St Ignatius College’s website states

“Our Ignatian tradition calls us to enter into solidarity with the poor, the marginalised, and the voiceless, in order to enable their participation in the processes that shape the society in which we all live and work.”

It seems Riverview has embraced this tradition by building a demountable classroom of sorts at Riverview to allow boys to understand what life is like for public school students. Well, the building has aluminium cladding and is square and compared to the main building at Riverview, it is impoverished.

However, it is very difficult to reconcile Riverview’s main building with Ignatian tradition. This is a grand building reeking of power and wealth.

How does a growing mind deal with such hypocrisy?

In the case of Tony Abbott, a student at Riverview, it appears he learnt to lie. To quote Abbott

“I know politicians are going to be judged on everything they say but sometimes in the heat of discussion you go a little bit further”.

So just as demountable classrooms potentially damage public school students by making them feel that they are second class citizens, maybe such a grand building perverts the teaching of St Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus, in whose name it was built and students attending Riverview learn to be hypocritical as a consequence?