Class Acts: Episode 03

Dr Tim Soutphommasane was Australia’s Race Discrimination Commissioner from 2013 to 2018 and is now Oxford University’s Chief Diversity Officer. 

Tim was also a student in Year 9 at  Hurlstone Agricultural High School when Pauline Hanson was elected to Federal Parliament …. and Alan Pollock was his Modern History teacher. 

Alan had a huge impact on Tim both inside and outside the classroom. What he remembers most is the way Alan “discussed issues with me as a fellow citizen …  These were things that no amount of test scores could have measured”. 

Tim says, “A good education is not just about getting the highest exam score possible. It’s also about forming good citizens: about cultivating individuals who understand their responsibilities to the community, who are capable of cooperating with others, and who can accept differences and disagreements”.

In this episode Alan reunites with Tim as well as another former student  Sean Christie David founder of Plate It Forward and creator of a string of Sydney social enterprise restaurants that celebrate multiculturalism and provide employment to refugees, asylum seekers, people with a disability and former prisoners (ABC News).