In Friday 1/11/12 edition of the Sydney Morning Herald, there was an article entitled 'More students disengaged since rise in leaving age' by Anna Patty.
My reaction to this article was a mixture of sadness and bemusement. As an ex-high school teacher in NSW and having visited high schools overseas, the impact of the state government's decision in 2010 was predictable and predicted. The reasons centre on the chronic lack of resources focussed on the diversity of students - their needs, expectations and aspirations - and a bureacracy divorced from the day-to-day experience of school life. Also, teachers are increasingly burdened with a workload that is unrealistic for established but narrowly-defined outcomes.
My sadness at this article stems from what this situation of disengagement means for the youth who have had a negative experience of school - a supposedly learning environment where knowledge and skills are developed as the students' perceptions, attitudes and values are brought into relief and negiotated, abused and/or established in an environment where care and nurturing are difficult to establish, let alone a semblance of the same.
These are just some thoughts. Maybe I'll develop them and others later. But I would love to hear of your reactions on this article.
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