Latest / ✨️Aligned and Thriving: For Teachers🌿 / 👩🏼‍🏫Real Talk: Violence in Schools

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👩🏼‍🏫Real Talk: Violence in Schools · ✨️Aligned and Thriving: For Teachers🌿

0:31
Hello, my love, and welcome back to another episode of the Line
0:34
and Driving for teachers. Now, today's episode is really
0:40
off the cuff. This one I have no script for.
0:44
I have no, look, there's no direction that this is really
0:50
going except for voicing my opinion.
0:53
So in saying that, there's a lot going on in the media, whether
0:58
it's at the moment or whether it is like in the past or wherever
1:04
we are at in this stage of this development.
1:07
But the gist of it is teaching has changed so much.
1:13
It's honestly ridiculous. Like the kids that we are
1:17
teaching today are completely different to the kids that we
1:21
were teaching 20 years ago, 10 years ago, five years ago, maybe
1:26
even two years ago. These kids are a different breed
1:31
and there are different expectations that come with that
1:34
as well. The kids that we are getting
1:36
now, I certainly not brought up the way that I was brought up.
1:41
If I was in a classroom and say maybe something happened, let's
1:46
say a boy threw a piece of paper on the floor, the teacher would
1:50
then have a discussion, like maybe you'd even say scold that
1:54
student. I such and such picked that up
1:56
off the floor now, thanks. And they'd stop and they'd pick
1:59
it up. Oh, sorry, Sir, I'm really
2:00
sorry. And put it in the bin.
2:03
That is not what happens today unless you've had a family that
2:06
have raised their children in that particular way and to be
2:10
that level of respectful, it's not the same.
2:14
The kids that we get now are questioning everything.
2:18
So let's say I walk into a classroom and it's a pigsty and
2:24
I say to the kids, guys, this place is a bit of a mess, let's
2:27
clean it up. And you get the kid that looks
2:29
you straight in the eyes and says, not my job.
2:32
I'm not a cleaner like, well, we've all worked together to
2:36
make this mess. So we're going to stop and we're
2:38
going to clean it up together. And they're like, no, so you
2:41
play the magic piece of rubbish game.
2:44
Let's all clean up until we find the magic piece of rubbish off
2:46
the floor. And you'll get maybe 80% of your
2:49
kids chipping in to help. And you'll still get those ones
2:51
that just waltz around that look like they're doing not a whole
2:53
lot. And it just breaks your heart
2:56
really. So we have those kids, we have
3:00
the students where an incident occurs and it is never their
3:04
fault, never their fault. It is always someone else's
3:09
fault. They made me do it.
3:10
They said this, so I did that. It is the back and forth and
3:13
back and forth. There is no responsibility
3:16
taken. And then they usually the kids
3:18
of the parents that will ask you the same question, well who else
3:23
was involved or well they clearly made them do it.
3:27
My response in this situation is still and forever will be and it
3:31
will offend people I know is that I'm sorry but your kid
3:35
controls their actions. Their mind is telling them
3:39
something to do and they do it. That is them.
3:41
Just because their friend said for them to do something they
3:45
have the choice to take up that or to neglect that and choose a
3:50
different path. It is on them and it there's,
3:54
there's just nothing that drives me nuts more than those kids.
3:58
And I'm sorry, but those parents that will not take
4:02
responsibility or will not get their kids to take
4:04
responsibility for their own actions, it was their choice.
4:09
Then you get the kids where you are in the situation where you
4:15
might have no clue what's actually happened, but something
4:18
has occurred and people are obviously upset with each other
4:22
and there is a fight. Now I'm talking big altercation,
4:27
massive fight. I'm going to take you back to an
4:31
example from my own career when I worked in a high school
4:34
setting where there was obviously an issue between
4:38
boyfriend, girlfriend, he looked at her or she looked at him.
4:42
Look, something has happened. I don't even remember what had
4:46
actually occurred to 'cause this to happen, but a gentleman
4:51
decided that it was then time to take on a female student.
4:56
And it required a lot of intervention for that to
5:00
actually cease. It required staff to put
5:04
themselves at risk to protect and defend other students.
5:08
It required us to stand between these students to stop someone
5:14
from getting physically injured to a point of no return.
5:19
Putting myself in those situations, it wasn't, look, I
5:24
was never going to take on a kid.
5:25
I was always going to protect a kid.
5:27
So I would put myself in the situation of if you are my son
5:31
or if you are my daughter, I would not want you getting
5:33
physically assaulted at school. So I would be doing everything
5:37
in my power to stop that from happening.
5:38
And that is what I would do as a teacher.
5:40
That is what I did as a teacher. And then when you have to call
5:43
for intervention from external services like police and you
5:47
have to get them to come to the school grounds to then remove
5:50
and talk to those students because it is physical assault.
5:53
And this is happening in Australia, full stop.
5:58
And all of the people that are coming out and saying, oh, the
6:02
teachers are striking because they want more pay.
6:05
I'm sorry, you need to get that message.
6:08
You can share this with your friends.
6:11
We are putting ourselves at risk in our profession now every
6:16
single day. Whether is that, whether that is
6:20
a student or a parent, we are putting ourselves and our lives
6:25
at risk. We are a frontline worker.
6:28
That is what we are. We did not stop working during
6:32
COVID. Yes, maybe kids stopped coming
6:35
and then we slowly got them back, but we never stopped
6:38
working behind the scenes and we were just as valued and
6:41
important. And that's the part I think that
6:44
a lot of people forget because it's now in the media.
6:48
All of a sudden the statistics come out that there's over 80%
6:52
of teachers that are getting physically assaulted in their
6:54
job, in their profession. There is not the level of
6:59
respect that there once was for this profession, full stop.
7:05
Like replace it with an exclamation mark.
7:08
I can't make that any clearer. It is not the same.
7:11
When I first started teaching over 15 years ago, this job was
7:15
completely different. I felt safe going to work
7:19
wherever I was to go. It will always be rough and
7:22
tough kids that need a lot of love and we need to work with
7:26
them to get them to engage. But when I am turning up to a
7:31
job where I actually don't feel safe in that role, but I'm still
7:36
turning up every day because I want to be there for those kids,
7:39
support those kids and keep the others safe, That's what we are
7:44
doing right now. So yeah, we're going to ask for
7:48
things. We're going to go back to the
7:51
government to say this is what's actually happening.
7:54
If you would like to become an ostrich and continue to put your
7:58
head in the sand, that's fine. You do you, but now that we are
8:03
actually coming back and saying we'd really appreciate it if you
8:06
could look at our agreements again so that we can have a
8:09
little bit more pay, a little bit more support, some more
8:13
Tasmania, some more actual support in resources and
8:18
interventions. Let's go, come to the party.
8:23
Maybe you could have a day in the life, come and put some of
8:27
the politicians in our classrooms, not in certain ones.
8:31
Like really be strategic about where they're placed and
8:34
experience a day in the life of teachers.
8:37
Every school culture is different, every state and
8:40
territory is different. But we are all trying to educate
8:46
students. We are not trying to stop
8:50
physical altercations like that is not my job, but now it is
8:55
part of my job. It's what I have to do.
8:57
It's what I had to do. I might be working in a really
9:00
sweet situation and school at the moment, and some of you are,
9:05
some of you may get to grace that bubble.
9:07
It's amazing. But sometimes you do have to
9:10
work in an area where you may not feel safe going to work, but
9:13
you turn up anyway. And I did that four years.
9:18
I turned up anyway. I knew the kids that would have
9:22
those altercations. I tried to stay ahead of the
9:25
game, to know which family was fighting with which one, to know
9:27
which kids not to put in a room together.
9:30
We would do our best to mitigate risk.
9:32
We still do that today. We deal with parents that we
9:36
have to give warnings to for the way they speak to us because
9:40
that is not the same as the way it used to be.
9:43
Parents have respect for teachers and educators.
9:46
A lot still do. I'm not saying this is all bad.
9:50
There are still so many pockets of amazing goodness in our
9:53
world, and that's why we keep turning up.
9:56
But it is not the same. All these memes that come up for
9:59
the way it used to be, where the parents would come in and talk
10:02
to the teacher and say, how's little Johnny going?
10:05
Oh, he's actually really struggling in math.
10:07
Well, Johnny, you need to get your act together.
10:10
You need to study more. We're going to do these things
10:12
at home and we will follow up. No, now it is Johnny's not doing
10:18
so well in math. Well, what are you doing to
10:20
support him further? You're clearly not teaching
10:23
that, right? That's not how we learnt to do
10:24
it. So I've taught him this way.
10:27
Right. OK, so you're the teacher,
10:30
you're the expert. You've done years of university
10:33
training on child development and you know how this is done.
10:36
Go for it, Be my guest. But this is what we are dealing
10:42
with. And I know educators that are
10:45
listening to this, teachers specifically and TAS that you
10:49
are nodding along going Mel, I feel it.
10:52
I get it. This is hard.
10:54
And we are so lucky that we still have people enrolling in
10:58
the degree to go and do it. There's still people turning up
11:02
every day to teach in a classroom when they may not feel
11:05
safe. We still have teachers that are
11:10
teaching and doing their absolute best to support our
11:14
kids because we love what we do, and that is our why.
11:18
But it's hard. So yeah, we should be allowed to
11:22
come back and say, can you please review our agreement?
11:26
Here's a list of things that would really help us to do our
11:28
jobs better. But all the media sees and
11:32
brings out is they want more money.
11:34
Well, yeah, look, we probably do because the cost of living has
11:38
increased. Our pay has not.
11:41
So that's a little difficult. And it's really disheartening
11:44
too, as a teacher who has done these years of training and know
11:49
that we are shaping the next generation, is that there's
11:52
someone that's doing a role and it may even be like they're just
11:57
someone's secretary and they're getting the same salary that I'm
12:00
getting just for being someone's secretary.
12:04
Does that really make our profession look appealing to
12:08
these younger generations that are coming through?
12:10
Do they really want to go and do that or are they going to go
12:13
where the money is? I really hope that they are
12:17
thinking about their heart and where their heart is and what
12:20
that wants to help them to do. Because as I said before, this
12:23
was not my choice to start off with.
12:24
But my heart took me on a journey and I chose teaching.
12:28
I could have chosen another path, but I chose teaching and I
12:33
have lots to do with my wife. But this is the thing, it is
12:37
hard at the moment and there's just so much coming out in the
12:42
media and people are just getting shocked by it.
12:45
And we're all standing here going as if you didn't know that
12:50
we're living this. Yeah, there's some crazy stats
12:53
that you can find now, but maybe if you actually got out and
12:57
about and talked to some of these teachers, you'd realise
12:59
that this has been happening for years.
13:02
I have watched people get physically assaulted by
13:05
students. I have watched students film
13:09
teachers being verbally assaulted and yelled at and
13:13
things being said about them. I remember walking into one of
13:16
my classes and having a kid say something about me and it hurts.
13:20
Words can hurt, but I learned to step above that.
13:25
But not everyone is as strong. That could be the the thing that
13:30
breaks that person that drives them away from coming back the
13:35
next day and and doing this profession.
13:37
And I watched that happen too. I watched some of these young
13:40
teachers get absolutely slaughtered and eaten alive and
13:45
quit teaching with leadership teams that were not there to
13:49
love and support them and help guide them through and do things
13:53
about the situations. I've watched all of that happen.
13:57
At that point, I was not strong enough to speak up because I was
14:00
going through it myself. So that's what makes things
14:04
hard. But I have learnt and grown from
14:07
all of my experiences. They have helped me grow to be a
14:11
better, stronger human being and a better, stronger human.
14:14
I said human being, but teacher in general, just every little
14:18
thing and I have learnt from. I still remember coming home and
14:23
showing my husband, I think I was just doing the washing up
14:27
and I pulled my sleeves up and he's like, Oh my gosh, what's on
14:29
your arms? It's like, oh, that happened
14:31
today. I just blocked it out.
14:33
He's like, what happened today? I said, oh, look, I was helping
14:37
such and such do this and they, they beat me.
14:40
It's like multiple times. Like, yeah, look, I was trying
14:44
to keep him from kicking this person in the face.
14:46
So I because I had done manual handling, so everything was done
14:50
safely, but he still managed to bite me multiple times on my
14:54
arm. I've done an incident report.
14:57
It's fine, darling. He's like, well, that kid better
14:59
not be at school tomorrow. No, he'll be at school tomorrow
15:02
because we reset and we start again.
15:05
And to my husband, he was just. That is not OK.
15:08
That's not acceptable. That does not happen.
15:11
But when you have trauma affected children in your space,
15:17
sometimes we have to show a bit of love and they learn from
15:21
these experiences the same as we do.
15:23
And then we put new procedures in place.
15:27
Yes, there will obviously be a line drawn in the sand, but I
15:31
was a strong enough teacher to be working in that space.
15:35
Everyone is different and I'm not saying that that stuff is
15:38
acceptable either. I'm just saying I don't know how
15:43
to word that any other way. But I have been there, OK?
15:47
I have been spat on, hit, kicked, punched, sworn at, had
15:52
multiple things said about me, videos filmed and sent out on
15:55
TikTok, just all of the things. I have been there and if you
16:00
need love, help and support and you want to talk it out, please
16:03
feel free to talk to me. I'm more than happy to support
16:06
you because I am still teaching and I am still turning up every
16:10
day. I'm not leaving this profession
16:12
just because these things have happened.
16:15
I have built myself up, I have learnt from these things, I've
16:18
learnt from my mistakes and my challenges and they help me to
16:23
grow as a teacher. But that is the thing.
16:26
Like that's the difference between some of the teachers,
16:30
like we can't all do this, we can't all put up with that.
16:32
And obviously some are putting up with a lot, lot more than
16:36
what I have. But I have been in those
16:39
situations. OK.
16:41
So that that is something that I just wanted to bring up because
16:44
there's just so much coming out at the moment and what's
16:48
happening, it's the same thing. It's just these kids have
16:52
changed, the parents have changed, the whole situation has
16:55
changed. But sadly, the government's view
16:58
of things have not changed. The curriculum has only gotten
17:01
bigger and more broad and harder to teach, and technology has
17:06
gotten harder for us to work out.
17:08
And all these things, these cause and effects just keep
17:10
piling up. And we just need to keep doing
17:15
our job but stay on top of it. Do this, do that, and we are
17:19
just expected to play along. So that's what I was trying to
17:23
communicate. As I said, I had no scripting
17:25
for today. I went off on a tangent, but I
17:27
needed to get it out because I think some of you need to hear
17:30
this, That it is OK to express your opinion in a polite and
17:35
respectful way because things have changed and we need to own
17:40
that. But so does the rest of the
17:42
world. It's just going to happen.
17:46
And that's why there's all this stuff coming out because we are
17:49
in the process of renewing agreements in lots of States and
17:52
territories. So that's why all of a sudden we
17:55
talked about again and it's good and bad.
17:58
It's it's ugly and it's beautiful.
18:01
There's just a lot some parents understand and they respect that
18:05
and they get that and they are so supportive and loving and
18:08
kind and they are the ones that turn up and say, I've spoken to
18:13
my child last night about what happened yesterday and it
18:15
certainly will not happen again, will it, Johnny?
18:18
And they're like, no, no, no, because mom took my PlayStation
18:21
away or mom wouldn't let me go do this or do that or I didn't
18:25
get any iPad time. It's all those things because
18:28
where there is an action, there is a consequence because that is
18:31
life. I do that with my own children.
18:33
I've told you this before. I have a neurodivergent child.
18:36
I probably possibly have two neurodivergent children, not
18:40
sure. One is is obviously diagnosed
18:43
and he to me, I have two amazing children.
18:47
No one is perfect. I'm never gonna say I have the
18:50
perfect child because I don't because no one is.
18:53
I have a child that really struggles to regulate and needs
18:56
support. Actually they probably both do,
18:59
but one is obviously diagnosed, the other is not.
19:02
The one that has a diagnosis though, obviously needs some
19:05
breaks and attention and things and takes things so literally.
19:09
So when he is in the playground and a kid says something, he's
19:12
going to go do that because he's taking it literally.
19:16
And then wonders why he got in trouble because he's like, but I
19:19
just did this because that's exactly what he was told to do.
19:23
So I get it. But we are still the type of
19:27
parents and we do our absolute best to parent in the way where
19:32
we explain to him that you are responsible for your actions.
19:36
Just because someone told you to do that, you chose to do that.
19:39
You didn't have to. You made a choice.
19:41
Yes, I'm going to do that. And then you got in trouble.
19:44
So there's a consequence. And we explain that.
19:47
And even when you're so, so, so, so, so angry and everything's
19:51
built up inside, that does not give you permission to go and
19:53
hurt someone else physically. It means you need to go calm
19:58
yourself down and use your words.
20:00
And we always make that very clear.
20:02
Because they were there and they saw what happened to me to Mummy
20:06
when she was getting hurt from a kid that needed support to
20:10
regulate and did not use their words.
20:14
So they know that we talk about things, we follow up with things
20:18
at home, we talk it out, we sort it out, we make a plan moving
20:23
forward and we follow through with our consequences the same
20:27
as there are consequences at school.
20:29
And we are supportive parents. And that's what I would want as
20:32
a teacher. I just want to be able to ring
20:34
them and say this happened today and they'll go righto, we'll
20:37
talk to him at home. Anything else I need to know?
20:39
Yep. OK, got all the facts, we'll
20:41
talk it through. Thank you so much for letting me
20:43
know. That's all we were asking for as
20:45
educators. Or if we don't have the time to
20:49
ring you because sometimes things happen.
20:51
And why do they always happen at Friday at 3:00?
20:54
But they do. Sometimes things happen and then
20:56
we have to go parent ourselves or we have things on and we're
21:00
doing our absolute best by sending you a message to say,
21:02
look, heads up, this happened. I will follow it up on Monday.
21:06
Fantastic. Thank you for letting me know.
21:08
We'll talk then. That's what we do.
21:11
Well, at least that's what I try and do because you've got to
21:14
understand that we are teachers and we still have lives as well.
21:17
We're not available 24/7. We have boundaries.
21:20
And if you don't remember how to do those, go back to my other
21:22
episode to remind you how to set yourself some boundaries.
21:25
But that's, that's it. Like that's what we need to work
21:29
on as teachers is that I treat others the way I want to be
21:33
treated, treated. I parent the way I want other
21:36
parents to also parent. I, I do things in a way that I
21:39
would love people to reciprocate.
21:42
So we just need to keep educating everyone and doing our
21:44
absolute best. But Yep, you're always going to
21:46
get those kids and you're always going to get those parents.
21:49
But you need to work on your mindset of whether you take that
21:53
to heart or whether you work out a way to move forward, be
21:57
strategic, make a plan, keep following through with
22:00
consequences, keep following all the procedures and eventually
22:04
one day we're going to get there and things are going to improve.
22:06
I just know that it's going to happen because the world's going
22:09
to see what's really going on. If you do live in Australia,
22:12
you'll see that we've put things in place for the under 16 year
22:15
old band for certain things. That's going to be a big thing
22:19
for some of our kids. But I can see in the future it's
22:23
going to be amazing. So for my own kids, it's going
22:26
to be such a blessing to them. And I can see that because I've
22:30
grown through that phase of having no social media and
22:33
having a Myspace account to having all the technology today.
22:37
And I can see what damage that could cause.
22:40
And that's a big thing for us as a family too.
22:42
We always tell our kids, if you can't say it to someone's face,
22:46
then you shouldn't be saying it at all.
22:47
However, also don't don't say that to a neurodivergent child
22:52
who is so literal because he will tell you to your face he's
22:55
also the most gorgeous kid in the world.
22:57
I give you I kid you not like beautiful kind hearted sweet
23:00
little thing, but can also be very blunt.
23:03
So if I want an opinion it's the same as my my dad.
23:06
I love him dearly. If I really want to know what I
23:09
look like and what my outfit looks like I will just go ask
23:11
dad because he will just straight down the line.
23:14
Oh no, you can't wear that. Why dad?
23:18
And give you a list of reasons why.
23:19
OK, I'll just go change until I get to a an outfit and I'm like,
23:22
what about this? And he's like, that's that's the
23:24
one that's beautiful because he can't fault it.
23:27
That is what my son is like now. Now too, If I ask for his
23:31
opinion, like I will get it straight down the line.
23:35
So just be careful with that too.
23:37
But yeah, so that that is my little rant for you today.
23:41
So I hope that I don't know where I was heading, I said that
23:45
before, but I hope you've gotten something out of this just to
23:47
empower yourself too, OK? And make sure you just keep
23:52
turning up every day. Remember your why.
23:54
Go back to that every time. There is a reason why you chose
23:58
this career and why you're doing what you do.
24:00
OK, Thank you so much for tuning in and listening.
24:04
Please make sure you're giving me like your wonderful five star
24:06
reviews because that actually gets my podcast out there for
24:09
more people to hear so that I can help more people just like
24:13
you. I just want to share my message
24:16
with as many people as possible. Share this episode with some
24:19
friends that you think might need to hear it just to get our
24:22
perspective on things. Just remember that you are
24:25
loved, you are appreciated and you are doing an amazing job.
24:29
So I will talk to you again next time.
24:31
Goodbye my loves.