Once upon a time in Education

Listening was an important attribute instilled as an attribute enhancing comprehension and understanding.

Handwriting was taught and legibility encouraged.

Children learned about words through phonetic study.

Oral reading to the teacher and within groups lead to fluency when sharing text. Discussion within groups and shared conversation built understanding about meaning of the written word.

Children learned tables and mathematical formulae. They developed the ability to carry out mental computation and were dexterous without the need for calculator assistance.

Grammar was studied. Rules relating to the English language and usage were studied and understood.

Spelling was an essential subject. Words and their usage was an important part of study.

My oh my, how things have changed.

Your editorial “put arrogant offenders to work in the businesses they damage” (26/8) reignited memories of the seriousness of youth crime – not this week or last but back in the very late 1980’s. The consequences of criminal behaviour impacting on Darwin residents and business owners was so severe, that a community forum on the subject was organised. This forum took place over two days and was held at the Uniting Church in Casuarina. The gathering, on both days was well attended; pros and cons including supposition about the reasons for criminal behaviour and what might be done to understand the behaviour of perpetrators while better supporting victims, were canvassed at length.

Toward the end of the second day, the gathering resolved that a committee be established to keep a watching brief over criminal behaviour impacting the community, while developing recommendations to put before government on how the matter might be addressed. The group was asked to develop strategies which, if actioned, might help reduce the levels of crime being encountered.

The committee was to meet monthly and report to government on the progress of its deliberations. After several meetings, the group agreed that it’s task was impossible and it was disbanded.

Thirty plus years on, aberrant and criminal behaviour by youth is still an issue, but one that is much sharper, more focussed and seemingly more insoluble than those decades ago.

Janet Albrechtsen’s column (‘Parents must do their job so teachers can do their own’, Inquirer, Weekend Australian 2-3 July) brought back a memory of education being describe metaphorically as a tripod supported by three legs, students, teachers and parents. The strength, value and balance of education is determined by the awareness and support each ‘leg’ offers the other. If, as Albrechtsen writes, parents abdicate the primacy of their roles, education destabilises.

Unfortunately, education systems have been far too prepared to accept an expanded ‘loco parentis’ role, hand-balling additional responsibilities for student development and upbringing to schools and teachers. Teaching responsibilities are being diminished and diffused as teachers “… play the role of social worker, psychologist, mediator, police officer, judge and then find the time to teach …”.

Teachers are being forced into becoming “Jacks of all trades and masters of none.” It is small wonder that Australian education has declined. Unless authorities take note and act on the advice of Albrechtsen and others to reprioritise (and return) to the prime functions of teaching, teachers historically fulfilled, necessary corrections will not happen any time soon. This has to be predicated by parents returning to their parenting roles.

Why is it that with all the discussions happening about youth crime, (a phenomena that’s becoming worse and worse), that parents and primary caregivers are not held in any way to be responsible for the conduct of young people under their management control.

My first acquaintance with the issue of out- of-control crime in Darwin goes back to a forum held on the subject in 1989 (I think) in the Casuarina Uniting Church. At some point in time I will write on the outcome of that two day meeting. Suffice it to say, that a lot of the children offending these days are the children and indeed the grandchildren of those who were creating the problems of criminal behaviour back in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Criminal behaviour by young people is sadly an indelible part and underpinning behaviour in the Northern Territory. It has become entrenched.

Jason Clare seems to have a burning ambition to contribute to the enhancement and development of education’s offerings to Australian students. His enthusiasm is commendable and his acceptance of advice from Tanya Pliberseck (along with her willingness to offer that support) is commendable.

I hope that within the educational domain, Mr Clare is able to discern the wood from the trees. There has been far too much experimentation and allowance of teaching to be subjugated to the whims of researchers whose experimentation turns students into educational guinea pigs.

Good, sound holistic education, as declared essential in the preamble of the Melbourne Declaration on Education in 2008 needs to be revisited. The declaration stated education should take account of the academic, social, emotional and moral/spiritual needs of students. Sadly, that ambition now seems to have become lost in history.

Three Outstanding NT Female Leaders

We are blessed in the NT to have an outstanding numbers of persons, in terms of awareness and leadership, doing great things for our community.

I don’t included politicans or local government representatives in my reflection because they are in a position to create change based upon the polder they have through parliamentary and local government processes.

I am still reflecting upon men , but in terms of women, the three who most stand out to me in terms of their ‘cut through’ and influence, their tenacity, their persistence in pursuing kept issues and their focus on issues rather than personality are:

Number 3:

Amy Hetherington-Tait as an influencer, her dexterity and her capacity to contribute positively in every situation. She is a developer of people and an outstanding entertainer.

Number 2:

Ruth Palmer, CEO of the Darwin Property Council, for her enthusiasm and constant pursuit of outcomes to situation which will uplift and promote our widower community. She is a dynamo who is indefatigable when it comes to role set fulfilment. She is a visionary but also a completer and finisher.

Number 1:

Katie Woolf OAM, the Mix 104.9 360 Radio presenter, whose three hour programs each day, Monday to Friday, focus Territorians on key issues, current trends and developments. She is always issues focussed and asks the questions about our community that need to be put both those in power. She is a fierce believer in the need for accountability to be a hallmark of Territory leaders in all fields of endeavour. She is a ‘without fear or favour’ person, whose contributions refresh and enlighten our territory.

Thank you for the work you do and the contributions you make to this place.

TEACHING TERRITORY STYLE THE STORY OF NORTHERN TERRITORY PUBLIC EDUCATION

AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT

JEANNIE AILENE BENNETT

Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Education

Faculty of Law, Business, Education and Arts Charles Darwin University

March, 2017

This thesis is a study of the public education system of the Northern Territory for the period 1876 to 2010, in part through first-hand accounts of the events and challenges as experienced by educators who taught in the system, especially since 1960. The study substantiates the narratives of the educator’s lives and work against Commonwealth and Territory reviews and reports, including Annual Northern Territory Department of Education Reports and explores available literature, to provide details of the evolving system throughout the last 134 years. The narratives and literature combine and reflect a view of events that shaped the public education system.

The research aims to understand how the unusual characteristics of the NT in terms of geographical, political and demographical events have impacted on the development of the Northern Territory public education system during a one hundred and thirty three year history to 2010. In essence, this research aims to capture a sense of these times in a place that has seen tremendous educational change and growth amidst considerable political, economic and social development. By examination of this extended period, the historical background which informs the development of education in the Northern Territory can be used to illuminate contemporary events.

The research finds that the Northern Territory public education system has been a system that has tried to adapt to changing circumstances, but in fact continues to reinvent itself, with little consideration and acknowledgement for corporate history.

Although the system has developed in terms of infrastructure; little progress has been made to develop a quality system.

Dr Bennett’s outstanding work can be found online abd is well worth perusing. It is a very detailed, very complete and very readable study.

CHILDREN NEED REASSURANCE IN UNCERTAIN TIMES

We are living in an increasingly volatile and unpredictable world. Safety and security are paramount issues and frequently the centre of conversations.

Terrorism is increasingly global and no country or region is guaranteed as safe from its impacts. The Christchurch massacre on March 15 showed that to be the case.

Questions about safety and the uncertainty of security affect both adults and children. For children, one of the most significant impacts has been the requirement that schools develop lock down policies. Policies are periodically drilled for the sake of awareness, so that if schools are under threat they can be safely implemented.

Children of all ages are very aware of what is happening in the world. ‘The good, the bad and the ugly’ elements of life are constantly brought to their attention through media and by listening and contributing to conversations.

Sarah Parry and Jez Oldfield wrote that “While adults often have enough life experience to … take a long term perspective toward such disasters, children can face different challenges.” ( How to talk to children about terrorism, The Conversation, June 5, 2017.) Events such as the Christchurch massacre cause children to “… experience much higher levels of distress than usual. … this can include aches and pains, sleeplessness, nightmares, … (children) becoming very snappy … withdrawn … not wanting to be separated from their parents.” (Op cit)

Shielding children from confronting reality does not work and is an unhelpful strategy. Parry and Oldfield write that “… young people today are exposed to anxiety provoking information like never before. Rather than shielding children from inevitable stressors, we need to focus on arming them with balanced information, compassion, hope and the chance to develop their resilience.” (Op cit)

Rather than hiding the horror of terrorism from children, frank discussion, including answering their questions, is a wiser approach. Parry and Oldfield suggest the following strategies.

* Ask children how they feel about what they have seen or heard. Then address their feelings.

* Remind children that helpers of those distressed are the real heroes. Discuss their bravery, decency and morality.

* Be conscious of the need to “ … enhance children’s confidence, sense of bravery, ability to problem solve and develop their moral compass” through empathetic and understanding parental support.

* Sorting the truth from myth and misinformation that circulates after tragedy, helps children keep things in perspective.

* Be conscious of the need to reassure young people about parental and adult care for their safety. Parry and Oldfield (op cit) offer wise words. “ Being able to reassure young people that they are safe, loved and cared for can make all the difference.”

These considerations are paramount in helping children during uncertain times.

Educational decision makers would do well to reflect on Angela Shanahan’s column “Teaching suffers for a generation of ideological hijack” (The Weekend Australian 13,14/8), for she goes to the nub of the deficit model, education has become. The dismissal of explicit teaching and the diminishment of teachers as leaders within classrooms, has been to the detriment of instruction in key areas. Literacy and numeracy skills, the ability to listen and comprehend, grammatical correctness in in writing, spelling and speaking have all been dismissed.

The concept of teachers as role models has been abandoned. In the place of these things we have open classrooms, an abandonment of desks and tables, students and teachers sitting on the floor for lessons, a focus on talking (everyone together at once) with the hubbub making listening almost impossible. Respect for teachers has diminished, with classroom educators placing more emphasis on being pals with children.

A lack of structure leads to a lack of respect, dismissing classroom order and discipline. Ultimately this leads to teachers becoming frustrated, with disillusion ending in their premature departure from the profession. Sadly, too many school principals and senior staff cannot see that new ideologies lead to the substitution of key learning outcomes with mediocrity and under-educated students. School education needs to be realigned with ordered teaching and learning again becoming a priority.

AGED CARE IS IN A VACUUM

I am in the latter part of chronological involvement through my 70’s and am confronted with the future. Residential care for the aged will never be for me. My preferences would be death before being committed to aged care. There are things, insoluble things, that can never be fixed. Government talks about fix-ups and there have been commissions and inquiries galore – but nothing really changes.

The issues that confront my thinking may not be all that palatable but they are real. I will probably attract criticism for ‘unfashionable’ comment but that is no real worry.

• Too many aged care providers are concerned about profiting from the ‘business’ of aged care. The facilities are centres for making money for owners, be they individuals or company controlled.

• Residents are regarded as ‘cash cows’ who have to shell out big dollars for tenancy rights and premises maintenance. If they die, most of what they have paid, remains with the institution and is both refundable to relatives.

• Food is often both scarce and basic. Food costs are kept to minimal levels.

• Staff are very, very poorly paid. There is little extrinsic job satisfaction.

• Only the most basic of training is offered to staff. Intrinsic staffer satisfaction is of mo concern to owners and managers of these businesses. Many staff are not happy people.

• Many staff, notwithstanding protestation to the contrary, are minimally trained. The majority have different cultural mores and ethnic expectations to residents.

• Very little care is taken to ensure that transmissible diseases are not spread from staff to residents and from resident to resident.

• Residents are not looked after according to specific needs.

• Many staff are challenged by residents who, because of their deterioration, may be abusive, aggressive and verbally/ physically threatening to staff. Not all residents are compliant.

• Notwithstanding the above, there are staff members who engage in bullying behaviour toward residents.

• Residents are often confined and boredom sets in.

Aged care COULD be fixed, but that will not happen while the above circumstances continue to exist.

READY FOR TEACHING BEYOND TRAINING?

Ready?

Ready for the classroom misbehaviour and the management of ill-disciplined children.

Ready?

Ready to teach children as young as five about the meaning of ‘consent’.

Ready?

Ready for the NAPLAN tests which for many are an annual educational abomination.

Ready?

Ready to deal with an increasing number of parents who have no respect for education and educators.

Ready?

Ready to be weighed down by a curriculum to which elements are added and added without anything ever being deleted.

Ready?

Ready for endless exercises in professional development, which often seem to be purposeless and trite – indeed after hours time filling exercises.

Ready?

Ready for hours and hours and hours of educational input where teaching is more about data collection for systemic justification than it is for children.

Ready?

Ready for a career that so many teachers find to be disappointing and fruitless and so disenchanting that up to 70% of those graduating from pre-service into our schools, leave within five years.

Ready?

Never ready for what education is becoming.

With each passing day, I feel more and more that war in our region is just over the horizon. Your editorial today points toward a catastrophic situation happening within the next 18 months. I can sense that within a very short period of time after the conflict starts between China and Taiwan, America will cut in on the side of Taiwan. Maybe just with weapons support, but more probably with air and sea engagement on behalf of Taiwan. Australia will dutifully come in on the side of America, and could well attract retaliation. First it will be by economic embargo and then physical response in the form of missile, rocket and drone retaliation. For Darwin and Cairns, it could be a cause of revisitation to the second world war takeout of these cities of the north, during those months by Japan.

I may be accused of pessimistic imagination, but I think not. It is not hard to imagine our northern cities and towns, thousands of kilometres closer to China than our southern counterparts, being decimated as China pressures the Australian government to demur from even more drastic action by the land of the Panda.

Regardless of pros and cons, there is a certain irony about what is likely to transpire in nearing future: Taiwan, under the ‘One China Policy’ is not recognised by either America or Australia, nor for that matter by very many countries and governments. In the broadest sense, if China takes physical action against Taiwan, under the terms of the policy of recognition, the action would be tantamount to civil war.

Those close to the heart of action within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) refer to Taiwan as the “Treasure Island of our Motherland”. It will not be long before they CCP goes all out for what’s they define as reunification through a process which, more and more likely, will engulf Australia.

We have every reason to be concerned about the unfolding months ahead. As Australians, we will certainly be involved.

I am gobsmacked that some of Australia’s universities, supposedly led by thoughtful intellectuals, would contemplate lowering entry requirements for admission to courses, so critically important in preparing future contributors to major industries. That tertiary institutions would set the bar low “… to take subpar students” (“Weekend Australian 6,7/8) is making a mockery of the standards that should be expected of higher education. Sacrificing quality (course calibre) for quantity (increasing numbers of students admitted to courses) can lead to only one conclusion; that universities are more interested in income from students and government funding, than they are to maintaining reputations based on course standards.

Many students who are admitted to degree study under these conditions, will be drafted into remedial and ‘catch up’ programs, saturating bridging courses. Student drop out rates will skyrocket – but not before exiting students have been responsible for generating dollars into university treasury coffers.

The motivation for attracting students to university courses at degree level must be based on a valid ATAR score. To water down standards flies in the face of common sense. If universities are determined to lower entry level requirements, the Federal Government should take responsibility for enrolment processes by prescribing entry level requirement that cannot be diluted.

Natasha Bita’s story “Radical fix for teacher shortages” expressly and by inference, raises issues deserving earnest consideration. Most point toward issues that have challenged the profession for many years, indeed from the time prospective teachers commence training.

I worked as a part time lecturer, tutor and marker within the Education Faculty at Charles Darwin University from 2010 until 2016. Teachers in training during those years regularly gave me feedback on a number of concerns.

Many felt hampered because student behaviour (which they could not control) distracted them from teaching.

There was concern because subject teaching methods had not been taught during university lectures.

There was a belief that they were often ‘used’ by schools to babysit classes.

Visits by lecturers during practice teaching periods were increasingly infrequent as university staff used student time away from university for their own research and sturdy purposes.

A constant distraction was the need students had to work at jobs order to earn money for food, transport and accomodation.

The burden of accumulating HECS debt confronted many students.

If training is founded on a regime that causes teacher disaffection to grow right from the start of training, it is no wonder school education faces its 2022 quandary. I only hope that our new federal education minister Jason Clare can help right the wrongs that have been accumulating for far too long.

I recently conducted two simultaneous online polls which asked two important questions about literacy and oracy. The first posed the question “Which is the most important literacy function, listening, speaking, reading, or writing?” The second survey asked respondents to consider “Which is the most neglected oracy or literacy skill, listening., speaking, reading or writing?”

Half the respondents (50%) indicated that listening was the most important of these attributes. In terms of neglect (the second survey) 61% responded that listening was the most neglected skill in the literacy repertoire.

Listening is foundational to the emergence of other literacy competencies. Following birth, children acquire an understanding of the world through listening and speaking, followed in time by reading and writing. To overlook the importance of listening lessens the capacity of children (and adults) to think cognitively, reflect upon and comprehend what is happening around them. At home and school, children should be taught to listen so this becomes an ingrained habit.

People who have the onset of dementia, should be able to opt to euthanise at a future point in time when they are no longer cognitively aware of their circumstances and situation. They should be able to write this into their wills while still of sound and understanding mind. There can be nothing more awful than living as an empty person without mental capacity.

I AM HEADING TOWARD 77

My next birthday will mark my 77th year on earth. Physically, I am aware of my limitations but hope my my mental acuity is still intact.

In both physical terms and mental capacity, I want to retain my independence. The thought of being dependent on others, fills me with apprehension. I believe that euthanasia or the allowable extinction of life should be available to me in advance of my ultimate deterioration. I do not want to become a burden on others, a physical wreck or a person of vacuous mentality.

Once as a younger person, I was apprehensive, indeed frightened, about dying. As a aging septuagenarian, that is no longer the case. I have lived a full life and have given to family and community.

My wish is to pass over with my independence intact. Surely that is not a sin.