The Teachers Are Blowing Their Whistles!

I have just arrived home from a Writers' conference in Ubud, Bali. The conference began with a tribute to the late WS Rendra, an Indonesian performance poet. It was an amazing and very memorable ceremony in the Pura Dalem Ubud - the Temple of the Dead. Imagine a long, winding entrance to the temple, a wide stairway lit by candles, and then hundreds of people sitting around the magnificent entrance gates to the Pura Dalem.

The Indonesians do performance poetry so well. WS Rendra protested about social injustice and during the ceremony we listened to a tape recording of him speaking to a crowd of people in a cafe. What struck me was the audience - they were listening carefully and cheering, yelling, clapping his words of protest. We do not seem to have that level of public engagement in protest in Australia.

But as I type this blog I will imagine a crowd of abused teachers all listening and cheering, yelling, howling their support for my words of protest.

Interesting points made by writers at the conference included :

• Western writers keep at arms length from any political agitation.

(A western writer made this statement. It seemed odd to me. But maybe the political control of funding grants, awards, etc. in Australia discourages writers from criticising a certain political party.)

• The people who control the words control history.

When I was younger, I believed that history concerned facts. But now I realise that what we call "history" may actually be an entirely falsified version of what was really "going on". We who know what is going on need to write it down. We need to battle against the falsification of the official histories.

• "Heroes" may be artificial constructs.
• The images - role models - projected by those in power may render the people powerless.

How often do you have doubts about the people who are given special awards?

Have you noticed that people seem to be given special awards to distract public attention away from bad things that they have done?

These horrible people are then held up as role models for us to follow.

A frog fell into a well - think Education Queensland - and the frog thought that the bottom of the well was the whole world. The frog thought that it knew everything, and believed itself to be a pretty smart frog. But to the people who were standing outside the well looking down on the frog, the frog seemed like a pretty sad character with very limited experience of the world.

• The state sponsors some forms of violence.
• Laws are used to take revenge on people that you don't like.

• Universities - and intelligent people - thrive in countries where there is doubt and reason.

Would you say that there is doubt and reason in Education Queensland?

Or just one "correct" thought?

• Writing about your experience can help you to keep your sanity - think of it as taking out the trash.

There were some bloggers at the conference and there was a session on The New Frontier - Blogging and Dissent :

• This is an on-line battle. It is a war of ideas.

• Intellectuals - think intelligent classroom teachers - have always been attacked by the "powers that be". It has always happened.

• It is important to tell your story in books as well as blogs. Books are going to last. The internet may not last.

Changing the subject slightly, thank you to those teachers who bogged while I was away. I was reading your comments with interest while I was in Ubud!

I was contacted by a few teachers (and one parent) while I was away. Today I phoned one of those people - a male teacher -  and had a chat.

He gave me permission to share this with you:

He is a 22-year veteran teacher who moved to Queensland and applied for work.

For eight years he took contracts while he waited for a permanent teaching job.

He noticed that whenever he tried to behave in what he believed to be a normal professional manner - for example, by sending poorly behaved children to the office in accordance with the school behaviour management program - his teaching contract was either immediately terminated or not renewed.

And finally he told me about his last school -

"A kid hit me and I thought, 'I know what's going to happen' "

And it did.