Teacher

A friend gave me this wonderful book. It's been sitting patiently on my couch for weeks waiting to be picked up. Finally, I had an hour to myself on a plane and got sucked in straight away. Chapter One is an hilarious recount of any afternoon in most teachers' classrooms - until the end when the reader realises the distress of the author's commitment made to children's needs and their education.

This powerful memoir explores the heart of what it means to be a teacher of primary aged children. It's clear on what makes a great teacher and what our children need from their teachers. The author, Gabbie Stroud, clearly has a gift for teaching and she narrates painfully how the system finally broke her. It's brilliant writing but heart breaking to read. I felt sad when she described her Principals and their expectations of her and her colleagues. I would like to think I work hard to protect my teachers as much as possible from system expectations by framing how we teach individual children according to their needs and talents as learning for tall of us in the school. But it's hard when the pressures from above demand success in the system priorities of NAPLAN and regional targets on reporting scales press down on our already overwhelmed shoulders.

Teacher is a work of national importance. It needs to be read by every educator but more so by those who make the demands on how we meet the needs of the little people in front of us every day.

Our system can do better.