The Teachers are Alright, Reader's Comment, Hey politicians, leave those teachers alone, Jane Caro, The Drum, ABC News, 11 March 2013: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4565396.html Historical link preserved from the original page.
My brothers are teachers. They get barely enough time to eat during their breaks.
I have brothers who teach.
They get barely enough time to eat as their breaks are always interrupted or they are required to work through them.
They do unpaid after hours coaching, preparing lessons, detentions, marking, research and setting homework.
My own children have suffered the anxiety of having various teachers throughout the year, making consistency in lessons/homework a rare thing.
Teachers need to be given more permanent work and allowed to build up experience.
They need far more support staff as they deal with a greater cross section of society and far more sources of information than any of us ever imagined.
One area they need relief is in the disciplinary side.
It is far more complex than the Fear Factor we grew up with.
Schools should have security/social officers trained in juvenile law.
The disruptive children would be sent to them and the teachers can get on with the work they were trained to do.