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Sydney Morning Herald

Good teaching is more than just a numbers game

Christopher Harris revealed in his article that some universities accept students with low ATAR scores who want to become teachers (' The universities where struggling students can study teaching ', August 18). In defence of this, I must point out that high school does not work for many teenage boys. One of my sons did very well in primary school but became totally distracted by sport and other issues during high school, such that at the end of year 12 his ATAR was useless in seeking any form of university entrance. After a year of labouring post-year 12, he saw the light, found one college that would accept him, put in the hard yards, changed to a major university after his first year, then finished a degree in engineering, followed by a post-graduate medical degree. Many students need time to mature; hence, a poor ATAR does not necessarily mean a poor university student and good ATAR does not necessarily mean a successful one. Often, given the opportunity, late-maturing students will flourish. They just need the time and encouragement. Geoff Lindsay, Thurgoona Retirement can give perspective on a 40-year career. Yes, a week in the classroom can be rewarding, challenging, magical and frustrating, but does it require an 80+ ATAR launch pad? My priority would be the passion and skill set of the graduate, which would be grounded in the potential teacher's personality, authentic pre-service formation and effective in-school support. As with other professions, the final product is far more important than a number invalidly used to rank the potential of 18-year-olds. Kim Crawford, Springwood In one way, the ATAR entry for teaching degrees does reflect the status of teachers. The ATAR score required is as much a tool to reduce numbers for the more prestigious degrees as it is an ability screening tool. Academic knowledge is important, but proficiency in exams is not always an accurate measure of the complex mixture of skills and personality needed to be an effective teacher. As disappointing as the drop-out rates are, they demonstrate that the pre-service courses and practical experiences provide a more accurate assessment of vocational preparedness than an ATAR score. Philip Cooney, Wentworth Falls Monday's editorial cannot be ignored (' Teachers are the backbone of society. So why do so few people apply? ' August 18). Teaching is no longer a profession that attracts the best and brightest into a teaching degree. The editorial highlights the increased workloads, unruly students and parents who support their children rather than the teachers. Salaries are not good enough when compared to the opportunities in the commercial world. Most men, vital to the profession, no longer see teaching as a career option. It's time for a complete rethink on how to restore the 'importance of teachers' in society. Our children deserve it. Denis Suttling, Newport Beach Recognition overdue Critics of the Albanese government's decision to recognise Palestine need to study the history of the state of Israel (' Australians split on plan for Palestinian recognition ', August 18). British philosopher Bertrand Russell, in one of his final newspaper articles, published two days before his death, wrote 'Palestinian refugees evicted from their own land will be the moral millstone around the neck of world Jewry. The tragedy is that their country was given by a foreign power (the UK) to another people for the creation of a new state. No people anywhere would accept being expelled en masse from their own country.' Last week, the Jewish US professor Jeremy Sachs wrote an open letter to the Israeli foreign minister in which he stated: 'Israel stands against almost the entire world in its endeavour to block the two-state solution. Your government rejects peace because it aims for domination over all of Palestine instead.' Australia has history to support it in its overdue decision to join the majority of the world's nations in backing the recognition of Palestine. Doug Hewitt, Hamilton I can understand the argument for tying recognition of Palestine to Hamas' departure. But it also makes me wonder, should we withdraw our recognition of Israel until Netanyahu leaves too? He and his government have carried out more atrocities than Hamas ever has, and they intend to continue doing so. If Australians think recognition of statehood is tied to what we think of a government, we need to be consistent. Jacqueline Trenbath, Earlwood Identity politics Correspondent Riley Brown writes 'identity politics is divisive, it is a flawed ideology' (Letters, August 18). This completely misses the point. Identity politics is not an entity created and promoted by some unknown group, nor does it have a 'function to divide'. People individually gravitate to identity politics for all sorts of reasons. The breakdown of families, clubs, societies and religious beliefs inevitably results in some people feeling alienated, and they search for something else to identify with, feel a part of and be supported by. Minority groups don't need identity politics to feel 'different', let alone to convince them that they are 'oppressed'. They know they are oppressed through their life's experiences, and the statistics back them up. We had far less 'identity politics' in the '80s when governments made a real effort to welcome and integrate people into our society, and not demonise them as the unwanted 'others'. Pauline Croxon, Earlwood Riley Brown is wrong to claim that identity politics is divisive and serves to highlight differences between groups. The fact is that differences do exist in terms of how groups have been treated, and still are (' It's time to stop looking at identity politics as a weakness ', August 16). The life span, health, education and incarceration rates of Indigenous Australians are massively worse than for the population at large. While women achieved equal pay by law within my working life, they still don't have it practice. They are also far more likely to be subjected to domestic violence, rape and murder than men. There is also still considerable discrimination against those with same-sex relationships. As a straight white bloke I can certainly see that identity differences are treated unfairly. I believe calling this out is not just appropriate but necessary, because without it society would not have progressed. In fact, we may well have gone backwards. Al Svirskis, Mount Druitt I'm almost at a loss for words to comment on your correspondent's simplistic description of the complex mix of people that make up contemporary Australia. One thing that is clear though, is that he (she?) has never been a member of a minority group to see first-hand the vulnerabilities and disadvantage people really do experience. Kerrie Wehbe, Blacktown Riley Brown should be aware that identifying as a conservative white male is also identity politics. Geoff Teys, Chippendale AI fallout Melanie La'Brooy makes some good points in her article on AI ('Tech lords' brave new world might actually be a dump ', August 18). In particular, she highlights the propositions from people like Scott Farquhar, chair of Tech Council of Australia (whatever that may be). While Farquhar worries that Australia may be 'hampered by the wrong legislation', he also wishes to speed up planning approvals for data centres. Conveniently, he and his wife Kim Jackson have a stake in the company that builds these data centres. While Farquhar's success with Atlassian is to be admired, I certainly have no wish for him to be guiding policy decisions on behalf of Australians. And please don't get me started on his stated desire to use writers', artists', musicians' and other creatives' intellectual property (without paying for it), claiming it will render his AI technology 'more human'. Perhaps he could start with himself. Nick Andrews, Bellevue Hill It is time to begin a serious national discourse on A1. Megan Herbert's salient depiction (Letters, August 18) captures the seismic shift that has led to the loss of paid work in the IT industry. As AI gathers momentum and begins to impact on other professions, we as a society need to be addressing the economic elephant in the room – how are we planning for a world where paid work for many can no longer be guaranteed? Can volunteer work have an important role in this looming future reality? It's a discussion that needs to begin now. Rod Leonarder, Roseville Key to higher productivity Tushaar Garg identifies the loss of innovators as a key reason for our low productivity improvement (' Roundtable ignores the most urgent leak in our productivity pipeline ', August 18). Being an open trading nation keeps us up to date with ideas and technology, but it also means our innovators can leave if they feel inclined. Improving connections to key economic cities with video calls and meetings, and direct flights to New York and London by Qantas next year, will make it easier for innovators to live in Australia. But we need to do much more at home. Productivity is heavily impeded by sprawling, inefficient cities and towns and by poor connections between them. We need major investment in higher density cities. This and faster connections between cities and towns will bring efficiency and new opportunities, which will lead to more innovation. Peter Egan, Fairview Park Ross Gittins' article should be compulsory reading for participants in the productivity roundtable this week (' Want better productivity? Keep wages rising strongly ', August 18). Productivity, in economic terms, is defined as measuring output per unit of input. Labour productivity (output per worker) is only part of the story. Capital productivity, which measures output per unit of capital input (better machines, better use of technology) should also be considered. Are employers and companies making the best use of their inputs, or are they just interested in short-term gains by paying relatively low wages? Some critics just want to blame workers for not working hard enough. Brian Parker, Terrigal Would dropping red tape/regulations to increase productivity stop fraud, corruption, shoddy work, bullying, intimidation et cetera when regulations were legislated because of such behaviours (' Australia needs to cough up its 'regulatory hairballs', says PC boss ', August 18)? Just remember the past behaviour of financial, building and welfare institutions. Margaret Wilkie, Peregian Beach (Qld) One factor sapping productivity from the Australian population is the wait time when trying to deal with corporate call centres. Compounding this waste is then dealing with a chatbot unable to handle the complexities of a real-life query. The outcome? Call disconnected by the call centre. What a frustrating waste with no progress. This week I attempted to avoid this by calling into a bank branch with some forms requiring a validated signature. None of the three staff members could help. The person needed would be in next week. Again, a waste of time and effort. Corporate Australia is guilty of wasting clients' time when it could be doing something more productive. Margaret White, Lindfield Trump outfoxed How refreshing to read Pete Shmigel's reality piece on the relationship between the peace prize-seeking 'dealmaker' and the Russian war criminal (' Putin has eliminated truth. If nothing is true, anything is possible ', August 18). The meeting confirmed what many already thought – that Trump is no more than a bullying and bombastic salesman who treats the presidency as another episode of The Apprentice, and who has been totally outmanoeuvred by Vladimir Putin with no regard to the future of Ukraine. Trump's capitulation is not just a threat to Ukraine, but a signal to Putin that he can proceed further into Europe to reclaim, in his eyes, the former Soviet territories. Who would have thought that a US president would cosy up to a Russian dictator at the expense of a democratic country? Trump is a curse on the free world. Max Redmayne, Drummoyne Can the world please stop talking about 'deals' (' Zelensky says Russian ceasefire refusal complicates peace efforts ', August 18)? Trump does not make deals. Never has, never will. Trump is an extortionist, and the object of his extortion is self-aggrandisement. I pity anyone he's made a 'deal' with. Andrew Scott, Pymble Donald, news for you. You are not getting the Nobel Peace Prize. While you have troops patrolling your capital, and you condone anonymous masked men abducting people off the streets in your cities, then you are far off being considered a peace broker. When you take pride in the extremely cruel treatment of people in detention centres then you are showing the world that you are not up to an acceptable standard. Get your house in order and then you might get some consideration. Eric Sekula, Turramurra While I can't disagree with much of what your correspondents say about Donald Trump (Letters, August 18) and agree that he is to say the least 'unusual', he has at least gone out of his way to sit down and talk to some of the world's nastier autocrats, which is more than his predecessors did. Certainly, there will be no solution to any of today's conflicts without discourse and, say what you like, he's at least given it a shot. Better to have tried and failed than not tried at all. Peter Thornton, Killara Gas leak Whoa, Peter Lane, where is the evidence that 'LNG has replaced coal as a fuel and the net effect has been to materially reduce global CO2 emissions' (Letters, August 18)? Admittedly, when burnt, LNG (methane) produces 'only' about half the CO2 as the energy equivalent amount of coal. However, it is the fugitive emissions that leak during the extraction, transport, storage, processing and use of the methane that cause the problem. With methane being about 20 to 80 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2, depending on the timescale, only a few per cent loss (and it's often more) makes this gas dirtier than coal. Makes the destruction of thousands of Aboriginal petroglyphs at Burrup Peninsula worth it, doesn't it? Hugh Barrett, Sanctuary Point Bosses escape again Again we see Qantas added to the long list of telcos, banks and other major corporations hit with multi-million dollar penalties for mistreating workers (' Qantas hit with $90 million penalty for illegal sacking of 1800 workers ', August 18). Companies don't make decisions independently of those who run them, so where are the penalties for those individuals who made the decisions that broke the law? It isn't enough to cancel or reduce the bonuses of high-powered executives. They are the ones who should bear the burden of any court-imposed penalties. Fining the corporation simply leaves its shareholders and customers to pick up the tab for all the wrongdoing. Where's the justice in that? Adrian Connelly, Springwood Nice approach Kudos to the pilot for safely landing on the 15th fairway at Mona Vale golf course. In 20-odd rounds there, I'm unable to claim that achievement (' Light plane makes emergency landing on Mona Vale golf course ', August 18). Jeremy Brender, West Richmond (SA) Immortal plastic Digging around in our garden recently, I unearthed one of our daughter's little plastic gumboots. It was still as bright yellow as the day it was bought with nary a hole, even after it had been buried for at least 40 years (' The lifecycle of plastics, a modern wonder that is choking the planet ', August 17). Merilyn McClung, Forestville