Teachers Federation Council Meeting, Sydney

I was invited as a Special Observer by my school's union rep to attend the Federation meeting in Sydney on Saturday. With the tug and pull over their state testing last month, I was very curious to see how their organization operates. When the meeting began, I was welcomed by the president in his welcome speech, but not waved to or put on the spot, thank heavens! With so many surprises and unknowns in this experience, I was glad this one came off without embarrassment or stuttered "thank you it's a pleasure to be here" input by me!! Whew! I could sink into my squishy auditorium chair and soak it all in. I didn't catch everything, I must say. I either couldn't understand the accents in the microphone (telephone conversations are the same for me and for Australians listening to me, too, I've learned) or my rep was translating or explaining details of the organization to me as we went along.

The meeting opened with "Questions Without Notice," and included reps from all over the state raising concerns and asking for the Federation's input. One such question involved violence in the schools, both physical and verbal, student to student or student to teacher. The recommendation was that notes should be taken and incidents documented, but at this time the Parliment (and therefore the Federation) was not making any decision or taking any actions on this topic. I hate to think that something big needs to happen before someone does "take any action."

I also attended the Women's Caucus, which, besides serving Cheerios and toast with Vegemite at a table that resembled our kitchen counter any given morning with cereal bowls, milk bottles, and coffee mugs, included discussions around lactation breaks, equal pay, and percentages of women in principal jobs and executive council positions. With such a relaxed-looking meeting, complete with baby strollers parked here and there, I expected a relaxed agenda. On the contrary it was the most efficiently-run meeting I have attended since landing here! These women knew how to get business done!

The Israeli attacks on humanitarian activists was discussed in detail during the full council meeting. One Australian teacher who had been on exchange in Palestine gave her emotional account of students living with 2 hours of electricity a day. One student would do his homework under one of the security lights he found. For me it was interesting to hear world-wide politics being discussed with respect to the women and children involved and what Australia's education system's responsibility might be to support them.

One council member asked for reps with personal stories from their schools on how the state tests have affected their teaching, curriculum decisions, moral, etc. to jot them down and submit them to her as a data collection process. Anyone with verbal descriptions was welcome to meet her in the lobby to discuss. I followed her out and asked if I could listen in as a fly on the wall, since we have the very same issues in the states. Sure enough, rep after rep came to discuss the woes of teaching to the test and using the test as the teaching resource for grammar, writing genres, or comprehension. They complained of non-English students not having the experiences or vocabulary to draw upon. They talked of abandoning math games as a form of skill practice for more traditional skill drills. Sound familiar? What they don't have yet, however, is any of the computer details to work out. The tests are still given paper and pencil, with boxes stacked in the principal's office for each section.

No answers, just more of the same it seems. But it was acknowledged that the moratorium of last month, no testing if league tables are to be published, was the tip of the iceberg. That is, my thoughts had been, league tables? That's nothin'! Wait till the real issues surface and the real fight needs to be fought. But they do see the real fight coming. It's just in slow motion still here.

I was interested to learn that teachers are given pay increases for experience in industry and that years home with family are counted as half year in teaching field. To my knowledge no allowance is made for life experience in our Oregeon district, whether it be in the workplace or at home.

I also learned that the teachers' federation treats their Special Observers very nicely and that may be the only time I get to have such swanky quarters when I stay in Sydney!

Don't know how I can use this to change the U.S. world. Let me know if you have thoughts on it.