Insights

In the aftermath of the British riots, the innate dichotomy of social media is being extensively highlighted. On one hand there was the mobilisation of masses that the technology reportedly enabled. Apparently, akin to a military invasion, rioters weaponised social media, identifying soft targets to loot, pillage, incite violence and destroy public and private property. Alternatively, social media played a large part in the organisation of cleanup activities following the riots – many “good news” stories received more coverage through social media than the traditional media outlets that chose to continue a discourse of panic in relation to social media.

Term III is a busy term for both academic and co-curricular activities, a term many consider to be the most important for our Year 12 students. It therefore seems pertinent to focus on a vital part of our daily lives that is essential if we are to perform at our best – sleep. Despite its biological and physical necessity, sleep is often low on our list of priorities. We all know that eating nutritious food and exercising regularly is essential for the maintenance of good health, but bedtime too often gets ignored. Sleep researchers insist that a good night’s sleep is crucially important, while the anecdotal information we gather from the girls here at school suggests that this is a point worth reiterating.

A unit of study in the Year 9 Health Studies curriculum is concerned with the history of women in sport. The girls are often surprised at what women were prepared to tolerate in order to play sport.The long dresses in tennis and the woollen swimming costumes were only some of the sporting challenges that women in the 20th century endured. The search for female sporting role models over the years has revealed some very gutsy, brave and daring women – Boyle, Court and Stephenson; achievers in sport and in life. These were not household names, unlike those of Bradman, Norman and Laver. So, upon further classroom investigation, the girls proceeded to research current day sports women for examples of role models. Perhaps, they would find some names that they knew? In true ‘Gen Y’ form, the girls used the Internet search engine ‘Google’ and in response to their search, (Sportswomen role models), Google suggested: “Did you mean: Sportsmen role models?” The all-round look of astonishment and indignation was a clear indication that the current status of female athletes as role models is lagging far behind our male counterparts. The idea that equality exists in the sporting world is erroneous, especially when it comes to showcasing the fine accomplishments of our female athletes in all forms of media. This statement and the response from the girls led me to look more closely at the significance of having role models (and particularly sportswomen role models), some reasons as to why our sportswomen are not household names and ways in which we can, as a school and a community, go about correcting this imbalance.

It is in many ways an invidious task to steer such a well established, high performing and much-loved institution as Brisbane Girls Grammar School into new waters. But it is certainly not an option to allow this vessel to ride the fast-running waters without carefully planning the journey.