‘Education won’t improve if the quality of parenting is declining. Discipline begins at home’

Striking: “When I open my eyes, your work will be done and I’ll have a pay rise.”

Welcome to the column where you provide the content. Janet Albrechtsen threw her weight behind the NSW teachers strike, and said education would improve with better pay to attract more teachers, and less bureaucratic nonsense that takes them away from teaching. Adam’s wife averred:

“Australian education will not improve if the quality of parenting is declining. Discipline starts at home. Respect for adults, teachers and yourself will improve student outcomes.”

David’s perspective:

“I am at the end of my teaching career, and am just as passionate about the infinitely interesting teenagers I teach now as when I began back in the 80s. I am generally not a union supporter; however, I support this strike for many of the reasons outlined in the article. My one sadness is the declining standards in teacher literacy. Most of the young teachers with whom I work have difficulty constructing a grammatically correct sentence. They do, however, effectively instil fear about climate change and a range of social issues.”

Paula’s problem:

“I am tutoring writing to couple of 10-year-old boys whose parents are dissatisfied with their sons’ mediocre marks. The teachers are OK with that and appear to offer no means for improvement. Even written assignments are withheld by the teacher to be presented in a portfolio to parents at the end of the year, so the immediacy of making improvement is lost.

On consulting a childhood literacy expert (who can’t get a job in Queensland), without my saying a thing, she articulated half a dozen issues the boys were having under today’s educational model that accepts 30pc illiteracy.

“Hand writing is another issue. The so called modern cursive is flawed in that letters do not naturally connect, leading to curly distortions that are illegible. The education caravan moves on before learning is embedded. Only solution, I was advised by the expert, is to go back to the beginning to establish foundational skills for writing. That is showing some success.”

Grant’s gripe:

“Also, Paula, they don’t know how to hold a pen. Most children and young adults I see, hold their pen in their clutched fist. It is weird. No wonder their writing is illegible. But who needs a pen when a computer keyboard is available, so they say.”

Fírinne’s frustration:

“And who needs to know how to spell when there is ‘spellchecker’, or, from the 90s when our sons were at high school, ‘no it is fine that they use ‘texting spelling’ in essays because that is what they use now’ ...from a teacher of English no less!

“The literacy standards at schools fell rapidly in those days and having had what I considered a good education I despaired at the way things were being done and as this became entrenched the literacy and numeracy of those who somehow managed to gain university places who then became teachers.”

Too small to fail.

Lex said:

“The woke culture doesn’t allow children to ‘fail’, or to be disciplined. The thought of a school child calling a female teacher a vile name in my time (I’m 74) is ridiculous. I would have been caned (and not suffer life-long damage from the experience), my parents would have been warned about my behaviour, and punished me at home, and I would have been expelled should my behaviour have continued. And I grew up with a feeling of respect for teachers (even those I didn’t like). As far as the curriculum was concerned, there was none of the woke nonsense we see in the suggested curriculum today. No wonder Australians are falling behind the world in education!”

Michael said:

“The comment in the article ‘Finally, why isn’t classroom discipline, the third pillar of Tudge’s reform agenda, a central focus for the teachers union? Violence, abuse and harassment in classrooms are driving teachers out of the profession because many public schools do not discipline students’ is so correct.

“My wife is a maths teacher and will not teach at a state school and I’m not saying private schools are a lot better. It’s usually one or two kids that cause most of the problems and the kids know nothing will be done about it.”

Economic Progressive agreed:

“You are so right about this, and it belittles those kids who want to achieve. I remember complaining to the spouse when I started teaching ... ‘their parents buy their uniforms, keep them clean, provide good equipment and back-packs only to have their kids go to school and get a second rate education because poorly behaved students cannot be dealt with because they are ‘entitled’ to an ‘inclusive’ education, no matter how bad the outcomes for everybody else!!’”

Bruno was browned off:

“Except that teachers were in the forefront of demanding school closures throughout the pandemic, keeping their jobs and incomes, however, while hundreds of thousands were losing theirs. Except that teachers in public primary schools, at least in NSW, provided roughly one and a half hours of in-line work per day to the children at home, while private school teachers provided six hours. Except that many teachers are getting their teaching qualifications with minimal evidence of academic competence and some bordering on illiteracy.”

Every day was muck up day.

Low marks from Mark1:

“Sorry Janet, I don’t agree, I am not with the teachers at all on this strike action for higher pay and better conditions. When they stop focusing on pushing their own personal views on climate change and gender issues and start actually teaching the children something that will actually help them better their lives in the future, then we can talk about pay rises. For the last 12 months or so the majority have been sitting at home getting full freight in their pay packets, whilst on the other hand many Australians lost their jobs and businesses altogether. Pay rises? I don’t think so.”

Anthony’s advice:

“Let us see the schools significantly reduce the number of days where learning interruptions occur... white ribbon day, multi cultural day, rainbow day, and a myriad of other days, many sports carnivals, excursions for almost irrelevant reasons... there is no time left for teaching the basics in a regular, sustained manner.

“My wife, as a principal for 20 years, reduced the school interruptions to one per term and insisted on an academic focus in the classroom. This was supported by a strong performing arts culture and programmed sport. The teachers gave the students an excellent platform to undertake their secondary studies. Their HSC results in the K-12 school were outstanding in a non selective school, often better than 50th in the state of NSW.

“The emphasis on academic achievement did not rob those students of other experience at the weekends and after school but provided a work ethic that prepared the children for ‘life after school’. The success of the students from that school is most impressive.”

Peter William reckoned:

“The fact is teachers are overpaid from year one so the percentages Janet has come up with are not relevant.”

David said:

“Education, not climate change, should be the No 1 issue our governments are tackling.”

Avid Reader noted:

“Male teachers are leaving the ‘profession’ in droves because no man wants to cop a spray from a 15 year old. The culture we have prevents teachers from disciplining unruly students (which is the majority of students). We live in an age of entitlement where parents (including single parents), who want to be friends with their children and are either unable or unwilling to discipline them, are largely to blame.”

Roger said:

“Exceptional teachers, male and female, very quickly learn to manage that sort of behaviour. The majority of students are not unruly, and the majority of parents want their children to thrive and work with teachers and schools to achieve great outcomes for their kids. It is a small minority of kids, teachers, parents and school admin that taint the system.”

John’s view:

“There was once a time when practically all teachers were able so to do. Now, we have parents who are either uninterested in their children’s education or are so protective of their ‘little darlings’ they are unable to accept that their children can do any wrong but they insist their kids are all geniuses into the bargain! Any suggestion to the contrary by their teacher results in abuse as bad as, if not worse than, that dished out by their kids. I base these comments on the remarks of former teachers who have left the profession in frustration at the lack of support from government, parents and their ‘woke’ unions as well as my own observations of society today.”

Terry was not hopeful:

“Teacher unions are joined at the hip with the ALP and as a Liberal if for no other reason, Education Minister Alan Tudge will be resisted. The measures of change he calls for are extremely important but remember not only are teacher unions Labor oriented they are woke to the gills.”

Peter added:

“Sorry Janet, but it was teacher unions who interfered with the curricula, aided and abetted by weak state governments and ideologically driven academics. Collectively they are producing generations of students who can barely construct a sentence, can’t spell and need a calculator to add up. More money is not the answer.”

Sean O’Hare said:

“Salaries in the private sector are higher. That is where the good teachers go.”

Gordon googled:

“From the internet, the average school teacher salary in Canada is $45,149 per year.

Entry-level positions start at $36,085 (AU$40,054.35) per year, while most experienced workers make up to $73,858 (AU$81,982.38) per year.

Compare this to NSW teacher pay rates at 1.1.21:

Band 1 (Graduate) 72,263

Band 2 (Proficient) 87,157

Band 2.1 92,492 94,601

Band 2.2 96,138 98,330

Band 2.3 105,376 107,779

Band 3 (Highly Accomplished) 112,163 114,720

So, what is the problem with pay?”

Another David said:

“Sorry Janet. Disagree. Far too many second raters are now employed as teachers. They avoid maths and science. Unfortunately these days many teachers have never sat for an exam (ie completed the same paper as their fellow students across a state) and get by via assessment. We know how mickey mouse that is. Many take easy units and generally it is the average students who go into teaching. Boy, we have all noticed they moan a lot. The union is left wing and as a result exaggerates everything. They support Labor and the Greens.”

From Alex:

“Teacher training is terrible. As a manager of teachers and the graduates I know they are very ill-prepared for the realities of the classroom and the bureaucracy. This poor preparation ends up entrenching bad behavior and low standards. Many graduates leave and never return. The universities are not doing a good job, in my opinion.

“The curriculum support is limited, leaving teachers poorly equipped for the topics they teach and with a reliance on poorly designed materials copied and pasted from the internet.

“My union’s leadership hasn’t effectively changed in 25 years and is more concerned about rallies for ephemeral social justice causes than seriously challenging our state Labor government (I note the only union going on strike is doing so against a Liberal government – don’t tell me they’re ‘apolitical’). I don’t agree that unions should be taking action for our students as their role is industrial advocacy for teachers; but it is mutually beneficial.

“Our caring professions of law enforcing, nursing and teaching are demoralized by a society that dumps on them, expects superhuman professional standards and pays them little in return while the same society society tolerates the low moral standard, behavior and opaque accountability from the high paid non-caring professions such as finance, law and politics.

“Curriculum changes and the latest fads build on each other, always expanding the workload – never reducing it. And then there’s the behaviour. Justified and excused by whole industries that profit from the problem but never have to deal with it. If courts, psychologists and political leaders had to deal with it every day, the changes would be swift and radical.”

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Woke in fright: Captain Cook gets an extreme makeover from the woke folk. Picture: Getty Images

Francis Galbally wrote that it was high time we woke up to the absurdities of woke. Guy1 agreed:

“The problem is that conservatives never fight back. We allow these absurd advertisements to go out, we alllow statues to be toppled and names to be changed because we are terrified of being labelled racist or homophobic etc. Enough is enough. We should demand some courage from our so called conservative leaders to start fighting the culture wars as John Howard and Tony Abbott did.”

Philip’s theory:

“Woke can be defined as the art of seeming to do something that has absolutely no benefit to anyone. It’s a bit like covid. It forms clusters in schools, universities, the ABC, sporting admins and other bureaucratic situations. Unfortunately there is no vaccine as yet.”

Tallulah countered:

“Back in the day, the:

(i) abolitionists who opposed slavery;

(ii) suffragettes who sought the franchise for women; and

(iii) civil rights campaigners who called out those that supported the apartheid regime in South Africa, and sought to end the discriminatory Jim Crow laws in the USA,

were all labelled (pejoratively) as progressives and radicals.

“Those radicals were on the right side of history. The answer in these cases was to pass laws that affected one group in society (positive discrimination) in order to achieve substantive equality – despite strenuous opposition.”

Sotto voce said:

“Brilliant, Mr Galbally Sir. I’m so pleased to learn that common sense has not died out completely.”

Andrew said:

“I’m with you Francis. It is an absurd idea that we should rename everything that upsets the politically correct members of society. You can’t change history. All we can do is work towards a better future.”

JohnT disagreed:

“No one is ‘changing history’ – all that is being done is telling the rest of the history! Working towards a better future requires acknowledging the past – all of the past!”

Hir said:

“An interesting piece, highlighting good people possibly trying too hard to be nice, inclusive and unbiased. I would contradict his final passage which seems to suggest that once you have recognised the actual minorities, our individuality makes each of us a minority but together by some alchemy we are at the same time together the majority. And he goes on to claim that, that is the group favoured by democracy. Slightly garbled I think. Democracy is a form of government that seeks to facilitate the IDEAS and wishes, visions, and goals which the majority of the people support. A rather different position.

“Personally I love to hear the voices and ideas of contrarians, the eccentrics and the dreamers, they are the raising agents that make the stodgy pudding light and move lumpen ideas into inspiring visions, we must treasure their diversity in our midst.”

Chris concluded:

“Wokeness is a sickness that inhabits the brains of certain ideological driven humans. Symptoms include:

Complete lack of common sense.

Loss of sense of humour.

Seeing all things through a racial prism.

Being in a constant state of offense.

Having no appreciation of the good in life and people.

The sickness ultimately leads to an unhappy, unfulfilled person .

If the illness spreads broadly through the population it will cause unrest leading to the destruction of that community. It is an illness to be taken seriously.”

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Singular sensation: I’ll be what I am .... a solitary man

Matt Fynes-Clinton’s magazine piece, “Confessions of a solitary man” left readers moved, dazed and confused. Wolfgang was wowed:

“A sumptuous and touching read, thank you. I suspect there are many such ‘cave-dwellers’ out there, and many of us who are just a circumstance away from joining them. I did find it interesting that the only reference to ‘friends’ is in relation to hitting pubs and clubs as a ‘haphazard 20-something alongside mates with whom I had long since lost touch’. Instead it was all about work and family – and some significant travel encounters.

“Having once separated myself, and also experienced a life-changing midlife journey which yielded many of those now my closest and most ‘aligned’ friends, the lack of those connections stood out in the story. Perhaps it’s just not a part of the story the author wishes to dwell on in this extract.

“I’m not suggesting for a moment that friends – or anyone else – can or should be a way to avoid internal reflection, but they can be an incredibly valuable source of connection, wisdom, warmth, and even gentle challenge. I’ve sat with many men who put all their eggs in the family basket and are left adrift if that basket is no longer around them, for whatever reason. I suspect older men in particular find making friends a challenge, for all sorts of psychological reasons as well as practical ones. Gentlemen, it’s worth pushing through.”

Brooke said:

“I think we’re all alone, Matt. Perhaps we just tell ourselves otherwise. It’s really beautiful to read your musings here. I think you’ve put to pen what many of us think and wonder, even in the midst of relationships and family and the business of work and life. Thank you for such beautiful, laid-bare writing.”

Ross was reassured:

“After 28 years of marriage, I don’t regret a moment. I would hate to be alone, even moreso to have to go through the rigmarole of finding someone else!”

Nic’s pick:

“After 20 years of marriage I opted out. After 20 years of single life I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

GamerDadDeeks said:

“How sad. Beautifully written – but achingly sad.”

Sympathy from Felicette:

“I am amazed at the polar opposite interpretations of this piece in the comments. It reads, IMHO, as though the author has lost all hope and does not find meaning in life anymore. My favorite part was how he had to endure a conversation about whether he works standing or sitting mostly. He had my sympathy there! But my heart aches when I see such despair and loss of meaning like this. I hope he finds who or what he is looking for.”

Likes from Mike:

“Best article I’ve read this weekend. It doesn’t matter if you agree or disagree. It certainly gets you thinking. Isn’t that what authorship is about?”

Brett was moved:

“Beautiful, beautiful writing. I called my wife to read it as soon as I’d finished. It makes my day when I come across writing that is art. Thank you, Matt Fynes-Clinton, for sharing your writing – your gift – and something of yourself and your journey – with us.”

Gravel Rash was a realist:

“Most have experienced loneliness at some point, and may or may not again, it is simply just one of a long list of undesirable situations like poverty or ill health that can and does descend on our lives. Think we have all been in the position where everything is going along perfectly, we then wonder how long it can last, life is a roller coaster. Nothing is certain bar change.”

Forne was fine:

“I live alone. I am never lonely; in fact sometimes I just decline invitations to enjoy a bit of my own company. I am loved by friends and family and love them in return but I don’t need to share all of my life with them.”

Annie agreed:

“Life is what you make it. At 61, never married, no kids, My life is full of challenges (both self generated and some not!), and I have a small circle of close friends (male, female & couples) socialising most weekends. But the best part of every day is returning to my sanctuary to be by myself and enjoy the quiet and serenity to reflect and pause and say ‘I love my life just as it is’. It’s just not in my DNA to co-habitat!”

TJ said:

“Solitude, but looking out. Loved the description of mundane daily things happening & the accompanying minor stream of consciousness to distinguish solitude from bitterness, depression or grief – all being clearly inward-turning & so dangerously disconnecting. Great work written with feeling. Will read the book.”

Last word from none other than Trent Dalton:

”A bone-rattling, soul-shaking piece of profound beauty and honesty from one of the most genuine and beautiful humans I’ve ever had the honour of calling a friend. Thanks Matt.”

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