official optimistic bullshit

I wrote these words when teaching "in the north" (disadvantaged region of Adelaide) in the year 2000:

It is hard to find the right words for this but within Disadvantaged schools there is a growing lumpen sub culture. This is not a healthy rebellious working class culture. It's more of a lost generation, a despairing, almost feral subculture of Disadvantage without roots or traditions. Although this is a minority subculture it is growing in size and strength. Its presence in our classrooms is becoming more significant, challenging and intrusive.
- Optimism and Reality in Disadvantaged Schools

Read the whole thing.

I have spent most of my teaching career in Disadvantaged Schools.

Five years ago I made the switch to "senior school" partly because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life teaching year 8s and also because I felt I was becoming deskilled in computing, a rapidly changing field, which I love.

I've been lucky. Most of my classes have been great. But for the last 2-3 years I have worked part time to reduce stress and to keep up with computing knowledge. To tell you the truth I've been too busy learning new software packages to have much time left over for researching either educational, social or political theory although I still try to keep up in those areas as best I can.

However, some recent experiences make me realise that every word I wrote back in 2000 is still true. The ferals are still feral. And the bullshit hasn't stopped.

Our Government reaction: Put up the school leaving age. What self serving, passing the buck crap.

Tags:

• classwar