Hopefully complete before being let loose on our kids! From my hard won personal experience, too many just see it as a pay packet and little more? Any day of the week one can find classrooms, where the kids are more literate/numerate than the "Teacher" charged with maximising their whole of life opportunities!

And where the Peter principle is most evident? Moreover, self praise and congratulations is no recommendation or reference!

Methinks, you might still be better suited to your (never bored brainless) Solomon Island students? Rather than apportion blame for "less than perfect" results on our kids?

Yesterday I cudent spell yunavercity stoodent now I are one!
There are just three kinds of teachers teaching maths, those who can count and those who can't!
Alan B.

No names, no pack drill. Teaching methods of Prussian like rote efficiency?

Sooo, vie are talking Goondiwindi State High School.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goondiwindi#Geography describes:

"Goondiwindi is on the MacIntyre River in Queensland near the New South Wales border. Most of the area surrounding the town is farmland."

Population 5,629 people in 2011 - so was the author mentioned "4000" a while back. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goondiwindi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goondiwindi#Education Goondiwindi has three schools with just one public high school ie. Goondiwindi State High School - which won the 2006 Showcase award, given to schools which display excellence in all areas. Author didn't mention this significant award so his time at Goondiwindi State High School must have been before 2006.

Here endith the lesson.

Existing as a teacher in isolated communities, is also fraught with difficulties. The politics of the community is not always compatable.
When it's boiled down, everybody is entitled to a private life. Not much of that around the bush, even for the locals.

So stepping on the wrong toes, will have pretty long term ramifications; all-be mostly subtle, and often not so!

Teachers in rural communities were well supported in the past, not sure if that applies anymore. They are often young, entheuistac and vulnerable!
There's another reality!

Thanks for those posts thus far - some thoughtful comments. I hope to respond in a week or so.

WTF?

Having worked in a number of rural QLD school many years ago I understand the issues that the author encountered during his teaching experience in a rural school.

After a number of years I realised that in rural schools and the towns they support were no at all involved in education as much as gaming the system for maximum benefit.

The benefactors of this gaming included the offspring of teachers and the wealthy in the town who had aspirations for tertiary study. The main benefactors, however, were the long established teachers themselves.

These established teachers included a large number of women who had married into farming and business families in the district and teachers who had been transferred in and were comfortable at their level of promotion.

I had already decided to finalise my teaching career when I asked a number of students in a Year 10 Science class what methods their preferred teacher used that resulted in the constant praise from administrators and parents.

Plenty of time in class to chat, opportunities to work on uncompleted homework and working through the exam questions leading up to exam week where all examples giving to me to enhance my reputation as a teacher.

This particular colleague spent 25+ more years at that school after I left.

This only worked if there was a constant churning over of beginning teachers going through the cycle of trying to establish themselves, failing and then moving on.

A quick television scene of a teachers reading to a number of aged 4 year olds. The teacher was reading yet children couldn't see what words were being read. I assume when each page was completed the teacher would turn the book around, showing children the pictures.

Children would be better off watching better imaged television.

Unless children can see each word as each is being sounded out, to allow children opportunities to recognise words... what's the point.

I suggest the reading pointless intention was to turn curious children into mentally exhausted children...children's curiosity before children could learn to read. Too many hours listening to teachers pointless babble turns curios brains into ADHD ODD behaving children before children could have learnt to read.

Philip Townsend, from Flinders University, gave an excellent talk this week on how mobile phones and tablets can be used to help pre-service teachers in very remote communities. The talk was at an m-Learning conference in Sydney I attended. Philip was awarded top paper at the conference: http://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/2016/10/mlearning-for-aboriginal-pre-service.html

Thanks again for those comments. It seems that the theme of rural disadvantage in education in Australia struck a chord with both diver dan and WTF. Agree with much of what both had to say. I think that the comment by steve101 might be outside my area of competence.