As a troubled teenager, Trent Dalton was saved by his high school English teacher

‘She took no bullshit – but if she saw some sort of light in you she just helped you turn it up.’ Acclaimed author and journalist Trent Dalton gives a shout-out to his high school teachers.

Trent Dalton was named a Fellow of the University of Southern Queensland on Thursday. Picture: Michael Nolan

Trent Dalton confesses he was quite a handful for his high school teachers in Brisbane’s down-and-out neighbourhood of Bracken Ridge in the 1990s.

“I used to just stare out the window all the time, and when I wasn’t doing that I was just being a smartarse,’’ Dalton said on Thursday. “I just didn’t care about a lot of stuff. I was listening to Kurt Cobain, very nihilistic. Everything was just wild in the ’90s.’’

Three decades down the track, the acclaimed journalist and author has been celebrated as an honorary fellow of his alma mater, the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba.

The Australian’s Walkley award-winning journalist, and author of best-selling novel Boy Swallows Universe, gave a shout-out on Thursday to the inspirational high school teachers who gave him the gift of education and the power of inspiration.

If not for those teachers who, in his words, “gave a shit’’, the teenage Dalton might never have finished high school, let alone graduate from university with a degree in media studies.

“It baffles me why our Australian teachers are not the most protected, highly paid workers in the country, because they have the lives of our most cherished people in their hands – our kids,’’ he told The Australian. “The pressure we place on them is staggering.’’

As for education, he says “I’ve seen the power of it – I’ve lived it’’.

Failures in schooling, he says, are “all linked to our youth crime issues, it’s all linked to our addiction issues”.

Dalton hugs his former English teacher Shirley Adams, 90, during a visit to his old Bracken Ridge State High School. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Dalton’s English teacher, Shirley Adams, is 90 years old, but made the effort to watch his play, Love Stories, through tears of pride earlier this month.

Dalton’s teenage years were a “crazy time”, he recalls: his mother had spent two years in jail for a drug conviction, and he shared a housing commission house with three brothers and their alcoholic, bookworm father “who had his own demons’’.

His year 12 English teacher, Brian Jentz, still teaches at Bracken Ridge State High School.

“We had every social issue swirling through that school every single day – I’m talking hard stuff,’’ Dalton said. “And every day those teachers turned up to inspire us. By the time we all got to year 12, we were changed. I’m a product of all these people who gave a shit.

“I was really helped by the true spirit of community – ‘just help this idiot, let’s help this 15-year-old kid and see what he can do’.’’

Dalton still remembers the day Miss Adams took him aside in year 10 and told him: “I get why you hate the world, but I’ve read your essays – if you can just stop being a smartarse for a bit, you could actually do something great one day.”

“She came in at a really critical time when I was peak arsehole,’’ he said. “But she cared about each and every one of (her students), and she was tough and hard.

“She took no bullshit, but if she saw some sort of light in you she just helped you turn it up.

“She was, ‘You’re not the first kid to go through some tough stuff at home but that doesn’t mean you don’t commit to finishing your work … don’t let the hand you’ve been dealt be your excuse for being a knucklehead’.’’

Dalton scraped into university with a low entry score. He borrowed money from his brother for textbooks and slept on a friend’s floor, but did not let the difficulties dent his enthusiasm for a career in journalism.

A two-time Walkley-winning journalist, he is also a celebrated author and playwright, and executive producer of the Netflix blockbuster adaptation of his Boy Swallows Universe novel.

Dalton loved his time at UniSQ, when he felt “so lost but so hopeful and so optimistic’’.

“You know that feeling when you’re 18 and suddenly you’re free,’’ he said.

“I say to a lot of young people, you’ve got to just hold on and get to 18, when you’re writing your own story and the adults around you aren’t writing that story for you.’’

Dalton wants to see more kids from disadvantaged backgrounds aspire to go to university.

“There are so many out there finishing year 12 right now who are thinking, ‘These worlds aren’t for me’,’’ he said.

“But the invisible wall doesn’t exist – we put that up ourselves, but it’s not real.

“You can let the hand you’ve been dealt be your fuel for the fire.’’