Andrew Laming should know teachers have it much tougher than MPs
Andrew Laming is a dill, and his latest denunciation of teachers is more likely a symptom of attention-seeking behaviour than anything else.
Teachers should work more. Teachers should holiday less. Blah. Blah. Blah.
Queensland Liberal MP Andrew Laming said teachers should work more hours and get fewer holidays.
Photo: Alex EllinghausenHe does this every now again – like last year when he launched a similar tirade on social media:
“Are teachers back at work this week, or are they ‘lesson planning’ from home?’’
For the record, one-quarter of teachers work more than 55 hours a week. The base graduate rate of pay sits at about $66,000.
And how does that compare to Andrew and his house full of politicians? Last year, the House of Representatives sat for 64 days – 64 days! And the base rate of pay for a politician was about THREE TIMES that of teachers.
(A maths student would enjoy drawing that. One employee is at work three times as many days as the other, which receives three times as much.)
Now those figures aren’t fair, on teachers, either. The school day neither starts at 8.30am nor finishes at 3pm. Weekends are routinely filled with school obligations, from supervising choir practice to watching a rowing regatta, setting exams, reading essays and preparing lessons.
The pay provided to teachers doesn’t take into account the number of times they dig into their own pockets (one survey found on average $1900 per year) to restock classroom resources, or fund a child’s forgotten lunch.
But Mr Laming’s views on teachers show an ignorance of what the teachers in his seat of Bowman, and every other electorate in the nation, do – and what they could possibly deliver for our children under the Gonski reforms.
Each day, parents drop their children off at the school gates and our teachers fill their minds with curiosity, knowledge and social skills. Every time politicians – like Mr Laming’s mates – want something else done, they pile it onto teachers, who are expected to cram it into an already bulging curriculum.
The result? Teachers are being forced to issue instructions to children on how to tie shoelaces, wash their hands properly, and display good manners. As our children travel through high school they are also provided lessons in critical thinking skills, relaxation, and digital literacy.
I digress, but that latter skill is something Andrew Laming could spend less time on, because it routinely gets him into trouble. Indeed, there was another time this week when he showed a similar spectacular ignorance.
He was addressing a group of remarkable youths who were representing their schools and their states in a national public speaking competition.
And what did he offer to them? What thoughtful advice did he provide to this cohort, who were hanging on every word?
That none of them were worth employing because the youth of today were addicted to social media, and didn’t really represent themselves as a generation.
Of course, he underestimated this group who found, within seconds, that he spent an entire weekend last year arguing with others on the Simpsons Against the Liberals Facebook page, which posts memes critical of his party using The Simpsons television show.
They were too polite to mention that or the fact that he used Twitter, as his party’s Indigenous health spokesman, to comment on racial clashes in Logan.
“Mobs tearing up Logan," he tweeted.
“Did any of them do a day’s work today, or was it business as usual and welfare on tap?"
Mr Laming should turn off social media, and offer to do a bit of work experience at a school, during one of Parliament’s long, long recesses.
Then he might see what our teachers, at the coalface, do with our children each day.
Who knows, I’m an optimist, but perhaps he’ll then encourage the community he serves to respect them a bit more, listen to them a bit more, and pay them a bit more.
And that would be something worth trumpeting, Andrew, on social media.
Madonna King is a leading journalist and commentator. She was an award-winning mornings presenter on 612 ABC Brisbane and is a five-times author.
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