After six years of teaching and the the constant stress of never-ending administration, an all-consuming workload, and the physical, emotional and mental exhaustion that comes with the job I made the decision to take a break (Chronic shortages push Canberra teachers to the brink, August 30, p1).
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I could not be everything my students needed me to be and it broke my heart. With 25 students in a class with different strengths, different needs, different interests, and different goals, one exhausted, overworked teacher could not meet all the expectations.
On top of our core teaching role we are expected to be knowledgeable in nursing, counselling, security and safety, data interpretation, ICT troubleshooting, and more. We need to hire the wide range of specialists our students need. Educators are buckling under the load.
Teachers feel guilty when they take a day off. They care about their students' and their colleagues' workloads. It can be difficult to understand how hard we work.
But one thing is now clear: without big changes teachers will continue to leave. What would we do if they were all to go?
Stephanie O'Neill,
AEU ACT member, Franklin
Pick up the poo
I agree with Vee Saunders (Letters, September 9) regarding dog droppings.
The amount of dog droppings on and beside the path around Lake Tuggeranong is piling up. It's not that hard to carry a bag to pick up after your dog. Oh, and don't just toss the filled bag away.
Helen Raynes Greenow, Tuggeranong
Dutton is out of touch
Peter Dutton is doing his best to make China even more determined to punish Australia by likening the Chinese Communist Party to the 1930s Nazis ("Dutton compares China to 1930s Nazis", September 9, p3).
Mr Dutton's comments were reportedly made in the context of "the Australian-American alliance and the build-up of Australia's offensive military capability".
He has has lost touch with reality if he thinks Australia's military could be any more than an irritation to Chinese military might regardless of how much taxpayers' money he invests in the Australian Defence Force.
Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin
Dutton's scare campaign
Dutton is comparing China with 1930s Nazi Germany.
Be scared Australia, China's coming to invade us. But America's "military industrial complex" (to quote former US President Dwight Eisenhower) will save us by selling us war machines.
We will be able to resist China (or the next US enemy with problematic F-35s while accompanying the US in more of its its highly successful military interventions across the globe.
Remember? Vietnam was saved from the "downward thrust of communism", the 2003 Iraq invasion stopped Saddam Hussein from blowing us to bits with non existent "weapons of mass destruction" and facilitated the birth of freedom loving ISIS and the US has just achieved another great success by transforming Afghanistan into a great country ruled by a freedom loving democratic Taliban who will, of course, enhance women's rights and other social freedoms.
How can Australia resist such nobility and largesse?
While the events of September 11 planes were inexcusable into towers events were inexcusable, where is the cold blooded analysis of the growth of anti-US sentiment in the Arab world that led to the attacks?
We don't want to go there, that's too embarrassing.
Vince Patulny, Kambah
Use your votes Australia
Stop whingeing about Scott Morrison. Just vote him out. And I wonder who thought he was a good selection in the first place?
Gary Frances, Bexley, NSW
JobKeeper waste a worry
Unlike Mario Stivala (Letters, September 7) I'm not too fussed about what Xi Jinping does with his wealth.
Australia's wealth being looted through JobKeeper? Well that's a different matter.
