Park Victoria is an absolute must! This is a world class climbing spot and regarded as the best in Australia, attracting locals and international climbers alike. Four hours North West of Melbourne, the mountain range suddenly rises up out of the near dead-flat Wimmera plains, a stunning sight in itself, but wait till you get to the top! 

The nearest regional centre to the Arapiles, is Horsham. Head west from there on the Wimmera Highway until you get to the small township of Natimuk. There’s a really good general store there for some basic last minute supplies. From there, you can’t miss the mountain range. It’s dramatic, stunning and rises up out of the Wimmera plains to dominate the landscape.

There are over 2,500 different routes to climb on this mountain, which provides a massive range of options for the beginner, right through to the advanced lead climber. Even though you’re bound to find other climbers around, there’s plenty of options from which to choose.

To get started, there’s a number of small, short climbs with easy road access and simple to setup top belays without having to lead climb up. These are perfect for the whole family, training the kids, or just bouldering to improve your own technique.

Further in, the mountain opens up into a massive collection of climbing routes for all skill levels and abilities. There’s an abundance of multi-pitch lead climbs up challenging rock faces, chimneys and stand-alone rock pillars. For less experienced climbers, guided climbs are available from the local area. For the experts, grab yourself a route map and get climbing!

The views from the top are stunning. The mountain is a stand-alone feature on the landscape, so all around you it drops down to the beautiful agricultural plains of Western Victoria as far as the eye can see.

​There’s way too much to do here for just one day, so plan to make a trip of it. If you want to stay onsite, you must book camping in advance via the Parks Victoria Website. The camp ground has a great international atmosphere, with people from all over the world hanging out and taking on the variety of challenging rock faces. Whilst this is an all year round location, Summer here does get really hot, so from a risk point of view just keep that in mind. 

If you love climbing, then this is by far the best place to do it in Australia!
 
PACK LIST:
 
•         Tent
•         Sleeping Bags
•         Sleeping Mat
•         Food
•         Gummy Bears (because you just can’t go wrong with them)
•         Camping Stove
•         Firewood (You're not allowed to collect wood from the site.)
•         Water
•         Lanterns
•         Sunscreen
•         Insect Repellent
•         Clothes for hot midday and cold nights
•         Climbing Gear (helmet, ropes, harness, devices, shoes)
•         First Aid Kit
•         Camera

Travel to the very edge of Kakadu National Park in Australia's remote Northern Territory, where you’ll discover ancient aboriginal artwork dating back tens of thousands of years. Not only will you see some of Australia's most remarkable rock paintings, but Kakadu National Park is a unique and stunning experience in itself.
 
Ubirr is deep in Kakadu National Park, which is one of Australia's most unique and beautiful national parks. The township, which consists of a general store offering take away Thai food, is a totally random outpost in an otherwise sparsely populated area. Ubirr is flanked by the East Alligator River (originally the crocodiles were mistaken for alligators, but when it was realised, the government didn’t want the expense of changing all the names on the maps, so it stuck). The East Alligator River is also the border to Arnhem Land, a traditional aboriginal territory, entry to which is strictly by invitation only.
 
To get there from Darwin, drive south along the Stuart Highway until you reach the Arnhem Highway. It’s then a 221km drive until you’re almost at Jabiru. Take the Ubirr Boarder Track. It’s sealed all the way to the border, so no worries if you don’t have a 4WD. The trail head is approximately 37km from Jabiru, which is also the last fuel stop. Advice for the drive:  Do not drive at night. Between sunset and sunrise the proliferation of wildlife on the road is phenomenal and you shouldn’t drive at all in the dark.
 
Kakadu National Park is a wondrous landscape filled with an abundance of rare wildlife, including crocodiles. Make sure you avoid the temptation of wandering off to check out low-lying marshlands and stick strictly to the highway, as the risk of crocodile attack in this area is extremely high.
 
Arriving at Ubirr, there's clear well-signed tracks. The hike itself is not a particularly challenging one and is suitable for the whole family. It's relatively flat, with a single rocky peak to climb, giving you an amazing 360 degrees outlook right around the landscape. However, from a risk point of view, the heat is searing and there's precious little shade throughout the area, so make sure you have plenty of water.
 
Wandering along the dusty track, you soon come to the first of the stunning rock formations. The overhang, used as a shelter for aborigines in the past, has provided the perfect protection for the artwork, some of which date back around 20,000 years. Added to this, you can see how the landscape has changed over the millennia with some paintings located high up on the rock faces where once the ground was much higher, but as time weathered and eroded the softer parts of the land, the paintings crept down the wall. Many of these remain at eye level, so you can glimpse the amazing complexity of design.
 
There are different paintings throughout the area and something to take note of is the variation of what the art work depicts, depending on ice ages and periods of global warming, as the landscape dramatically changed. The pathway eventually takes you up to a stunning lookout. The awesome combination of remoteness, rare wildlife and ancient rock paintings makes this a wonderful and unique experience.