It’s that time of the term when there are camps and excursions and who knows what else which teachers are required to organise and supervise.

Next week I shall spend three days watching high school students play golf, bowls and other games and check that they behave themselves.

Is this more a waste of my time or theirs? Or is it primarily a waste of money – the investment in teacher training, the government funding of education and the parents’ funding of their children’s studies at private schools?

It would be comforting to think that my school was unusual, that I could get a job elsewhere in Perth and be spared the frustration this causes, but I doubt that this is so.

The purpose is  to “bond with our students”. How much bonding occurs while we watch them playing with their peers? I fear there is very little, if any. It is akin to doing playground duty for a whole day rather than discussing crucial life issues, reading and writing about them, and being held to account, never mind all the other aspects of the daily English classroom.

What is it in our western, laid back outlook on life that says that this is educating a child?