Private schools. We cannot work for you for free.
Thursday, March 10, 2011 at 2:26PM HERE I was, the girl who went to Reservoir High, at the opening of the Melbourne Writers Festival, glass of champagne in hand, chatting to a couple of mates (one went to Croydon High, the other to Frankston High) about privilege. One of my mates reminded me of the email exchange that follows. This is a true story, although some of the names have been changed.
To: Catherine Deveny
From: Humphries, Henry
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My name is Henry Humphries and I am the Head of English at Kingsley Methodist Grammar School, Melbourne. I'm looking for a group of professional writers to act as mentors for a class of year 10 students doing a writing course and I would love you to be one. Each student will have their own private mentor. Are you interested?
Regards, Henry
From: Catherine Deveny
Hey, Henry! Good to hear from you. Happy to mentor. What's the fee? C
From: Humphries, Henry
Hi Catherine, Thanks for your enthusiasm. You're the first person to ask about a fee. Henry
From: Catherine Deveny
Well, I can't afford to work for free. Particularly for a business. C
From: Humphries, Henry
I think we can all afford to work for free when the aim is to help people. I'd like the students to see that writing can be inspirational, confrontational and thought-provoking and that it could one day lead to a professional career. Henry
From: Catherine Deveny
I agree! Tonight I am emceeing a free gig to help clothe disadvantaged women attempting to get back into the workforce. Next week I am doing a free debate for a non-profit magazine that raises issues about social justice and the plight of victims of war and discrimination. And I'm paying for a babysitter. Kingsley Grammar is not a charity. It's a business. C
From: Humphries, Henry
Catherine, You seem to be missing my point. I'm asking you to help one kid get better at writing by offering some advice on one piece of their writing. I don't see how this will help fill the coffers of Kingsley Methodist Grammar School. It's one person helping another person. Henry
From: Catherine Deveny
I see exactly how it will help the coffers of Kingsley Grammar. "We have a pool, state of the art entertainment complex, manicured grounds and professional writers to personal mentor. That's why you should spend your money at Kingsley Grammar." It may not be on the website or in the pamphlets, but it'll certainly get bragged about at the dinner parties and sleepover drop-offs. Pretty simple really.
I mentor plenty of secondary students, from both public and private schools. Ones who contact me. Passionate writers. Individuals. Not businesses. I have three little kids and, at the moment, I'm the primary earner for my family. I happily do charity work. For charity. C
From: Humphries, Henry
Wow! You really have thought about this a lot. What would you consider to be a reasonable fee? Henry
From: Catherine Deveny
My fee would be a $200 donation to the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre. C
THAT exchange happened over about 30 minutes. Contrary to what Henry writes, I hadn't thought about it at all. I was just quickly responding to another request. What struck me was the extraordinary sense of entitlement. You scratch my back and — I'm sorry, what's in it for me?
I get asked to speak at private and government schools regularly and I enjoy it. Almost every time I speak at a private school the head girl or boy presents me with flowers or a bottle of wine and a handwritten card at the end of my talk. I always say to the class, "What? So I'm not getting paid?" The kids and the teachers laugh. Then I say, "Seriously. Does this mean I'm not getting paid?" It's very clear they want to give the students the illusion that I'm doing it for free. Because they are just so special. When I mentioned this bizarre practice to one of the private school teachers, she snipped: "It's just good manners."
I said: "So you present the gardener, the cleaner and the plumber that comes in to unblock the toilets a bottle of wine and a handwritten card when they've finished their work?"
Buy tickets to Catherine Deveny in Conversation with Samuel Johnson 17th June 2012
Reader Comments (3)
Give it to them Catherine. As a boy going to Brunswick Techional, (now Brunswick High. Kennet killed the old Brunswick High in Victoria street and turned it in to the Brunswick Business Centre). We had an assembly once and deputy headmaster Mr Eastoe, who will we called the fat man said "Boys the best you can do is get a trade because there are boys like you going to schools on the other side of the Yarra and you are going to be working for them."
The best part of 40 years later I'm a teacher of 10 years standing. At a high school 410 ks north west of Sydney, that is 50% Aboriginal and farm kids. Now there's no private school that's 50% Aboriginal is there? Also I have not met anyone like Eastoe.
I hate private schools? And I hate our taxes going to them.
Sad to say, where is the goodwill. while I agree rich private schools certainly deserve to be charged but their are a number of them which ahve to do it tough also. Dont lump everything into your myopic little circle. Grow up and learnt to give and not expect anything in return... I pity your children..
Yes, when I was doing my Dip Ed. at Melbourne Uni in 2007 the same thing happened. The Edu Faculty several times passed on invitations from elitist private schools for pre-service teachers to take up a wonderful opportunity to mentor privileged students - for free. It was made explicit that you wouldn't want to get paid because the benefit of being associated with such a presitigious school would be very good for your CV.
Of course Melb Uni is a concentrated little node point of privilege and the majority of local students come from 'good' schools, so they were astonished at my objections. Old tie networks persist in very practical ways, and go unquestioned. Why wouldn't you mentor a student, why be so mean spirited, it's education right?
The schools involved know full well there is a dollar value to being able to advertise that your students are mentored by graduate education students from the most prestigious Uni in Victoria.
I asked the Edu Faculty which disadvantaged public schools we were offering free mentoring to because I'd be glad to do that, but believe it or not there were none.
Australia performs terribly on equity in education, and we've known that for decades but there's no political will to make things fair. Perhaps because most politicians send their kids to private schools? Perhaps because so many 'aspirational' middle class Aussies wish they could send their kids to private school, like they wish they had an 80 inch plasma... They want to believe in the prestige.
The saddest thing is there is now a once in a generation opportunity to make serious changes to funding equity in education - and it's in the hands of environmentalist Trojan Horse Peter Garrett, possibly the greatest hypocrite in recent political history, and a wealthy conservative Christian. We can't expect much from him.