Madeline Vaughan, Reader's Comment, The reality of teaching 'in the trenches', L

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Madeline Vaughan, Reader's Comment, The reality of teaching 'in the trenches', Lachie Gaylard, The Drum, ABC, 25 January 2012: http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3790748.html Historical link preserved from the original page.

Many casual teachers are desperate to keep their positions and working under huge pressure.

I am a retired teacher, old enough to have trained when smart people became teachers as it was a desirable profession.

I came from a family of teachers.

My parents were 2 year trained, I was 4 year trained.

It was the view of both myself and my parents that what we learned about teaching, we learned when we in schools on prac, not at uni.

For many years I lamented the standard of younger teachers, with spelling mistakes on display boards etc.

Of course some were great.

Being literate would seem to be a sensible requirement for a teacher.

What can we reasonably expect, however?

I would strongly discourage my own children from teaching, advice that was fortunately never needed.

There is a reason that teachers are being medically retired.

It has been so bad for so long now.

I have taught in disadvantaged schools as well as very high socio economic family schools.

The issues are different but they are still there.

Teaching today is no fun.

Either you are drowning in paperwork, teaching for the dreaded Naplan etc or battling to keep the lid on things so that you can teach rather than work on crowd control.

The Naplan on its own is ridiculous.

Schools receive money to help the children who do poorly but are terrified of being seen to perform badly so practise for months which defeats the purpose anyway.

The first time I taught in a tough school was in the early 80's in SW Sydney.

I was an experienced teacher by then, surrounded by beginning teachers.

We had kids who burnt down classrooms, kids who lived in violent homes, parents who were violent towards staff, 10 year olds on good behaviour bonds and so much more.

That school was on a list circulated to casual teachers of 10 schools not to work at!

Fair enough when you walk in to a room of year 6 kids and ask someone with their arms folded, feet on desk and pen in mouth, to remove their feet and they say "Make me.

Shortly after followed by "Get f---ed, c--t".

There are a whole group of kids just watching to see how the casual teacher manages.

In the likely event that the teacher fails to get the upper hand, the rest follow suit and they're off!

It may be not so bad for the regular classroom teacher but it is never a picnic!

Fast forward to a country school with a high aboriginal population in the early 2000 and nothing had changed.

In fact pressure to produce results had only increased as had of course many other pressures.

The crowded curriculum has been around for a long time.

Fast forward again to today.

There are no new permanent jobs as others have noted.

Many jobs are filled by contract casuals desperate to keep their positions working under huge pressure.

The boss says jump, they say how high!

This does not lead to a healthy workplace.

When I started teaching, I loved it and I still miss the children but that is all!