We can have the debate about "teacher quality

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when teachers are given proper jobs, not contracts that bar many from applying for housing loans;
when salaries come close to matching those of education department bureaucrats;
when school cleanliness and fittings are as good as those of the nearest McDonalds;
when seeking support is not regarded as weakness;
when the awfulness of the job for many is admitted and understood;
and when you can admit to being a teacher without seeing looks of contempt or pity.

Rob Barden, Letter to the Editor, p.6, The Weekend Australian Magazine, 2-3 August 2014. Historical link preserved from the original page.

Mature-aged entrant to teaching: the system is very sick indeed.

I spent three years teaching as a mature-age entrant and concluded that the system was very sick indeed.

With children outnumbering teachers about 30 to one in the classroom, there is nothing a teacher can do if a significant number of children decide to disrupt the lesson.

Claire Pain, Letter to the Editor, p.6, The Weekend Australian Magazine, 2-3 August 2014. Historical link preserved from the original page.

Ex-teacher - I packed up my desk and left.

Being on the receiving end of deeply insulting remarks from students and parents on a daily basis took a toll on my health.

On the brink of a nervous breakdown, I packed up my desk and left.

Playground bullying gets a lot of attention but the bullying of teachers is just as prevalent.

Jean Kenny, Letter to the Editor, p.6, The Weekend Australian Magazine, 2-3 August 2014. Historical link preserved from the original page.

I taught for more than thirty years. It was a shocker of a job.

It's simple really, you can't get talented people to do a horrible job.

First and foremost, relentless negativity in our community is directed at teachers.

I taught for 30 plus years in the public secondary system and would never let on I was a teacher to casual acquaintances.

Imagine what the negativity of many parents produces in the way of recalcitrant students; mindless opposition to anything seen as intellectual and if you were not on your game, classroom behaviour more akin to a tribe of savages.

Have you ever been to Bali?

Everywhere you see the products of this cullture, bogan Aussies in their uniform of Bali Bintang singlet, tatts and either a shaved head or a rats' tail haircut and that is both men and women.

Imagine what it is like to teach them!

Secondly, teachers are their own worst enemies in giving away many conditions in return for a piddling pay rise.

In the end we had more extra classes and our time wasted in useless meetings which were seen as a productivity trade-off.

Less time to do more work leads to incredible stress.

Lastly the subsidising if private schools led to a reduction in your solid B and C students.

I'm not criticising parents, they rightly sent their kids to schools with a better environment - the problem is the public schools are left with the dross.

Now at least I could retire at 55.

Consider anyone seriously looking at a career in the public education system.

We are basically saying it's a shocker of a job and you are going to have to do it everyday for the next forty years.

Graduates are rightly saying NO THANKS!