I think teachers are taken far too seriously, particularly by themselves.

Up to junior high school the best teacher would be a recent good year 12 graduate, with a 6 month methods of instruction course, chucked in to do the work. The best teachers I had were the least academic, but young & enthusiastic, the worst were the boffins.

When I was 14 I joined the school cadets. At the end of the year I, with 2 others, was sent to a 7 day CUO [cadet under officer] school. A CUO was the school boy officer, in charge of a platoon of 30 cadets. This CUO school for NSW cadets only, had 450 students.

Perhaps because I was more interested I passed out in the top 20, with my schools other 2 in the 3 & 400s. The course had included about 10 hours of army methods of instruction training.

Because of this I was made up to under officer at 15, where as I was probably meant to be a sargent, for a year. As such I taught a platoon of 30, 2 hours of drill & weapons training every Thursday. Not only this, but as one of 3 CUOs I was in charge of my platoon at our 6 rifle range live firing days, & a 7 day army cadet training camp each year. We were commanded by our really nice, [but frightened of guns] English master, who took the job because no one else would. He kept well back on shooting days.

I was one of about 600 kids doing this in NSW alone. Schools sometimes had trouble getting a teacher to run the cadet core, as many were frightened of the responsibility. They need not have been, in my experience the school boy CUOs looked after their school teacher commanding officers very well.

Perhaps we need more 15 year olds teaching schools.

Hasbeen,

My brother was also in school cadets.

When he was eighteen he told me he wanted to be a mercenary (Foreign Legion, what!)

...but he ended up being a science teacher...strange, eh?

Sorry Pericles, I didn't mean to imply that you were singling out the Finnish system. It was more of an addendum to what I had already said - a general observation.

As I said, I like the fact that the Finnish system - as well as some others in the region - requires a Masters degree of its teachers. If the author of the article wants teachers held in the same regard here as in Finland, he should be advocating a similar requirement in this country. I agree wholeheartedly that teachers don't deserve respect just because they are teachers and hold a 4-year undergraduate degree (or a 3-year degree and a 1-year grad dip). I was merely pointing out that a Masters degree, with five years' training as opposed to our four, may not be as rigorous as it sounds. I'd like to think I'm wrong, but I studied with - and keep occasional contact with - a few teachers from up there with qualifications almost identical to my own.

Hasbeen,

I couldn't agree more. Some - hell, many - teachers take themselves way too seriously (though I'd like to think I don't).

Hi Poirot I've never been able to understand people who want to go & fight, except to protect their own, glad he found a better course.

I became a navy fighter pilot, but only because I wanted to do a bit of flying, & I reckoned it would be cool to travel around on a nice big boat. I shore had no idea.

Hi Otokonoko, I hope so, I think it's only the good teacher, who can share with the kids, who get to enjoy the job.

My senior class had only 14 kids, most left at 15 back then, so we were expected to, & just naturally accepted, more responsibility than most today. That gave us a good relationship with our teachers.

It was a different world. You only got into uni with a scholarship, & we all needed top results to get the scholarship we wanted. 5 of us were doing science honors, & math 1 & 2 honors, with that instruction mostly in lunch hours, & after school. Add to that the fact the same boys were much of the senior football, & cricket teams, coached by those same teachers, after school, you can see that a lot of kids & teachers were in school for longer hours than today.

We not only respected most of our teachers, we liked & valued them, so I think the job may have been easier, despite the longer hours they put in. The math master was a bomber Pathfinder pilot in 1943 & 44, & if we could get him into talking about those days, not all that hard actually, it would be dark before we got home.

It's a pity school was not as good for my kids.