MORE GREG WHITBY MAGIC

 

That clown prince of Cumberland Plain education, Greg Whitby, rattles the tin can of 'change' this week in our local rag.

 

Greg adroitly sets the scene with a few motherhood statements, namely-

'If you look at the past 20 years, every other profession has undergone significant change. We have seen companies emerge such as Uber and Netflix that have changed the business models for transport and broadcasting. Increasingly the use of technologies has radically transformed industry after industry, yet schools remain largely the same.'

 

Boom! ..............double NOT!

 

Where has Mr Whitby been over those twenty years that he references? Has he heard of annual school reports, national schools' testing and two complete revisions of curriculum, that is, everything that's taught in our classrooms?

 

Has Greg not noticed the huge increase in teachers' workloads through accreditation, assessment and reporting (teachers now generate between 20 000 and 30 000 word reports on their students each semester), the integration of students with disabilities into mainstream classrooms and the associated ILPs and PLPs that go with them, and new programming methodologies that necessitate lengthy consultation and collaboration between colleagues?

 

Did the memos on recently developed data-based student welfare structures and mental health initiatives miss this prat's desk? Has Mr Whitby ever seen a risk assessment form or attended a learning support team meeting?

 

I feel sorry for my catholic teaching colleagues. With a leader like Greg Whitby, they're probably running for cover every time he darkens a school entry gate.............. not that there's much chance of that happening.

 

P.S. I have a couple of suggestions for Greg. Firstly, he should surrender his ‘hot desk’ positioning in Tyke Tower. Secondly, I recommend a toke on a spliff coupled with a bag of Twisties chaser. I guarantee that anything he writes after such therapy will make more bloody sense than this ‘take’ on the need for change. Oh yeah, maybe a rainforest new age background soundscape might facilitate the whole fucked process too.

 

Posted on f/b on 11 July 2016.