Dear Mr Alegounarias,
My name is _______ and I am a year 12, 2017 student – that is, I began my HSC journey along with my cohort last term in 2016. I am writing to you this letter in response to your video message dedicated to the 2017 HSC students. I felt it necessary to give you a most heartfelt thank you for what I found to be a very comforting video. It has transformed my outlook on the HSC and life in general to one which is positive, and I thought it worth sharing this with you today.
Mr Alegounarias, you began your video with a welcome to year 12 and the HSC, and I am truly grateful for this welcome. I have in the past been wary of welcomes, especially when they are from authority figures (being a mere 16-and-a-bit year old, you tend to fear those who seem to have more control over your life than you yourself do). However, despite the fact that you are the president of the great institution, the Board of Studies, and that you are middle-aged perhaps and have never experienced the trials and tribulations of being a student in this decade of extreme pressure, unprecedented global competition, a time when it seems more difficult than ever before to be accepted into your tertiary education of choice; despite all these things, the empathy that you show in this video is evident when you tell us “it’s a big year for you, because the HSC is one of the world’s great credentials”.
Thank you Mr Alegounarias. Really, thank you. I knew that the HSC would be a big year for me and many others. I knew it would be a big year because it would be the hurdle which I will have to overcome to achieve my goals. I knew it would be a big year because it will challenge me not academically but rather shake any belief I have in my ability to meet these academic demands. It will put me down, it will frighten me. I will fall and trip over this hurdle. It will put me and other completely complex and unique individuals against each other and it will treat us as one and the same. It will reduce our entire schooling to a four-digit number, a rank.
Oh yes, it’s a big year, Mr Alegounarias. But thanks to your video message, I am reminded that it will be a big year not for those trivial reasons above, but for the more important reason that the HSC is one the world’s great credentials. Mr Alegounarias, just typing that phrase really inspires me. I feel honoured to be part of such a system of education which is, I daresay, close to perfection. One which values problem solving and creativity, and in no way limits a student’s ability to spend time exploring the beauty in mathematics, physics, in literature and more. One which does not place students in a race to complete the syllabus dot points, to memorise the most, learn the fastest. It is one which I am certain will produce a generation of thinkers rather than mindless robots driven by flawed notions of success.
You see, Mr Alegounarias, once upon a time, before watching your video, I would have said I could see an uncanny similarity between two of the worst fears facing our youth today – the HSC, and parasites. Although I must say, I do exaggerate. The latter is far less frightening than I make it seem. Either way though, I had always seen the two as similar, both unnoticeable at first – you never really realise the effects of the HSC until they hit you hardest, and parasites, well, their symptoms like headaches and nutrient deficiencies go ignored amongst the busyness of everyday life.
But after watching your video, I have realised the error in my thinking. Your advice to organise ourselves and “stick to a timetable” in no way confines us into a repetitive pattern that we will soon become hardwired to follow, feel guilt if we do not, and in the process have the joy and adventure of learning sucked out of us, much akin to the way a parasite sucks the life out its victim. No, this is not the case. We will not struggle to “find time to relax”, as you put it, nor will we, if we do find this time, have it eaten away by the worry or guilt that plagues us, just as parasites eat away at their host. No, the HSC is certainly not like a parasite. It will not pale us, it will not make us depressed, anxious, weary-eyed or hopeless. It will not fatigue us in what seems like a painfully slow process of drawing the very life out of us.
I agree with you, Mr Alegounarias. You said “demands will be made on you that possibly haven’t been made before”. But this no longer worries me, as I now feel very comforted by your advice that if we do find it hard, that we should “speak to someone. Speak to your teachers, speak to your family, speak to your friends”. I will without a doubt do this, as many others will, if we ever find it hard. I will, at three in the morning, when the world is fast asleep except for me and others like me, who lay buried alive in the thick darkness of our rooms, feeling imprisoned and feeling stuck, I will ring my school teacher who of course would be sitting awake too beside her phone just waiting to help me. And he or she will make all my problems disappear in no time.
Then I will be able to return to the great year that year 12 will be, which you, Mr Alegounarias, have made me rather excited about. I am truly looking forward to continuing this great “time for learning and growth”, because I, and many other year 12 students, are already beginning to flourish both academically and in terms of our physical and mental wellbeing. It is not true that, according to BeyondBlue, one in six young Australians is currently experiencing anxiety. It is also not true that the same study showed that these young people struggle the most with coping with stress, school and study.
Mr Alegounarias, in your video you said that you are “sure that [I’m] up for it”. That I’m up for the HSC. And because, as aforementioned, you are the president of the Board of Studies and you are a man of relative power, who is older than me and my peers and therefore I assume wiser, I will not oppose your certainty.
And so I will remain silent but for the thanks I give to you and to the system you and your colleagues have provided for us. As I said before, it is one of greatness, and now it welcomes me with open arms, just as in Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula welcomes his guest Jonathan Harker. He says “welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring.”
Kind Regards,
A year 12 student
My name is _______ and I am a year 12, 2017 student – that is, I began my HSC journey along with my cohort last term in 2016. I am writing to you this letter in response to your video message dedicated to the 2017 HSC students. I felt it necessary to give you a most heartfelt thank you for what I found to be a very comforting video. It has transformed my outlook on the HSC and life in general to one which is positive, and I thought it worth sharing this with you today.
Mr Alegounarias, you began your video with a welcome to year 12 and the HSC, and I am truly grateful for this welcome. I have in the past been wary of welcomes, especially when they are from authority figures (being a mere 16-and-a-bit year old, you tend to fear those who seem to have more control over your life than you yourself do). However, despite the fact that you are the president of the great institution, the Board of Studies, and that you are middle-aged perhaps and have never experienced the trials and tribulations of being a student in this decade of extreme pressure, unprecedented global competition, a time when it seems more difficult than ever before to be accepted into your tertiary education of choice; despite all these things, the empathy that you show in this video is evident when you tell us “it’s a big year for you, because the HSC is one of the world’s great credentials”.
Thank you Mr Alegounarias. Really, thank you. I knew that the HSC would be a big year for me and many others. I knew it would be a big year because it would be the hurdle which I will have to overcome to achieve my goals. I knew it would be a big year because it will challenge me not academically but rather shake any belief I have in my ability to meet these academic demands. It will put me down, it will frighten me. I will fall and trip over this hurdle. It will put me and other completely complex and unique individuals against each other and it will treat us as one and the same. It will reduce our entire schooling to a four-digit number, a rank.
Oh yes, it’s a big year, Mr Alegounarias. But thanks to your video message, I am reminded that it will be a big year not for those trivial reasons above, but for the more important reason that the HSC is one the world’s great credentials. Mr Alegounarias, just typing that phrase really inspires me. I feel honoured to be part of such a system of education which is, I daresay, close to perfection. One which values problem solving and creativity, and in no way limits a student’s ability to spend time exploring the beauty in mathematics, physics, in literature and more. One which does not place students in a race to complete the syllabus dot points, to memorise the most, learn the fastest. It is one which I am certain will produce a generation of thinkers rather than mindless robots driven by flawed notions of success.
You see, Mr Alegounarias, once upon a time, before watching your video, I would have said I could see an uncanny similarity between two of the worst fears facing our youth today – the HSC, and parasites. Although I must say, I do exaggerate. The latter is far less frightening than I make it seem. Either way though, I had always seen the two as similar, both unnoticeable at first – you never really realise the effects of the HSC until they hit you hardest, and parasites, well, their symptoms like headaches and nutrient deficiencies go ignored amongst the busyness of everyday life.
But after watching your video, I have realised the error in my thinking. Your advice to organise ourselves and “stick to a timetable” in no way confines us into a repetitive pattern that we will soon become hardwired to follow, feel guilt if we do not, and in the process have the joy and adventure of learning sucked out of us, much akin to the way a parasite sucks the life out its victim. No, this is not the case. We will not struggle to “find time to relax”, as you put it, nor will we, if we do find this time, have it eaten away by the worry or guilt that plagues us, just as parasites eat away at their host. No, the HSC is certainly not like a parasite. It will not pale us, it will not make us depressed, anxious, weary-eyed or hopeless. It will not fatigue us in what seems like a painfully slow process of drawing the very life out of us.
I agree with you, Mr Alegounarias. You said “demands will be made on you that possibly haven’t been made before”. But this no longer worries me, as I now feel very comforted by your advice that if we do find it hard, that we should “speak to someone. Speak to your teachers, speak to your family, speak to your friends”. I will without a doubt do this, as many others will, if we ever find it hard. I will, at three in the morning, when the world is fast asleep except for me and others like me, who lay buried alive in the thick darkness of our rooms, feeling imprisoned and feeling stuck, I will ring my school teacher who of course would be sitting awake too beside her phone just waiting to help me. And he or she will make all my problems disappear in no time.
Then I will be able to return to the great year that year 12 will be, which you, Mr Alegounarias, have made me rather excited about. I am truly looking forward to continuing this great “time for learning and growth”, because I, and many other year 12 students, are already beginning to flourish both academically and in terms of our physical and mental wellbeing. It is not true that, according to BeyondBlue, one in six young Australians is currently experiencing anxiety. It is also not true that the same study showed that these young people struggle the most with coping with stress, school and study.
Mr Alegounarias, in your video you said that you are “sure that [I’m] up for it”. That I’m up for the HSC. And because, as aforementioned, you are the president of the Board of Studies and you are a man of relative power, who is older than me and my peers and therefore I assume wiser, I will not oppose your certainty.
And so I will remain silent but for the thanks I give to you and to the system you and your colleagues have provided for us. As I said before, it is one of greatness, and now it welcomes me with open arms, just as in Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula welcomes his guest Jonathan Harker. He says “welcome to my house. Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness you bring.”
Kind Regards,
A year 12 student
Last edited:
