A slightly off topic post today.
Post Gonski report I've seen a lot written about the "educational divide" in Australia. Almost all of these articles, I think, falsely put this divide between public schools and private schools. There is a divide but it is not here.
From 2003-2009 one of the roles I had in my job was to give seminars in high schools. The topic (drugs and alcohol) was pretty universal so it meant I got to visit and interact with students and teachers from the most elite private schools through to students in the most notorious public schools.
At the time I had very young children so I was often thinking would I send my child to this school? Having been educated in a public school I always thought that this is exactly what I would do with my own children. That was until I came across the education divide.
There is an education divide and it is not across the private and public divide but purely across the socio-economic divide. Really there are three tiers. Tier 1: Elite private schools: these are the ones with high fees, each kid has to bring their own laptop and the year 11 excursion will be somewhere in. Tier 2: Public schools in affluent areas and low fee private schools. Tier 3: Public schools in poorer areas.
In my job it got to the point where I was pretty confident I could be helicoptered in and could tell which tier a school fell into. I've seen 2nd tier public schools with architecturally designed facades, landscaped gardens, excellent IT resources and even a gym (one good enough to charge the public to use). Above all these schools (public and private) had experienced teachers and students who have grown up in a family where education was valued, it was seen as highly important that students do well and students were asked to think about what university course they will do.
On the other hand I've seen schools in the third tier where there was a 10cm floor to ceiling gap a the staff room. A staff room where the broken fridge was used as a cupboard and the microwave was used to boil water because the kettle was broken too. I've been told not to use words on a power point presentation for year 11 students because "they don't read" (yes that is a quote). The teachers were a mixture of new teachers (you can't just get a job at a school in an affluent area), not particularly good burnt out older teachers, and experienced older teachers who choose to stay at a school in a poorer area. These teachers often have low expectations for their students trying earnestly to funnel them in to a trade. They are often exasperated, teaching students who come from families who do not feel that they benefited much from their own education and don't believe their children will benefit much from theirs.
This divide becomes even more pronounced with proliferation of low fee private schools. Many parents like me have chosen to put our kids in to a lower fee private school (a school chosen in part because it achieved similar Naplan results to the public primary school I went to as a child). This means that where there might have been 15 kids in a class who's parents have high expectations on what their child might achieve at school, there might be only 5. I believe this profoundly shifts the culture of a school. The greater the percentage of students who don't have a strong motivation to learn from home teachers either lower expectations or burn themselves out trying to motivate a whole class to do better. These burnt out teachers will eventually move to a school where this motivation is instilled in a higher majority of students - that is, usually a school in a more affluent area. As these things happen the reputation of a school falls and parents avoid sending their kids to the school. It's a spiralling ever widening divide.
Personally I am currently looking at moving out of the area I live in. Schooling is a big factor in the decision and when buying a new house I'll be adding the cost of two private school educations on top of the cost of any house outside the boundary a 2nd tier public school.
Post Gonski report I've seen a lot written about the "educational divide" in Australia. Almost all of these articles, I think, falsely put this divide between public schools and private schools. There is a divide but it is not here.
From 2003-2009 one of the roles I had in my job was to give seminars in high schools. The topic (drugs and alcohol) was pretty universal so it meant I got to visit and interact with students and teachers from the most elite private schools through to students in the most notorious public schools.
At the time I had very young children so I was often thinking would I send my child to this school? Having been educated in a public school I always thought that this is exactly what I would do with my own children. That was until I came across the education divide.
There is an education divide and it is not across the private and public divide but purely across the socio-economic divide. Really there are three tiers. Tier 1: Elite private schools: these are the ones with high fees, each kid has to bring their own laptop and the year 11 excursion will be somewhere in. Tier 2: Public schools in affluent areas and low fee private schools. Tier 3: Public schools in poorer areas.
In my job it got to the point where I was pretty confident I could be helicoptered in and could tell which tier a school fell into. I've seen 2nd tier public schools with architecturally designed facades, landscaped gardens, excellent IT resources and even a gym (one good enough to charge the public to use). Above all these schools (public and private) had experienced teachers and students who have grown up in a family where education was valued, it was seen as highly important that students do well and students were asked to think about what university course they will do.
On the other hand I've seen schools in the third tier where there was a 10cm floor to ceiling gap a the staff room. A staff room where the broken fridge was used as a cupboard and the microwave was used to boil water because the kettle was broken too. I've been told not to use words on a power point presentation for year 11 students because "they don't read" (yes that is a quote). The teachers were a mixture of new teachers (you can't just get a job at a school in an affluent area), not particularly good burnt out older teachers, and experienced older teachers who choose to stay at a school in a poorer area. These teachers often have low expectations for their students trying earnestly to funnel them in to a trade. They are often exasperated, teaching students who come from families who do not feel that they benefited much from their own education and don't believe their children will benefit much from theirs.
This divide becomes even more pronounced with proliferation of low fee private schools. Many parents like me have chosen to put our kids in to a lower fee private school (a school chosen in part because it achieved similar Naplan results to the public primary school I went to as a child). This means that where there might have been 15 kids in a class who's parents have high expectations on what their child might achieve at school, there might be only 5. I believe this profoundly shifts the culture of a school. The greater the percentage of students who don't have a strong motivation to learn from home teachers either lower expectations or burn themselves out trying to motivate a whole class to do better. These burnt out teachers will eventually move to a school where this motivation is instilled in a higher majority of students - that is, usually a school in a more affluent area. As these things happen the reputation of a school falls and parents avoid sending their kids to the school. It's a spiralling ever widening divide.
Personally I am currently looking at moving out of the area I live in. Schooling is a big factor in the decision and when buying a new house I'll be adding the cost of two private school educations on top of the cost of any house outside the boundary a 2nd tier public school.
2 comments:
Hi Chris,
I found myself initially quite surprised that you're giving this topic so much attention. Then I realised that you are living in the reality of the prospect of that third tier, and school takes up a sizeable chunk of yours and your kids' time, so it's a very real and present issue.
My daughter & unborn child are young enough that school is in the distant future, and we've stumbled into in an affluent area so this will probably remain a merely academic issue for me.
I am (currently) sure, though, that if my daughter wants to avoid NAPLAN stress, TEE stress, or university all together, then she will have my support. Of course that still puts me in a different position to a parent of a kid at a school with mostly burnt out or brand new teachers.
Peace,
Greg.
Indeed Greg, to all your points. If my animal loving daughter wants to leave school and be a tour guide at a farm I'm more than happy for her to do that but I want to make sure that being a vet can be an option too.
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