Teacher crisis disputed
I have taught in two one-teacher schools (Riverina, Bombala) and nearly every primary school and both high schools in this district. I have worked teaching swimming for sport and recreation, I have been employed by after school activities, taught surfing, tutored and spent time with Tulgeen in its infancy. I have never taught in a private school. I have also been employed outside the work other than teaching and therefore know comparison.
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I totally dispute the description of teachers being at ‘crisis’ point. It is another attempt to use this new “Fear Factor” phenomena to manipulate public opinion.
I agree there is always room for improvement and changes of government can aid the process. Teachers need recognition and support (as do good parents!), new teachers need guidance and good mentors.
Teaching is a vocation not a job. It is characterised by tough days, soul searching, parent/department scrutiny, but in my experience it also provides rewards, feelings of accomplishment, compliments and best of all the knowledge that your influence has helped to shape the individuals that are now wonderful members of their community and broader society.
The vast majority of our public schools are safe, happy and have as their priority they duty of care of students and staff! We should be thankful and celebrate we have good teachers.
Bob Arthur, Merimbula
Ben Boyd’s name
The traditional custodians of Ben Boyd’s National Park would like the name of this man excised from the name of the park. Boyd and the Imlay brothers took full advantage of the colonial government policies of the time and greedily locked up most of the land in this area early on in settlement.
As has been the case of colonial expansion all over the world, it was convenient to disregard the indigenous populations and thus their loss has been, and I imagine for every new generation born to this day, beyond grief.
Of course the impact of dispossession on their economic life, culture and language continued long after the big squatters were gone but their names writ large (Mount Imlay is another example) must surely dismay to this day.
I only recently became aware of the Indigenous poet Jack Davis and I close with his poem on the subject of the impact of settlement of this country.
Remembering
They can forgive you
for the land you have stolen
the rivers you have polluted
the forests you have ruined
the water you have poisoned
flour and strychnine
the island prisons
the chain and the gun
But what they cannot forget is
You have slowed their heartbeat
And cast brute shadows
Over the face of their sun.
Monica McMahon, Kiah
R.E.S.P.E.C.T
As an older person the one thing I want to be left with is some respect and dignity. But in Australian society today that ain’t going to happen. In many cultures around the world, especially Indigenous ones, the older you get the more respect you get. In Australia it is the reverse. As soon as you show any signs of wear and tear, particularly mentally, some families send you off to the nursing home and visit you when they have nothing else to do.
Don’t count on government taking care of your welfare. Look at the rising number of assaults in nursing homes. Also try existing if you don’t have any money or assets on the pittance that is given to aged pensioners with just the basic necessities rising every day at an alarming rate. I will bet that none of the parents of all these politicians who pat themselves on the back when they give you a few dollars more will have parents who end up in a nursing home or are in the same leaking boat that pensioners are battling to keep afloat on a daily basis.
All the politicians with all their exorbitant wages, pensions and perks will never have to worry about ending up in a nursing home at the mercy of others.
As a man I may not have needed to worry too much about all this because according to statistics only 30% of us will make it to the nursing home, the majority of permanent residents being female due to the difference in life expectancy.
No nursing home for me please – the average life expectancy is 1-5 years.