By Rachel Curry
The University of Notre Dame Australia has expanded the minds of some of the State’s best high school students at a recent three-day program focused on intellectually challenging ideas.
Covering topics such as art, archaeology, history, philosophy and theology, the Cultural DeCoding Program was attended by 34 gifted and talented students from 12 Western Australian schools last month.
Its aim was to “help unlock the ideas that define who we are.”
Notre Dame’s school of philosophy and theology co-ordinator, Dr Angela McCarthy said the program was designed to give students a break from their Year 11 and 12 studies, which are very restrictive in their focus on achieving a high ATAR score.
“What we want to show them is that at the end of it, there are these fantastic ideas and fantastic areas of research that they could be very interested in,” Dr McCarthy said.
“In that sense, we want to give them a very strong incentive to look forward to what’s at the end of Year 12.”
Some of the topics explored in the Cultural DeCoding program can be challenging even for university students, but Dr McCarthy said the high school students relished the opportunity to explore new ideas.
She added that many of the students received a hard time at their schools for being smart, but they found the Notre Dame environment completely different.
“They come to this program and they are treated as adults, which thrills them to bits, and they’re introduced to new ideas by very serious academics. They become exhilarated by the whole thing,” she said.
Theology was the most popular topic over the three days, Dr McCarthy explained.
“The thing they are most captivated by is the religious panel because they have the opportunity of sitting with a Muslim person, a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Catholic and a Jewish rabbi…The possibility of doing that is quite remote,” she said.
Methodist Ladies’ College Year 12 student Tannith Lilford said she thoroughly enjoyed the Cultural DeCoding program, which enlightened her outlook and gave her the chance to meet new friends from different schools.
Ms Lilford went on to say that the program showed her that people’s perceptions are created from their particular frames of reference.
“The diverse presenters encouraged us to critically reflect on historical changes within different aspects of our culture, be it music, art, archeology, law or religion,” she said.
“Our life experiences, the community we grow up in and our family values form a base from which we reflect on events which have shaped our culture.”
Ms Lilford said she was particularly fascinated by the religious panel, which showed her that despite historical and cultural differences, “at the core of every religion is the simple philosophy that we should love one another.”
Notre Dame started the Cultural DeCoding program in 2012, after a similar program at UWA was severely reduced in scope due to funding cuts.
Information about the 2017 program will be released in Term 3.