No A-plus in PM’s Brighton response

ABOUT 150 years ago I was doing teaching rounds. Who knows what they call them in the 21st century, but back then teaching rounds were when student teachers were confronted with reality for the first time.

This was a terrifying and enlightening experience.

There were three or four rounds in the year. But the first round was when you realised that you knew nothing about real human beings in a real live classroom setting.

Three years of university meant nothing. Facts and figures were useless if you were unable to control the mob. Preparing a lesson plan was a shuddering reminder you have to engage conversation with “young minds” who were hell-bent tearing you to shreds.

Year 7 social studies at Geelong High was a mixed bag of interest and disinterest, but they had a unifying mission that could not be underestimated. They believed it was their purpose to annihilate the visiting student teacher.

That is a confrontation that hasn’t changed through the years. The rules are unwritten, but crystal clear.

During that time I was trying to teach systems of government. I was fighting a losing battle.

So instead of listing the styles, including monarchy, democracy and dictatorship and then detailing their differences, we started from the other end of the telescope.

We brainstormed a list of all the different elements of a social system that we all valued. What were the non-negotiables?

The class agreed people should be allowed to do whatever they wanted, but supported a strong set of laws to control potential anarchy.

They all wanted to have a vote on who was going to be the leader, but they didn’t think that voting needed to be compulsory.

None of them wanted to pay taxes, but they would if they had to.

None wanted a monarch in charge, but all thought it would be good to have one person who made the final decision. All of them believed that if the leader was doing a good job they could stay in office for as long as they liked.

As long as the society was running smoothly they didn’t want to be bothered with politics. But when the bumps arrived, they wanted the option to change things over night.

In the end we discovered the class had determined that they wanted to live under a benevolent dictatorship. They had surprised themselves with this conclusion and they impressed all of us with their honesty.

This week there has been a national discussion about who is responsible for breakdowns in the justice system. Even our Prime Minister has thrown his two cents into the discussion. Having a crack at the Victorian Government, in the shadow of the Brighton attack.

Parole is not an easy matrix. You can’t just become an expert because the system appears to have failed in a public fashion.

Improvement requires ongoing engagement and honest responses when things work correctly, not just when things are falling apart.

If we stay awake and stay engaged, maybe we can get a little closer to the blueprint for the perfect society. Ross Mueller is a freelance writer and director.