Would you like to teach in Downunder?

Apparently they are now actively looking for teachers to come and work in Downunder. 

I am not surprised - but I am disturbed. 

When the Senior Cat trained as a teacher he went to teacher training college for two years. At the end of that time, having passed the necessary exams, he was given a "certificate" and sent off to a single teacher school in a very remote part of the state. (You were "bonded" to the Education Department and they could send you anywhere they pleased.) The Senior Cat "boarded" at "the pub" - the only accommodation available. As a teetotal and very naive-about-outback-life city boy it was a steep learning curve.

Twelve months later they moved him on to another remote (but not quite so remote) school. There he lived with a farming family. His bedroom and working space was a lean-to wooden room with a hessian "curtain" down the middle. He shared it with a very old man who had some disgusting habits. Again, it was a single teacher school. 

My mother began her teaching career in much the same way although for her it was at least a two teacher school and the nearest "town" of some size was only four miles away. She shared a bedroom with one of the girls she was teaching in the small forestry settlement.

Later my parents were sent to a two teacher school in another very remote part of the state. We went with them. There was no electricity and no running water when we arrived. The school had almost nothing in the way of resources. It was a lonely, difficult posting for them - and we children were not much happier. Teachers were seen as also being preachers, marriage guidance counsellors, financial advisors and much more. They were not seen as part of the community even when they were expected to join in the activities of it.

There were any number of other teachers who had similar postings. The young women would often make the mistake of marrying a local farming lad. Yes, they may have been fond of one another but it was a marriage made out of loneliness more often than love.

There are still some very remote schools in the state, particularly those for indigenous students, but they tend to have more teachers and they have many more resources now. Still, "country service" is still not always popular.  

And teaching has become more difficult. It was never easy but now the role of teachers has changed. They are expected to do far more than teach. Good teachers will work sixty or seventy hours a week. When I was teaching and working in school libraries I got away with a working week of around fifty hours. The pay was not good but it was enough to live on and, if you liked the work, it was good because you had permanent employment. 

That is no longer the case. Teachers are on contract, often for no more than twelve months at a time. You need to be constantly concerned about your future employment prospects. You need to be willing to go anywhere in the state at a moment's notice. (In reality there is likely to be some notification but you still need to be prepared to move if you want to be employed.) The hours are long and the pay is not good.

Above all teachers are taking on all sorts of responsibilities for the social and emotional welfare and awareness of the children they teach. They are expected to adhere to politically correct guidelines about climate change, global warming, race relations, religious observances (or the lack thereof), gender issues and much more. Most of these were ideas nobody had given much - if any - thought to when my parents began teaching. For them it was looking after the surrounding environment and being respectful of each other. My generation was perhaps more environmentally aware but we were not concerned with race relations or gender equality or differences - you just jolly well respected everyone else no matter who they were, how they behaved, or what they believed.

There is probably still some fun to be had in the classroom. Don't let me put you off. However if anyone offers me a return to the classroom I won't be taking it up. The responsibility is simply too great.