On Sunday morning at the beginning of this week, our Year 8 students departed from Auckland International Airport on their much-anticipated Renaissance Trip. Many of you will have seen the sponsorship board outside the school office, which details many of the well-known places the students will be visiting. The trip starts in Italy where they travel to Rome, Orvieto, Siena and Florence, before flying to England for the second leg which includes London, Oxford, Salisbury and Bath.
It is an incredible experience for children at this age and, along with the Shakespeare Play (coming up next week), is one of the unique experiences provided in the senior years at Ficino. After the trip, some parents have commented that the students left as children and came back as young men and women. Being away from home and all that is familiar, the students have to organise themselves, be disciplined and work as a group even when they are feeling fatigued or challenged. These experiences in themselves are very character building, and this is all done under the wonderful care of their teachers and other travelling adults.
Developing independence, however, is not the primary purpose of the trip. We could do that much nearer to home. The purpose is to give these young minds and hearts the opportunity to connect with some of the monumental achievements of western civilisation. The Florentine Renaissance was not just about art. As the name implies (‘renaissance’ means ‘rebirth’), this was a unique period when ancient wisdom from Greece and even as far back as Egyptian times was being rediscovered and re-presented. Marsilio Ficino, although not much recognised today, was a leading light in Florence at the time. He ran an academy which was at the heart of this revival of ancient manuscripts that were pouring in from the East. At the time, he translated all the works of Plato, which are enormous, from Ancient Greek into Latin. It was the rediscovery of this knowledge that inspired the flowering of art that we see today.
The English Renaissance at the time was more one of language, with the translation of the King James Bible into the vernacular for the first time and, of course, a few decades earlier the masterpieces of English literature written by William Shakespeare. In London the students will see this in action at the Globe Theatre, where they will watch Much Ado about Nothing.
There was a buzz of excitement at the airport on Sunday where we formed quite a spectacle with the number of parents, siblings, teachers and other travelling adults outnumbering the Year 8 students by three to one! We wish the travelling party all the best for a wonderful experience and look forward to their safe return at the end of the term.
Peter Crompton, Principal
