"Rules for Teachers" (1872)

1. Teachers each day will fill lamps, trim the wicks and clean chimneys.

2. Each morning teacher will bring a bucket of water and scuttle of coal for the day's session.

3. Make your pens carefully. You may whittle nibs to the individual taste of the pupils.

4. Men teachers may take an evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they attend church regularly.

5. After ten hours in school, the teachers may spend the remaining time reading the Bible or any other good books.

6. Women teachers who marry or engage in unseemly conduct will be dismissed.

7. Every teacher should lay aside from each pay a goodly sum of his earnings for his benefit during his declining years so that he will not become a burden on society.

8. Any teacher who smokes, uses liquor in any form, frequents pool or public halls, or gets shaved in a barber shop will give good reason to suspect his worth, intention, integrity and honesty.

9. The teacher who performs his labour faithfully and without fault for five years will be given an increase of twenty five pence per week in his pay, providing the Board of Education approves.

(I found this in "Teaching Challenges and Dilemmas", Groundwater-Smith, Ewing and Le Cornu (1998).)

Comments

What I learned on prac.

I'm pretty sure that I learned far more on my prac than the students I was teaching. Some of it will stand me in good stead for my next prac, and for when I am a fully-qualified teacher. Some of it was very disappointing and disallusioning. One of the first things I learned was that my supervising teacher no longer wanted to be a teacher, but was sticking with it for a few more years, while her youngest child finishes high school. Another teacher in our staff room was only staying with teaching to boost his superannuation before he retired. Yet another teacher didn't speak to me during my four weeks sitting at the desk next to him, and seemed to dislike all students and the teaching of them. There were frequent discussions in there about students being "not very bright" and "unteachable", including one entire year. No effort was put in to teaching these students, as it was deemed to be a waste of effort. However, imaginative teaching was hampered

Why I really need a pig.

For the last couple of years I've been on a plastic-elimination diet, and working hard at drastically reducing my landfill footprint (ie what I cause to sent to be buried in the ground for all eternity*). I have made some huge progress, although I still have some way to go to becoming zero waste (I think I'm at about 80% waste-free). One step on this journey was to get rid of my kitchen bin. In theory, everything I use in my kitchen should be either recyclable or compostable, leaving no use for a kitchen bin. However, I do have one item that is neither: my cat's uneaten food. FreddyCat is a fussy eater. I put this down to his hyperthyroidism – and being a cat. After considerable trial and error, I have found a range of foods that he will (usually) consent to eat, but he never eats ALL of anything I put down for him. There is always something left over; sometimes all of it. Cat food reeks even before going off, so I have to dispose of it. As I am a ver

Understanding my physical challenges: An analogy

So, I've been trying to come up with a way to explain to a non-disabled person what it's like to face physical challenges at work, as a person with a disability. My current workplace is very physically demanding, even for me, a wheelchair user with long arms, full reach, abdominal muscle control and good balance. After 2.5 years of just getting on with it, despite the inaccessibility of large areas of my workplace, I'm at a point where I'm having to say, 'Enough. I can't do it any more.'. My employer is struggling to understand what's changed. Why is my workplace 'suddenly' inaccessible? What has changed with my health, to make my work so arduous for me now? Here's my analogy*: Imagine that you are looking for a job in the field you have just qualified for. A new employer says, if you move out to our location, we'll give you a permanent job. You just have to be able to carry 10kg. Cool, you think, I can do that. I'll uproot myself

Compostable Kate

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