I was a high school History/English teacher for 23 years. Two years ago I retired for two reasons: firstly, I could no longer work in a system that I hated, indoctrinating rather than educating and watching the results of that indoctrination, and, secondly, my refusal to get covid vaccinated. I was not permitted back on school grounds unless I could prove I was covid "vaccinated." Not getting that poison gave me the reason to retire. In my first year of teaching, I had delivered the information and the worksheets and instructed the students to do the required work. A kid (year 7) came up and said I had to help him because he couldn't read. I told him to sit down and do the work because I couldn't believe that a kid could leave primary school without the necessary skills. Two more boys came up to the desk and told me the same thing. A kid sitting in the front desk told me that it was true, they couldn't read. I was stunned, shocked. How was this possible. I didn't go to Uni until I was in my 40s, so I remembered how we learnt when I was at school. I remembered learning spelling rules by rote, time tables by rote. We learned the basic necessary skills to enable us to be competent readers, writers with comprehension of the texts. Aside from the necessity of learning these basic skills, I believe that the education system has a major flaw. That major flaw is automatic promotion. Students must earn the right to progress. There should be 3 criteria for promotion to the next grade: (1) Be able to do all the work at the grade level, without dumbing it down, (2) Do all the work required - every assessment task, all required classwork and, (3) Act like a civilised human being not an arsehole, otherwise a student should be deemed not mature enough to be promoted). I also do not believe in integration. Kids with either mental health issues such as autism or anxiety or behavioural issues such as ADD should be in special schools.
Actually, I believe that in the first 4 years of primary school, grades should be scrapped to be replaced with competency levels and only literacy and numeracy should be taught. No History, Science, Geography etc. Nothing but literacy and numeracy. When a student has achieved the competency level, then they are promoted to the next competency level. Not, "Oh, you have tried hard, up you go." A student stays in the level until they achieve the necessary competency. When they get to years 5 and 6, then other subjects can be introduced in preparation for high school. By then, they will actually have the literacy and numeracy skills to understand History, Science, Geography etc. It is too late when they come to high school without the skills they need. In my last year of teaching, my Year 10 class (nice kids because they split the bottom classes into two classes - slow but wanted to learn and the other class was full of the arseholes who didn't care. My class of Year 10 students had an average reading age of between 8 and 10 years old. That should never happen.
As for the indoctrination, I just got tired of all the PC History and Geography (I had to teach Geography, a topic I was totally untrained in, instead of English). I just couldn't do it anymore. I was so hard being a very, very conservative teacher in a staff room full of full-on lefties. I used to go to my classroom to eat lunch by myself because I couldn't listen to them and their continual left-wing chattering. I would go and work on worksheets, eat my lunch and be away from them. I lived every day worried that my brain and my tongue would not be in sync, and I would say what I really thought, to teachers and students, and if I did that, then I would never have been allowed to set foot in a class room again. When I wrote reports, I told the truth (or rather, as close to the truth as I though I could get away with) and the Year Advisor would ring my Head Teacher to order me to change the reports because they "were too harsh"!
The Asian countries are smart enough to give their future population a good education. What a pity Australia isn't.
My first school was an inner-urban state high school in a wealthy area of Brisbane. My HOD was the union rep. I was obliged to hold signs beside a main road for Kevin 07, and I was told there was one science teacher who wasn't in the union. He didn't have any friends. I went to a private school after a year thankfully.
Do you know about this site, Mr. Hilton? As an Historian, you may be interested in taking a look at it, if you are not familiar with it. It is an English site, but there is an Australian academic who contributes to it. She writes about the Australian History curriculum.
So well put! Thank you. Your clarity may wake some of the woke who may be lucky enough to read this.
Thanks!
I was a high school History/English teacher for 23 years. Two years ago I retired for two reasons: firstly, I could no longer work in a system that I hated, indoctrinating rather than educating and watching the results of that indoctrination, and, secondly, my refusal to get covid vaccinated. I was not permitted back on school grounds unless I could prove I was covid "vaccinated." Not getting that poison gave me the reason to retire. In my first year of teaching, I had delivered the information and the worksheets and instructed the students to do the required work. A kid (year 7) came up and said I had to help him because he couldn't read. I told him to sit down and do the work because I couldn't believe that a kid could leave primary school without the necessary skills. Two more boys came up to the desk and told me the same thing. A kid sitting in the front desk told me that it was true, they couldn't read. I was stunned, shocked. How was this possible. I didn't go to Uni until I was in my 40s, so I remembered how we learnt when I was at school. I remembered learning spelling rules by rote, time tables by rote. We learned the basic necessary skills to enable us to be competent readers, writers with comprehension of the texts. Aside from the necessity of learning these basic skills, I believe that the education system has a major flaw. That major flaw is automatic promotion. Students must earn the right to progress. There should be 3 criteria for promotion to the next grade: (1) Be able to do all the work at the grade level, without dumbing it down, (2) Do all the work required - every assessment task, all required classwork and, (3) Act like a civilised human being not an arsehole, otherwise a student should be deemed not mature enough to be promoted). I also do not believe in integration. Kids with either mental health issues such as autism or anxiety or behavioural issues such as ADD should be in special schools.
Actually, I believe that in the first 4 years of primary school, grades should be scrapped to be replaced with competency levels and only literacy and numeracy should be taught. No History, Science, Geography etc. Nothing but literacy and numeracy. When a student has achieved the competency level, then they are promoted to the next competency level. Not, "Oh, you have tried hard, up you go." A student stays in the level until they achieve the necessary competency. When they get to years 5 and 6, then other subjects can be introduced in preparation for high school. By then, they will actually have the literacy and numeracy skills to understand History, Science, Geography etc. It is too late when they come to high school without the skills they need. In my last year of teaching, my Year 10 class (nice kids because they split the bottom classes into two classes - slow but wanted to learn and the other class was full of the arseholes who didn't care. My class of Year 10 students had an average reading age of between 8 and 10 years old. That should never happen.
As for the indoctrination, I just got tired of all the PC History and Geography (I had to teach Geography, a topic I was totally untrained in, instead of English). I just couldn't do it anymore. I was so hard being a very, very conservative teacher in a staff room full of full-on lefties. I used to go to my classroom to eat lunch by myself because I couldn't listen to them and their continual left-wing chattering. I would go and work on worksheets, eat my lunch and be away from them. I lived every day worried that my brain and my tongue would not be in sync, and I would say what I really thought, to teachers and students, and if I did that, then I would never have been allowed to set foot in a class room again. When I wrote reports, I told the truth (or rather, as close to the truth as I though I could get away with) and the Year Advisor would ring my Head Teacher to order me to change the reports because they "were too harsh"!
The Asian countries are smart enough to give their future population a good education. What a pity Australia isn't.
My first school was an inner-urban state high school in a wealthy area of Brisbane. My HOD was the union rep. I was obliged to hold signs beside a main road for Kevin 07, and I was told there was one science teacher who wasn't in the union. He didn't have any friends. I went to a private school after a year thankfully.
Do you know about this site, Mr. Hilton? As an Historian, you may be interested in taking a look at it, if you are not familiar with it. It is an English site, but there is an Australian academic who contributes to it. She writes about the Australian History curriculum.
https://historyreclaimed.co.uk/