New-ish project

[Neia]

I did exactly the same sort of thing a few times, but as for anyone trying to sabotage my work, they all did that sort of thing all the time anyway so it made no difference to me. The most memorable was my year 10 maths teacher. I always finished any problems immediately than I'd sit there quietly reading a book.

The teacher didn't like that, he said it wasn't fair that I could sit there having a bludge while everyone one else had to work. That entire attitude doesn't sit well with me even today, and when people try that one on me I arc up big time.

"You have the cheek to start picking on me when I've done my work. Meanwhile the rest of these (very derogatory Aussie term) are still counting on their fingers and can't tell you their 6 times tables. You're wasting my time and theirs.". And I walked out. That was the last time I went to maths class that year.

Some teachers shouldn't be allowed to be teachers.

The good ones that I still smile when I remember them, some 40 years later, are the ones who actually encouraged us. They spent time trying to make sure each kid in the classroom had understood what they were learning, and they also encouraged talents.

 

[Outdated]

I had some very good teachers but I had some shockers as well.

 

[Neia]

I had some very good teachers but I had some shockers as well.

I had one that would beat me with a yardstick when other kids made trouble in the classroom, because she wanted to "Set an example." and since I was the quiet one, if the others saw her hitting me, they would, supposedly, want to behave better.

That one was my 4th grade teacher. When I went on to 5th grade she asked me to visit her once in a while.
I said "No." grabbed my folder and left.

 

[Outdated]

Also from my book:

My grade 3 teacher was one of those truly brilliant teachers that stand out from the crowd, Mrs McFetridge. She was a very strict and stern old lady with her hair done up in a bun but she was also scrupulously fair and very intelligent. I loved her and was terrified of her at the same time. She arranged a meeting with Mum early in the year to discuss my problems. She told Mum that my last two teachers had just been silly young girls that didn't know one end of a baby from the other, she said I had no learning difficulty, in fact quite the opposite, I was bored because I learned too quickly and easily.

She said the problem I had was with reading out loud and she thought I might be "tongue-tied", a situation caused by too short an amount of loose skin under the tongue restricting movement and therefore speech. She told Mum that this could be easily corrected by deliberate exercise and recommended that Mum take me to visit an old friend of hers, a Catholic Priest.

No, that's not headed where you think, my Mum was very good at pretending to be a lot more naive than she was but she wasn't going to leave her little boy alone with a priest. The priest was a very old and very large man and seemed very happy all the time, I liked him. He gave me lessons in public speaking, or more accurately, how to deliver a sermon without the benefit of a microphone, how to make your voice very loud without yelling and how to read at that volume with perfect diction so that even people at the back of the church can hear every word clearly.

Mrs McFetridge also encouraged me by getting me to read stories to the rest of the class. My parents soon regretted my taking those lessons. So did many other people over the years and there's been quite a few girlfriends that will tell you I'm very good at delivering a sermon.

 

[Neia]

Also from my book:

My grade 3 teacher was one of those truly brilliant teachers that stand out from the crowd, Mrs McFetridge. She was a very strict and stern old lady with her hair done up in a bun but she was also scrupulously fair and very intelligent. I loved her and was terrified of her at the same time. She arranged a meeting with Mum early in the year to discuss my problems. She told Mum that my last two teachers had just been silly young girls that didn't know one end of a baby from the other, she said I had no learning difficulty, in fact quite the opposite, I was bored because I learned too quickly and easily.

She said the problem I had was with reading out loud and she thought I might be "tongue-tied", a situation caused by too short an amount of loose skin under the tongue restricting movement and therefore speech. She told Mum that this could be easily corrected by deliberate exercise and recommended that Mum take me to visit an old friend of hers, a Catholic Priest.

No, that's not headed where you think, my Mum was very good at pretending to be a lot more naive than she was but she wasn't going to leave her little boy alone with a priest. The priest was a very old and very large man and seemed very happy all the time, I liked him. He gave me lessons in public speaking, or more accurately, how to deliver a sermon without the benefit of a microphone, how to make your voice very loud without yelling and how to read at that volume with perfect diction so that even people at the back of the church can hear every word clearly.

Mrs McFetridge also encouraged me by getting me to read stories to the rest of the class. My parents soon regretted my taking those lessons. So did many other people over the years and there's been quite a few girlfriends that will tell you I'm very good at delivering a sermon.

A good teacher is like that!
Someone who cares and is willing to help.

 

[Outdated]

A good teacher is like that!
Someone who cares and is willing to help.

She said all of that in front of me too, which made the world of difference to me. For the first time ever someone else was on my side.

 

[Neia]

She said all of that in front of me too, which made the world of difference to me. For the first time ever someone else was on my side.

Brilliant

 

[Neia]

Brilliant

Here, I only heard all the good things my teachers said about me after I was no longer in their ckass, or as an adult.
Only 2 teachers directly told me that I was good at what I did, as a kid. My Portuguese Language teacher encouraged me to write, and my History teacher encouraged me to draw.

All others didn't want me to get a big head

Funnily enough, those 2 were quite younger than the others.

 

[AuAL]

The experiences I remember that shaped me are, as it appear with @Outdated, those in primary school. I was singled out in probably third grade, by one of those teachers that see something more in you. Unfortunately, he saw so much that I was up in front of the whole school assembly, reading one of my school essays into a microphone. If you look at my school class photographs from that era, it was about then that I went from being a happy smiling kid to someone looking lost and anxious.

High school was a whole different scene. (Aus school system is 6 years infants/primary and 6 years high school - unless you quit after 4 years high school. This roughly maps onto elementary, middle school, junior high and senior high. But it was/is? different in each state. (When we moved interstate with a young family we had to map school progression for each of the kids.)

For me, high school was a strange place. My parents moved suburbs to get me into the catchment area for the only (academically) selective high school in our city. (I sat entrance exams for several private schools, but didn’t get a place.) For me that meant I was in a place where the teachers valued what I could do. I was awarded for academic excellence every year. My fellow students? Maybe not so much. Remember, I was an ND trying to fit in the NT world, but without knowing it. I still have friends I am in contact with after 50 years. Most I played football with. .

 

[Outdated]

Aus school system is 6 years infants/primary and 6 years high school - unless you quit after 4 years high school.

South Australia was 7 years Primary and then 5 years Highschool. I quit as soon as I turned 16, between the sadists, the violent psychopaths and the paedophiles it wasn't a very nice place.

 

[Neia]

I left school at 17, but because of different reasons.

My mother was pressuring me to study at night and work during the day. And tge school I was at wasn't that good, had some really bad teachers, so it didn't matter that much to me.

I went back when I was in my mid to late 30s, and did study at night while working during the day.
My last 2 years were hard. Classes started at 2 pm and ended around midnight, it took about half an hour for me to get home, then I still had homework.
And had to get up at 6:30-ish each morning.

But I did get a diploma saying that I am a qualified computer technician
Biggest joke ever.
But the government can now say that I got my 12th year required qualifications

They were forcing people near retirement to get their 12th grade diplomas.

 

[Outdated]

They do that here too, if you're unemployed they'll send you to university for free. You can do any course you want, even medicine if you have the aptitude for it. That's how most Aussies get through uni, be unemployed for 6 months, go to Bali for a few weeks etc, then come home to free uni.

 

[Neia]

They do that here too, if you're unemployed they'll send you to university for free. You can do any course you want, even medicine if you have the aptitude for it. That's how most Aussies get through uni, be unemployed for 6 months, go to Bali for a few weeks etc, then come home to free uni.

Only Uni is a different thing.
4 to 6 more years, depending on what you choose.
I was going for rocks Geology.

But then saw how much it would cost me, and gave it up.

School here is divided in Basic: 1st to 6th grade
Secondary: 7th to 12th
Superior: University or Polytechnic.

 

[AuAL]

For a brief period (70s to 80s) Uni was free for everyone in Oz. Then the conservatives noticed you generally got a better salary if you were a graduate and decided you should pay for that.

It took me 16 years and 4 universities to get my 2 degrees, but I managed to do it without paying.

 

[Au Naturel]

When I was in elementary school, there would be an annual book sale. I think it was the Scholastic Book Club. In order for your class order to be taken, you had to order 12 books. now, the books were always under a dollar and sometimes a quarter or 35 cents. The class I was in always got its order accepted, and sometimes I was the only one who ordered books. I'd only order books that were 2 grades ahead of where I was, and that was because they wouldn't let you order anything more advanced.

 

[Au Naturel]

The experiences I remember that shaped me are, as it appear with @Outdated, those in primary school. I was singled out in probably third grade, by one of those teachers that see something more in you. Unfortunately, he saw so much that I was up in front of the whole school assembly, reading one of my school essays into a microphone. If you look at my school class photographs from that era, it was about then that I went from being a happy smiling kid to someone looking lost and anxious.

High school was a whole different scene. (Aus school system is 6 years infants/primary and 6 years high school - unless you quit after 4 years high school. This roughly maps onto elementary, middle school, junior high and senior high. But it was/is? different in each state. (When we moved interstate with a young family we had to map school progression for each of the kids.)

For me, high school was a strange place. My parents moved suburbs to get me into the catchment area for the only (academically) selective high school in our city. (I sat entrance exams for several private schools, but didn’t get a place.) For me that meant I was in a place where the teachers valued what I could do. I was awarded for academic excellence every year. My fellow students? Maybe not so much. Remember, I was an ND trying to fit in the NT world, but without knowing it. I still have friends I am in contact with after 50 years. Most I played football with. .

We had K-3 as elementary school. Then 4-6 was considered "intermediate" school. Then 7-8 or 7-9 as jr. high school, depending on how your district does it. This is all considered "primary" school. High school is your secondary school and ends at 12th grade.

Which statewide "class" you competed in in athletics depended on your total high school enrollment. My high school didn't want to suffer the ignominy of competing in class D, so to boost high school attendance up to class C, they included 9th grade as part of high school. But since 9th grade didn't contribute a lot of athletic potential, it led to mediocre to poor interscholastic sports performance. But at least we could pretend we weren't a "small" school.

 

[Outdated]

Which statewide "class" you competed in in athletics depended on your total high school enrollment. My high school didn't want to suffer the ignominy of competing in class D....

Here sporting clubs are not associated with or affiliated with schools in any way. Some schools do have sports teams and play against other schools but that's not very common or regular. If kids are genuinely keen on sport they join a sports club.

All of our sports clubs (except the professional paid teams) are non profit community clubs. So a kid's sporting life has nothing to do with their school life in any way.

And one I wish migrants would take more notice of is the Surf Life Saving Clubs. 99% of drowning victims here are either new migrants or tourists. Kids that have grown up here are better swimmers.

https://www.surflifesaving.com.au/nippers/

 

[Au Naturel]

Here sporting clubs are not associated with or affiliated with schools in any way. Some schools do have sports teams and play against other schools but that's not very common or regular. If kids are genuinely keen on sport they join a sports club.

All of our sports clubs (except the professional paid teams) are non profit community clubs. So a kid's sporting life has nothing to do with their school life in any way.

And one I wish migrants would take more notice of is the Surf Life Saving Clubs. 99% of drowning victims here are either new migrants or tourists. Kids that have grown up here are better swimmers.

https://www.surflifesaving.com.au/nippers/

In America, almost all schools have large, state-funded athletics departments. In some high schools and many colleges, sports dominate academics. The sports staff doubles as teachers. A huge amount of real estate is dedicated to football and baseball fields. Urban schools with little land to develop always have at least a gymnasium for basketball and use someone else's facility for sports requiring large fields.

Once you get to college, athletes are semi-professionals, with a minimum of low-level academic courses added to pretend they are students. College football and basketball generate huge revenues. We take our bread and circuses very seriously here.

 

[Outdated]

In America, almost all schools have large, state-funded athletics departments.....

That comes through in a lot of the tv shows and movies we watch, but here the terms college football, college basketball, etc don't exist. It's all grass roots community clubs. Councils and state governments provide pretty good sporting facilities in all the suburbs and if you want to start a club for a particular sport then you can register as a club with appropriate authorities and get started using the public ground and club rooms. More successful clubs end up buying their own grounds and clubrooms, and it goes from there.

Most of our professional athletes started from a very young age, their family using their local sporting club as an entertainment venue and getting involved with the club that way. Clubs are non profit and raise funds by running bars and restaurants in their club rooms as well as holding events so they become a part of the local community. Kids start playing sport as young as 5.

Most of our school sports programs are class time only, aimed at showing us a wide range of different sports and athleticism in general. I think it's mostly aimed at those that don't play a regular sport. Schools do help fill a few gaps here and there in the community though, mostly for startup clubs that couldn't get a place and time in public grounds somewhere.

This is my local community club, council owned and operated and hosting many different sports clubs. It's just been rebuilt too.

https://www.marion.sa.gov.au/venues-and-facilities/marion-sports-and-community-club

 

[AuAL]

In the eastern states I believe it is almost universally the case that schools participate in inter-school sports competitions. It was certainly my experience throughout my schooling (I played football representing my school from the age of 8 until I finished high school) and I am now involved with providing local schools with weekly sessions in lawn bowls. I do not have personal experience of the situation in schools in regional areas but, given 89% of Aussies live in cities, the majority have ample opportunity for sporting competition.