Collected Comments Made During the Past Week Re: Teacher Quality

A society's inequality is the one statistic that does measure how well it's doing, and ours is going backwards.

I just wish politicians would stop jumping on lets fix education bandwagon to further their own careers, and talk to the experts - experienced teachers, that is!

Society as a whole in our Western culture is more obsessed with individual rights than respect for individual obligations and our young teachers are being asked to pay the price.

To ask our young and enthusiastic teachers to take on the job of modifying behaviour patterns and actually teach content is a grossly unfair imposition.It will and does end in tears.

Teaching, like some other roles, suffers from people outside the role assuming they know more than they do about what is required.

Simply ask teachers what is expected of them now, that was NEVER expected 20 or 30 years ago. We don't just teach, we raise many people's kids.
Every class I have taught has contained at least 2 or 3 children (usually boys) with significant behaviour/emotional/psychological problems that disrupt the classroom on a daily basis. Busy parents aren't coping with their kids...
Teachers cannot save the world. They are just people like you. They want to go home at the end of the day and have something left over for their families. Many don't.

Parents have been trained into expectations of entitlement by a long stream of governments at all levels and of all political complexions.

One reader on their own entry into the teaching profession:

The huge shock was that not only are many people not receptive to learning, they act like the educator is their worst enemy, and resist in sometimes the most outrageously unreasonable and aggressive ways.
I still often end the day with my heart in my shoes, wondering why on earth if students hate learning so much, they come to class, or we have to teach them. This is the dark side of the role teachers play in lifting the overall education level of society.

Can we at some time realise that disruptive kids are the bane of teachers lives and must be removed, centralised and dealt with in an entirely different fashion.

An absolute Classic- real life
drama that teachers deal with
All the time:

A colleague once rang a local big wig and asked how many times he had been told to get f***ed today at work. As he spluttered in indignation he was then told to come and get his son who, at ten, had said the same to four teachers by 9.20.

A Primary Teacher:
I might add (to the debate about teacher quality) that 'real' parental involvement in the very beginning of a child's life and throughout the formative school years is paramount.
e.g read to your child, listen to your child, talk with your child, set routines,

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Jane Caro has her informed say -
excerpts:

Australia is the third lowest investor in public education in the OECD, and public schools enrol the vast majority of the disadvantaged.

The NSW Government has decided to try to tackle what they call "teacher quality", implying, of course, that the teachers we have now are somehow not up to the mark.

Just as you can only help children develop effectively by supporting their mothers, so you only help children learn effectively by supporting their teachers.

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Excellent Comment by Robyn Ewing from Sydney University:

If a test before graduation on literacy and numeracy is instituted, it will not ensure a teacher knows how to establish real relationships with individual learners to teach them how to spell or add. Or to plan lessons that are motivating and fun, that challenge students and encourage them to take risks. Such a test will not discern whether a teacher is a lifelong learner. Or whether they are imaginative and can motivate those learners who are highly anxious or do not see any point in school. Or if they can ask challenging questions and encourage children to think creatively. Or will work well with colleagues, parents, the community and others. A test cannot measure aptitude, compassion, enthusiasm, flexibility, problem solving or dedication to teaching. A capacity to teach is something you either have in your heart or you don't. You can't legislate it into to practice.