Secondary Thinking about becoming a teacher

[mcgrath_truther]

Any comments, teachers?

SCHOOLS ‘BREACH HUMAN RIGHTS BY KICKING OUT KIDS’

SCHOOLS ‘BREACH HUMAN RIGHTS BY KICKING OUT KIDS’

todayspaper.theaustralian.com.au

difficult for everyone involved.

i currently teach a kid with some pretty severe mental health issues, behavior issues, learning issues et, been suspended 4 times this term for being an idiot, threatening other teachers and what not, and while he's never threatened me personally it's clear that he's not safe for others within the school and broader community, his parent have no clue what to do, he's in trouble every other week for doing stupid s**t to other kids, but what do you do? should he be excluded because of the broad range of issues that he has?

i think that's what everyone needs to ask when a student is at risk of being excluded

 

[mcgrath_truther]

So much time and resources is spent on so few that have such little chance of making any form of positive contribution to society ever. To the absolute detriment of everyone else who does. There comes a point when a line has to be drawn where it’s in society’s best interests to not have them in the public school system. It’s better to not have them at school at all. That’s the brutal truth. Sure, for them this is the worst outcome, but you have to look at it holistically from a wider perspective of an entire school community. Responsibility has to be put on the people that made the decision to bring them into the world in the first place, which is their parents.

It’s incredible what a difference to the overall learning environment one severely disruptive student (or the absence of one particular disruptive student) can have. You can feel the sense of relief.

broadly speaking i agree with this sentiment but anecdotally it sets those problem students up for a future which is exceptionally bleak. i was talking to my mom (also a teacher who’s taught at a range of schools from top private schools to some of the worst in rural victoria) about the kids/teenagers who went on a crime spree in melbourne earlier this week and she basically said that excluding them from the system will continue that cycle of neglect & crime for them. something that’s been shared with me by another member of staff is that those problem students will invariably be pushed to do VCAL/VM as it keeps them out of the classrooms

i currently teach at a fairly low socio-economic school in melbourne’s south east & there’s been more than one or two times in term one that students were taken out of my class by admin to discuss “something” (and i did see the cop car out the front of the school at one of those times). how am i supposed to react to it? everything is on a need to know basis & i’m not important enough to be told when a new student joins my class, let alone something that serious.

it’s an admin nightmare and there’s no easy fix because welfare groups will invariably argue that young people (rightfully) have a right to learn

 

[Dogs_R_Us]

It’s certainly a terrible dilemma and symptomatic of wider problems in society: alcohol, drugs, poverty, homelessness, welfare dependency, DV. These problem kids, or most of them, would have one or more of these in their background. Excluding them is not a solution, but neither is prioritising their “rights” over the rights of the ones doing the right thing.

One other factor that I’ve banged on about a few times here and that is the influence of the internet and the pervasive presence of mobile phones. Lo and behold, this article appeared in the weekend paper.

BIG TECH AND THE SHOCK TO CHILDHOOD

https://todayspaper.theaustralian.com.au/infinity/article_popover_share.aspx?guid=c0e7b8f1-61ed-405c-9adf-95e2d8f61ed2&share=true