A teacher of NSW, Comment 4 of 12, Deafening silence from pollies about declinin

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A teacher of NSW, Comment 4 of 12, Deafening silence from pollies about declining student performance, Ben Jensen, The Australian, 5 July 2011: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/commentary/deafening-silence-from-pollies-about-declining-student-performance/comments-e6frgd0x-1226087470315 Historical link preserved from the original page.

New South Wales: high school English teacher says that discipline problems and underfunding do not support a culture of success.

Teachers are always being bashed for one reason or another.

From my experience in an inner west high school (an 'average' clientele, and certainly better resourced than schools in poorer areas), the main problem in teaching these days can be put

down to two things -

1 ) Basic discipline and social skills are now seen as the role of the teacher.

Children can come to school with bad manners and no discipline at home, act up in class and disturb learning and teaching, do no homework - and it is seen as the fault of the teacher.

And keep in mind I work in a middle class area.

"Cool" parenting is a big problem, with many parents trying the "friend " approach rather than providing rules and guidelines.

Thus, the teacher is a mutual enemy and the "rights' of children to behave "naturally" is seen as more important than the needs of the learning community.

Selfish is the best word for these children - and their parents.

Add to this issue the undersupported need of children with genuine special needs in the classroom and you have a recipe for teaching disaster.

2) State schools are grossly underfunded.

Our English department runs on an annual budget of approximately $6000.

We are the only compulsory subject and teach every child in the school.

From this budget we are expected to buy all resources including technology needs, books, stationery etc.

Not much is it?

So I don't think we can simply dismiss the issue as the result of understimulated and uninspired children.

And as for email, when 12 staff are sharing three old computers it is very hard to physically achieve this.

We all do it as much as possible.

So readers, is this a culture which promotes success?