Dear members of the MLMC community
Over this past fortnight I have had the pleasure of attending three College Debutante Balls, hosted by the Parents and Friends’ Association, for our Year 12 students and their families. Our College Debutante Balls would normally occur at Year 11, however, the last two years have seen so many events cancelled or postponed because of the restrictions associated with the pandemic that it became necessary to hold it in Year 12 this year. We will return to holding a Year 11 event in August/September this year.
The Debutante Balls are a beautiful event and one in which I am proud to attend and participate each year. It is apparent to me that balls are an important event and rite of passage for our young people. The debs are a fantastic family event whereby students, parents, grandparents and friends dress in formal wear and come together to celebrate with formal dances.
It would, however, appear that nothing can cause controversy like the concept of a Debutante Ball and it surprised me the number of comments I received about how the College intended to cancel future balls and how this was the ‘last deb’. To put it simply, this is not the case. But this, too, will need some qualification.
Some people seem to loath the whole idea of a Debutante Ball and do not understand why they would have a place at MLMC in 2022, or, for that matter, anywhere.
Firstly, we do have to acknowledge Debutante Ball history. The first such ball was in 1780, called the Queen Charlotte’s Ball, founded by King George III in honour of his wife’s birthday. The Deb, like many other Balls worldwide, like the Cotillions in the south of America, did involve the concept of presenting young girls to the social set of the time and for many it was about starting the search to find a suitable and eligible partner in marriage. We need to remember that, at that time, marriage was in many ways the only career for women of a particular social set and a way of finding financial security. Thankfully, this is no longer the case.
We also need to acknowledge that a Debutante Ball, while full of tradition at MLMC, has at its core a different meaning in 2022 and finding a future partner certainly is not one of them. Some things have, however, remained constant:
- white dresses and formal dress
- being presented in pairs
- ballroom-style dancing
- students dancing with their parents, grandparents and special people in their lives.
The Debutante Ball tradition does live on and it has adapted as it has been adopted by many cultures.
While acknowledging the importance of the tradition, we must ask ourselves if the Debutante Ball, in its current form, is serving our families and our students. For some it is and for others it is not. There are some issues with it:
- some girls do not like asking boys to be their partners or have to ask many before they find one
- some boys do not like being asked, while others fear they may never be asked
- not enough boys want to be a part of it, leaving other boys to participate two or three times
- for some the cost is prohibitive, especially the cost of a deb dress
- in the traditional format, the girl is presented and the boy is accompanying them
- some students would like to be presented in same sex friendship groups, which we have done over the past few years.
This year, we have been consulting with our Year 11 cohort and their parents about what is important to them in such a ball, remembering that it is far more than a ‘social’. Given that we will have three Year 11 balls, it provides the opportunity to trial a few options and have each ball themed around student choice. One ball might be a traditional debutante- style ball while another might be a presentation-style ball whereby students are presented in groups, dress is still formal but allows for colourful ball gowns and formal evening wear and formal dances might be more of a traditional progressive style.
Student choice and student numbers will dictate the style of ball for Year 11 in 2022, and then in 2023 we will undertake a similar process to ensure the needs of next year’s Year 11 students (Year 10 2022) are best met.
Please understand that I have tried to best explain what is actually happening with the Debutante Ball content to allay the many fears that “Philip Morison has killed off the Deb and MLMC will do them no more”. Rest assured, this is far from the truth. I have been honoured to be the guest at in excess of 60 such Debutante Balls and to see the many smiles and glee on the faces of generations of families is truly a delight and something we wish to continue.
Before finishing, it would be remiss of me not to comment on the operation of the College at this time and during these interesting times, because in many ways these times are more challenging than the past last two years.
We acknowledge that these recent years have been a struggle for many and that challenges have presented themselves unlike any other time in our history. I continue to be grateful for a supportive community and ask that you continue the Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT) RAT testing program currently in place until further notice. The College will continue to issue students with RAT testing kits to those who need them, understanding that after a positive test and seven days of isolation no test is required for 12 weeks. Please ensure that only students who need RAT tests collect them and that obtaining them and then disgorging them in garden beds and the like is both wasteful and disrespectful of our environment.
Please also continue to have students who test positive stay at home and isolate for seven days (five days of school), but also have any students who continue to show any symptoms to also stay at home.
Please understand that these same issues apply to staff. The College is experiencing a high degree of staff absenteeism at the moment due to staff testing positive to COVID-19 or the very prominent flu cycle that has started to spread through the College. Some have reported that the symptoms of influenza are worse than they experienced from COVID-19. This is, of course, a case-by-case basis.
The College is doing everything possible to maintain the best learning environment and keeping all year levels on campus. We have done this by employing casual relief teachers (CRTs), by combining some classes and by supervising some classes in private study. Thus far, we have maintained all our camps and excursion programs. Employing CRTs and finding replacement staff is becoming very difficult, as there appears to be a teacher shortage. At this stage MLMC has not considered having some year levels to stay at home, but this may be a consideration for the future should the situation continue or worsen. Hopefully, this will not be the case.
Lastly, a reminder that next Friday (20 May) is a student free day at MLMC with the staff undergoing professional development. There will be no students on campus and students should enjoy a long weekend, but still pay attention to their studies.
In the spirit of Catherine,
God bless
Philip A Morison
