yeah, Kathy I did see that it was fiction. Still made me cranky though, at those fictional teachers... OK, I know I'm a sucker, but it is how good writing works.
The trouble is, we had a very similar history with difficult child 3. His Communication Book reads like those annual reports, with notes by me every so often pointing out connections that were being ignored. ("Please can we bring in some urgent partial attendance alternatives?") To their credit there were a couple of teachers who did try to be heard, but they quickly got stepped on by both the District people and their colleagues. It got to the point where I couldn't even get a therapist or autism expert that I had hired, to be permitted to observe and report back to the class teacher - the class teacher was preventing it. This is directly in conflict with our rules, but I would have had to go to the Education Minister to get something done, and by then difficult child 3 was spending too much time out of the classroom with his "mystery illness" (which turned out to be extreme anxiety - ever known a kid to throw a fever from anxiety? difficult child 3 does!)
So teachers like those fictional ones who wrote the reports but never did anything - that has been our main experience. I guess that's why I'm so touchy on the subject. And why I wish we could have you over here, Kathy, showing some of our local idiots how teaching SHOULD happen. It's like we have our own mini-mafia here, an isolated pocket of educators whose main aim is to protect mediocrity at all costs, even if it means damaging the children in the process. Yes, it really is that bad. And it's not Aussie teachers in general - I know a lot of really good teachers. But few of them stay in our area, they can't stand it and have to leave. A teacher friend of mine I saw again this evening - she recently quit because she was being bullied by a colleague who was attacking her so he could protect his own laziness. A long story (I won't tell it now) but all too common. She has no recourse - she tried everything she could and resignation is all that's left. The colleague is still there doing damage. Part of that damage involves ignoring urgent intervention requests for problem students.
I just don't know how the system could have evolved to protect louses like this. But it has.
Marg
