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JAMES R. DARLING MEMORIAL ORATION J.R. Darling once said that the future lies with those who are at once “sensitive” and prepared to “live dangerously.” Men and women who are open to new ideas, who are curious enough to go in search of the truth, who are prepared to dive for pearls “at the bottom of the well.” It’s a wonderful image isn’t it – diving for pearls at the bottom of the well, because to do so requires the creative thinking that embraces curiosity, and a risk taking impulse. The curiosity, first and foremost, to ask the questions and to make the quest; then the courage to chance one’s arm in order to get there. To “lean towards danger like a good boxer,” as Darling once said. Today at Geelong Grammar, creativity is becoming a more central and vital part of the School’s curriculum and character. But I think it’s safe to say that this kind of innovative thinking was second nature to Darling from the moment he arrived on the shores of Corio Bay. I would like to talk to you tonight about these ingredients of creativity, but also another quality which J.R. Darling possessed in spades - the quality of conscience and good heart, the desire to be of service to one another, and to the community that we are a part of. This was J.R.D. A creative, curious and risk-taking man of good heart and great conscience. With these fine qualities, I’m tempted to say that he was an extremely close member of our immediate family. In reality, despite sharing the name Darling, we are not related. In fact, I never had the opportunity to meet him because I was only born the year after he left Geelong Grammar, following his nearly 32 years of distinguished service at this School. He was, however, my father David Darling’s headmaster, and on Speech Day in 1943 when my father was Senior Prefect, J.R. Darling delivered an address which extolled “imagination” as one of the “higher virtues” and pathways to an authentic and fulfilling life. At the height of the Second World War, he spoke about fostering the individual talents and passions of his students, emphasising that drama, art and music should not be squeezed into spare time, but rather made a central plank of the School’s curriculum. He believed creative instincts were inherent to us all. He knew in his bones that the true sign of intelligence was not knowledge, but imagination. He knew that a person who never made a mistake had never really tried anything new or been willing to fail. He knew, as Einstein knew, that great spirits often encountered vehement opposition from mediocre minds. He knew that logic could get you from A to B, but that creative imagination could get you everywhere. 1 JR Darling arrived at Corio 84 years ago like a thunderclap. His appointment as headmaster of the School in 1930 was a gamble of the highest order. His immediate predecessor, Reverend Francis Brown wanted his successor to be “a married clergyman of forty.” Instead the School got a 31 year-old bachelor with left-leaning political views, who had only recently become a dedicated Christian. “I remember when he first came,” recounted Boz Parsons. “The afternoon tea gossip was, `who is this young whippersnapper who has come out from England, walks around with his hands in his pockets and his pipe hanging out of his mouth?’ Many thought Darling was a very poor example of what Geelong Grammar represented – which is hard to believe, when you consider that today he is still regarded as perhaps Australia’s greatest educator. James Darling was a product of Victorian England and was 15 years old when the nightmare of World War 1 engulfed the world. As a 19 year-old artillery officer he saw the devastation of the Great War first hand and it changed him - profoundly, inalterably. Why had he survived when so many of his gifted contemporaries had perished? What meaning could he derive from the loss of so many innocents? How could his life have purpose in their absence? Tim Minchin, the brilliant musician and comedian, gave an oration last year to his alma mater, The University of Western Australia, where he said: “Please, please be a teacher. Teachers are the most admirable and important people in the world. You don’t have to do it forever, but if you’re in doubt about what to do, be an amazing teacher … and even if you’re not a teacher, be a teacher. Share your ideas. Don’t take for granted your education. Rejoice in what you learn. Spray it.” Again, this was J.R. Darling. He went into teaching because he believed the world could be saved by education. It was education and great teaching that could provide the spark for children to flourish. But oh how broad his definition of education would become. After graduating from Oxford University he made the deliberate choice to teach at a working class school in Liverpool. “My conscience stepped in,” he said and it was this conscience that led him to run a youth club in an inner city slum, and to accept Catholic boys into that club, despite the local Anglican Church’s steadfast opposition to having Catholics and Protestants together. That took courage and conscience and creative imagination, and one can only wonder at the mix of people Darling would willingly accept into that youth club today. He was inspired by two great individuals, the first William Temple, his former headmaster at Repton, later to become Archbishop of Canterbury and a man 2 whose Anglican social theology would become a vision for a fair and just post- war society. It was William Temple who first exposed Darling to the importance of music, art, literature and philosophy. The second great influence was Kurt Hahn, the German educator who had the courage to speak out against Hitler in a climate of extreme fear and growing anti- Semitism. It seems that Kurt Hahn was the model of the pearl diver in J.R. Darling’s mind. After serving as Headmaster of the private boarding school, Salem, in Germany during Hitler’s rise to power, Hahn founded the famous Gordonstoun School in Scotland, based on the four pillars of internationalism, challenge, responsibility and service. Kurt Hahn knew from studying Plato that education was the key to everything and, like Darling, his definition of education was broad and inventive. James Darling was prepared to take calculated risks, even at a time of great caution and restraint. He challenged the assumptions of traditional education and, in the midst of the Great Depression, had the courage and creative imagination to breathe new life into this hallowed institution. At a time when the Arts was considered an extravagance, and an adjunct to conventional teaching, Darling put his reputation on the line in the name of creativity. He appointed a Director of Music when, apart from chapel singing and sporting songs, it was virtually non-existent. He developed Drama on a scale never seen before at a school anywhere in this country. He opened an Art School and positioned it at the entrance to the School, in what would become a bold statement and symbol of its importance in educating young minds. No wonder Michael Collins Persse would later write that by the 1930s – and I quote: “The atmosphere at the school was beginning to invite not altogether ludicrous comparisons with ancient Athens and Renaissance Florence.” To develop the Arts during such a time of austerity was risk enough, but Darling went further than that. He extracted Bauhaus artist Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack from an Australian internment camp in 1942 after he’d fled the Nazis, and this at the very time Germans were considered “enemies at home.” “It was a salutary reminder,” “Darling said, “when one was tempted to hate all Germans, that the only one true Christian on the staff was a German.” Hirscfield Mack would end up transforming visual arts at the School and promoting the idea of Art’s power to reform society. Obviously we can’t talk about James R. Darling without mentioning one of his other great innovations in education – the creation of Timbertop. Like Kurt Hahn’s Gordonstoun, Timbertop would become an example of inspired, creative thinking and considered risk-taking. The plan was audacious - a school where boys (and now girls too) would spend a year away in the foothills of the Victorian Alps, combining academic and outdoor education. It is hard to imagine today but 3 at the time it found its critics. The concept was too foreign, too removed from the expectations of a traditional education. Tell that to Tim McCartney-Snape who was not only the first Australian to climb Mt Everest, but the first person in the world to climb it from sea to summit. It was Timbertop that fostered his strong sense of self-belief and an astonishing capacity for endurance. Little wonder then that when we hear the words of Kurt Hahn we are reminded of James Darling, and what kindred spirits these two great educators were: "Face the days that lie ahead with a spirit of adventure, compassion, honesty and confidence. Be not afraid of who you are, what you are or where you are, but cling implicitly to the Truth, as taught in the religion of your following. If you do all these things you will be 'of service'. If you are `of service' you will make others happy, and you will be happy too." This was one of James Darling’s operating principles – being of service.

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