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Editorial . . .
Last year's editorial expressed the belief that violent, irresponsible protests
by students (and other groups) are undesirable, antagonising the community and
doing little to help the protesters gain the support they seek. It is hoped that this
expression was not interpreted as meaning that students should be passive
conformists, all echoing the feelings and opinions given to them by others.
If our schools and homes do not encourage the full development of each
individual personality, our society will be characterised by a depressing sameness.
Now you are asking. “What's all this got to do with me. a student at
Wynnum State High School?" Perhaps this can best be answered by asking you
a question in return. Are you a thinking person, alive to the more important
issues in the world around you ? Or are you satisfied to accept at face value
practically everything you hear and read, being generally content to “follow
the mob?"
If you belong to the second category, you are condemning yourself to a
life of mental boredom and denying yourself the opportunity of achieving the
sense of personal conviction one gains from examining an issue critically and
forming an opinion that is one's very own. You are condemning yourself to a
life in which you will lack the self-confidence and self-reliance evident in those
people who show deep personal conviction on the important issues in our society.
Time is on your side if you wish to develop an inquiring mind. You must
start by adding to your knowledge on the major issues — religion, politics,
wars, education, nuclear power, and so on. Read newspapers and magazines
more widely. Occasionally read an account of the same happening in two or
three different publications. You will observe that even basic news items can
be “slanted" to lead you to form the same opinion as that held by the news
paper's management. This will make you aware that you sometimes have to
read very carefully to find the real truth. When one person makes a scathing
attack on another, wait for the reply. Follow both sides of the argument and
sift the basic facts from the hysterical exaggerations before you judge the matter.
When you do these things, you are becoming a thinker.
In the happening world of the seventies that we are about to enter there
will be rich rewards — intellectually, spiritually, and materially — for alert
young Australians. No one will be concerned if. in 1975, you are unable to tell
the difference between Adverbial Clauses of Purpose and Result. But you fail
in the eyes of your school, your teachers, and probably yourself, if you are
not a thinking citizen.

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