06/01/2026
Dear, Brendon
That comment presents a very low portion of truth. But, let’s just pretend that you are mostly correct. Let’s have a look at just 1 of the reasons this may be occuring shall we?
If I could explain 1 scenario, just 1 of the many in a 25 to 28 students in a modern classroom. This is not factoring in that almost 50% of them are already provisioned up with Imputed disabilities, verified disabilities, trauma injuries both physical and psychological.
So, let’s take just one of them.
Student – Learns and tries to engage with the content (shows that they are unable to access to standards)
System – How’s it going?
Teacher – It’s behavioural.
System – So… what are the triggers?
Teacher - Instruction (all aspects)
System - Lets get the parents in.
Teacher – But it’s not all defiance, it’s delay. It’s skill gaps. It’s working memory. It’s processing. It’s frustration.
System – Did the student meet the achievement standard?
Teacher – No, yet. We’re still building the foundations.
System – Data?
Teacher – I’ve got data. Running records. PAT. Work samples. Observations. Adjustments log. Contact log. Behaviour frequency chart. Intervention notes. I have also sent emails and called parents with no reply.
System – Great. Let’s put it in a plan.
Teacher – Another plan? I’m already writing three. And teaching 28 kids. And managing trauma. And being a part-time social worker so that his “emotional level of control” is in tact. How about until parents have spoken to a specialist; parents have replied and when the students behaviour doesn’t see them flip the classroom every morning,
System – Well-being check-in: have you tried a calm corner?
Teacher – I’ve tried calm corners, brain breaks, sensory tools, chunking, explicit instruction, structured literacy, number sense routines, visual supports, reduced load, assistive tech, parent meetings, case management, differentiated assessments, alternative tasks, micro-goals, rewards, restorative chats.
System – And?
Teacher – The kid still can’t read the question. The book ends up in a hole on the oval. So he can’t do the maths. So he melts down. Then we label the meltdown the problem.
System – But behaviour is a choice.
Teacher – Sometimes. And sometimes it’s a symptom. A flare-up. An alarm going off in their head because they heard the word no.
System – We need to keep standards high. you need more training 🫣
Teacher – Standards are fine, Pretending this child has equal runway isn’t. It’s like measuring the finish line while ignoring where the line started.
System – What’s your next step?
Teacher – The same next step every time: more data, less teaching, more “evidence”, less intervention.
System - How’s all the other students going, we have noticed the boys have dropped in overall attendance and their comprehension in the last standardised testing seems very different to last year.
Teacher - Yeah, I’m just not keeping up.
System - We have a number you can call.
Teacher - Ring Ring
Support - Sounds like you need look after yourself
Teacher - Okay, I’ll try
Student - Looses their s**t, Parents want to know why their child is so far behind, that their child shouldn’t be outside having downtime, they should be in the class learning like their peer.
Teacher - But they threw a chair at a student, so we had to remove them, twice this week.
Parent - Well, we have been distracted, going through a change of routine, dog just passed away, dads got bed sores cause he works nights and I have 6 other kids to manage.
Teacher - So…
System - Let’s make a
Plan
Teacher - “ahh fu # #”
System - Modified days.
Teacher - Wooohoooo
Students - Woohoooo
Teacher - Rightio students, we are in Term 3 - time to step it up students.
Students - “But I don’t remember any of this, can we just draw”
Teacher - oh, I’ll need to enthusiastically re-teach every single one of you perfectly imperfect cherubs.
System - Hi, Just wondering if you have examples for moderation this afternoon.
Teacher - Sure
Team - Wow, they really low, I’d give them a D. Such a shame, she used to be a B solid.
Teacher - Yeah
System - Sounds like you need son professional development and additional support in the classroom.
Teacher - How do I tell them that there’s 7 others that are needing support.
System - Congrats on all that you do for your students. We are going to arbitration for your efforts.
And that’s where the real bastardisation lands.
Because when you compress and contort the curriculum, and strip out the “catchers” like Arts, practical modalities, creative assessment pathways, and time to explicitly teach foundations, you don’t get excellence. You get triage.
Teachers stop being educators and become emergency responders in a burning building, armed with a clipboard and a policy.
And the kid?
He learns the most dangerous lesson of all:
“I’m the problem.”
No mate, the student isn’t. Neither are the teachers and their exec teams However, The systematic approach is.
It takes a learning problem, turns it into a behaviour problem, then punished the child for reacting exactly how a stuck, embarrassed, overwhelmed child reacts, and virtually did the same to the teacher, although, thankfully the behaviour looks a little different, it’s called “burn out” otherwise known as poor mental health, low self esteem, imposter syndrome, survival, sleep deprivation, executive dysfunction, major depressive mood disorders. Sorry, I’ll stop there.
And the kicker?
The same system will later ask why engagement is down, why suspensions are up, why literacy and numeracy are sliding, why anxiety is through the roof… like it’s a mystery hey? Don’t get me started on what the general public think.
It’s not a mystery. It’s maths, it’s a science, where all the controls and variables are determined by chance, investigation and analysis - which requires time. lol TIME 🫣😂
Less time + more complexity + fewer pathways + delayed supports = more kids slipping through the cracks.
Less time + more complexity + fewer pathways + delayed supports = more teachers slipping through the cracks.
And us teachers who can hold the fort for a little longer, are left holding the bag when it spills to the floor, getting judged on outcomes they were structurally prevented from delivering.
Your comment deserved this reply. And I don’t think less of you, but, I felt I needed to explain, perhaps you would adjust your thinking, as we adjust for all students.
Big love to all educators on the front line.
Damion James Douglass
Teacher.
