My apologies for not having written a post of late, but in all honesty, life has been ticking along on a nice even keel of late. But, as I have mentioned before, nothing mind shatteringly bad happens to me, and yet, nothing earth shatteringly great ever happens to me either. But it's all about perspective isn't it? If I were a homeless person, on the street, I'd be over the moon to be able to afford a house, put food on a table, sleep in a bed etc. I count my lucky stars that I don't live that kind of existence. But complacency is a dangerous thing. Put it this way; when I landed a job working in the mines of WA and earning, let's face it, for a 22 year old, a dangerous amount of money, I never found myself particularly well off. And yet, when I took a 40% pay cut to go into teaching, I managed to make ends meet quite okay, although my standard of living had taken a giant leap backwards. Goes to show, the more you have, the more you spend, and the more you want. The unfortunate thing is, since leaving the mines 10 years ago, I'm still not earning anywhere near what I was back then, you would think that after 10 years in the work force that that would be different, but alas no.
Which brings me to something else. The Australian Education Union, and the state government, is becoming increasingly concerned over the declining numbers of teachers in the state school system. This is on top of a booming population that shows no signs of slowing down. Unfortunately, Australia is not alone in this predicament, so poaching teachers from overseas is not going to solve anything.
I went into teaching with quite noble intent, the working conditions didn't seem that bad (compared to an open pit mine), the hours weren't 12 hour shifts and the holidays seemed pretty good. So why, after 7 years, did it all change? Why have I just become another statistic to the dwindling numbers of teachers? In the end yes, it did come down to selfish reasons such as pay and conditions. Quite frankly, if everyone in society had to be a teacher for a day they would understand the pressures faced by those in the profession. The exhaustion, the stress of trying to get things done in limited amounts of time, cos hey, in 2 minutes 30 kids are going to be coming in through that door and you still haven't gotten to the photocopier yet.
As I became more experienced, I was lumped with greater and greater responsibilities, to the detriment of the kids in my classroom. I could see that I was heading towards becoming a senior teacher or, heaven forbid, a Vice Principal. There was nowhere else to go, except out.
I received in the mail not long ago my final "Statement of Service" from the education department. Also, my education login on the government intranet has been wiped. Seven years. Where did it go? All gone and did I get any thanks? Pffft, what do you reckon? |
2 comments:
What about me? Dedicating a dozen years of higher education, shit pay, 16 hour-7 day work, constant upheaval with new jobs-cities-countries? Did the Greater Good ever give me a thank you for my dedication to Science?
Anyway.
I was listening to an announcement of plans to really up the pay rate and career paths of teachers. I think it was still the "we think this would be great and we're pushing for the idea to be considered by government" but it sounded promising.
Here losing teachers is a problem, but losing male teachers is even worse and they are linking that to declining boys scores etc, with the idea that active/loud/aggressive boys are discriminated against by female teachers who deal better with the female students (ie. aren't frightened of them). At least it's what some reports have been saying.
Yes, I fully empathise Dr J. It's a bit depressing looking back at that time that was, let's face it, kinda wasted. But we all make our decisions in life and thus have to wear the consequences. I don't regret teaching, but I think maybe I stayed in it too long.
Yes, there is a distinct shortage of male primary teachers, but was I given any incentive to stay? Hardly. Now they want to bring in some kind of performance based pay scale over here which is laughable because how do you compare results from a teacher in Camberwell to a teacher in St Albans? Different kids, different socio-economic environment, different everything.
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