The true value of values

9th Jul 2025, Reading time: 6 minutes

 JOURNEYING WITH YOUTH 

By William Doherty, Principal, Xavier College Kew  

Over the past few weeks, our College newsletter has featured a special series of podcasts focused on themes around the education of boys; on some of the extensional programs that we provide to enrich the quality of their experience; on our formation of values and character; and on the challenges to their formation and balance in our chequered world, as well as the antidotes that their Xavier experiences provide for them. 

Our extensional programs that we focused on in the podcasts included boarding, the pilot of a new global leadership experience (to Boston, New York and Washington) and post-school immersion (service) opportunities through The Cardoner Network. We know that our students gain so much from these experiences. As they give so generously in service, they all seem to receive so much more through a true sense of gratitude, meaningful contribution and a new and deep perspective on life and good living. 

There have been insights from three of our leading coaches – covering football, soccer and theatre – on the breadth and depth of our craft in coaching and mentoring in these domains. The commentary was not confined to specific skill development on the field or on stage, but rather, it resonated strongly in mental and deeper character traits that are so important in how our coaching enables our boys to fully flourish and develop in all dimensions of our lives. 
 
A recent episode perfectly complemented the previous one focusing on values and character education, where an interesting project on the measurement of values was uncovered. This draws on the notion of “you can only expect what you inspect”, or that you need to be able to measure what you value. As a College, we value values – these being who we are, our DNA, the foundations that shape our context, that colour our perspectives, that provide our lens upon which we view our experiences and that enable us to build and refine our character. 

The series was rounded off in the final episode of the term with a wonderful conversation with our Rector, Fr Middleton SJ. To offer a glimpse into a gem of a conversation, many challenging contemporary themes were unpacked amid profound insights from not only Fr Chris but also our College Captain: 

• The challenges for youth in our time;  

• The power of gratitude and generosity as being transformative through encounter;  

• That good spirituality and good psychology can and should walk hand in hand;  

• That our young must be seen, known and heard, and that they all have a story that needs to be heard; and in this regard, the important art and power of listening; 

• That our Xaverians lean into stories that their mates are telling;  

• That being gentle with others leads to being gentle with self, and in an age of mental health challenges, how important this is;  

• The importance of recognising and cultivating “God spaces” in a way that leads to relationship and trust;  

• The transformative power of service experience that touches the hearts of our boys and challenges them to consider their place with others.  

It is a powerful episode that deserves our attention.  

What ultimately emerges from our discussions is really the DNA and magic of Xavier in our education of our boys – which is to say that immersing our children in a setting that offers wonderful opportunities and experiences is good … but it is not enough. Many schools do this, but they also finish at that point. Education done well is so much more than delivering a service in a space. We can easily be bamboozled by the appeal of a building, the location of a program, the score on a board or a league table of apparent comparables. The critical magic though, happens in the internalising and processing of well-crafted experiences in order to turn them into truly transformative, life-forming and enriching moments … moments that do not stand in isolation, but that make sense by both the Jesuit lens that our boys are able to bring to bear upon them as well as by the connection and reinforcement that occurs when you string many of these moments together and you expertly unpack them in order to provide the recipients with context, meaning, authenticity and ultimately, understanding. 

For example, our Xavier boys can understand what the deeper purpose and meaning is to a service experience, such as at Friday Night School, a nursing home, a women’s refuge or a men’s shelter. While probably not immediately apparent, the confluence of these experiences and the conversations that unravel these moments, lead our students on to a deeper level of engagement with, and understanding of, the great complexity, vulnerability and beauty of people and humanity – no matter our background, creed, gender, race or life circumstance. Whether it be through service, immersions, sport and stage, expedition or a house community event, a voluntary Mass or a Kairos retreat, our boys are able to connect to an inner disposition to be gentle, thoughtful and kind. They are able to determine right from wrong and perhaps gain an inner resolve to make good or better choices in this regard. They are able to tell their own story and acknowledge personal circumstances for themselves and others; they are able to be vulnerable and authentic and to know that they are surrounded by others who respect their circumstance as a fellow imperfect brother with whom they share common ground, be this in the halls at Xavier or on the streets of their suburb or city.  

While he might be the College Captain for a reason, when an 18-year-old boy coming to the end of his school journey can, off the cuff, talk about the positive influence and role of (Ignatian) contemplation and add to a conversation disseminating the place of God and Jesus in our modern world with the simple rally that “God is love,” hence promoting His authenticity and accessibility for a young person of today’s world, one begins to consider that the worth of an education at Xavier is priceless.  

XavChat can be found on Spotify. A new episode is released weekly, usually late on a Thursday. If you’ve not had the chance to listen to the last few, do yourself a favour. Listen to what we are discussing – send it on to your friends. I’m not sure that discussion such as this is experienced everywhere. Renew your faith in humanity, the capacity of our emerging generation and the quality of an education at Xavier!