I finished reading a book today!

“Wait!” I hear you say. “Don’t you read all the time?”

I don’t actually read many books. I am not proud of this statement, but it is true. From childhood to young adulthood, I was a voracious reader. But, somewhere between reading Enid Blyton to my children and drowning in the incredible mental load that is my profession, I got out of the habit. These days I read opinion articles on relationships, sexuality, education, and the indigenous history of Australia. But to read an entire book from cover to cover? Not something I do often.

But this post is not about my reading habits. It is about what I read and the questions I am now asking about a decision I have made to take up a full-time contract at a mainstream school for Term1 of 2026. Teacher is a memoir written by an Australian primary school teacher, Gabbi Stroud. A friend gave me the book to read, thinking that I would find it interesting, being a teacher who was grappling with how long I wanted to stay fully immersed in this great profession.

The first chapter triggered deep sadness in me. So much so that I put the book aside for about a year. I was unsure about reading the rest of the story. I had seen so many teachers struggle. I had been in the trenches myself, ranting about ridiculous data collection and questioning the pressure to prepare students for standardised tests. But recently I picked it up and, while I still recognised and empathised with her struggles, I didn’t feel as triggered by her words.

I even found some inspiration on those pages. During an interview Gabbie once told a principal that she teaches children. As a high school teacher, I get asked all the time, “What do you teach?’ My usual response is, “I teach maths and science to naughty boys.” And for the most part, that is what I do. I try to get some numeracy skills and understanding of scientific rigor into the thinking of Young People, mostly men, who have not been successful in the schooling system.

2025 has been a year of reflecting on my life direction. I resigned my full time position and have spent the year working as a relief teacher in a couple of different schools. The question of “What is on my bucket list?” has taken up a lot of my thinking. The process has not been linear or predictable, something that I find endlessly frustrating. But I have gotten to the end of 2025 with a small amount of clarity about what it is I would like to do with the time I have left on this Earth. To that end I have taken a contract to work full time in a mainstream school for one term of 2026.

My plans for 2026 include a trip to the US, which, like all such adventures, will be expensive. The boost to my bank balance was the main motivation for accepting this position. Australian teachers get paid a reasonable amount. So, while our working conditions are similar to those in the US and other Western countries, it is difficult for Australian teachers to get short-term work that pays as well or better. This is a major shift in thinking for me. I wonder if it will make a difference in my usual way of forming connections with my students. As I go through the ridiculous amount of paperwork and onboarding procedures, I am starting to wonder if I have made the right choice. I am wondering if I will get to the end of the term and know for sure that I am done with teaching. Or will I finish my last day knowing that I need to go back? Right now, my money is on the former. But the eternal optimist in me is hoping for the latter.

Gabbi’s story validates a lot of my thinking that politicians and parents have completely missed the point of schools and education. Her words solidify the feeling of discontent that sits in my belly after staff meetings. Like her, my focus is Young People in front of me. My passion is turning on that curiosity about the world and how it works. I am not worried if they can’t remember the formula for the circumference of a circle. I am more concerned that they consider it an option for solving a problem they find in front of them. I don’t care if they can’t recite the first twenty elements of the periodic table. I would rather they question a set of data they find on social media and evaluate the integrity of the data they are looking at.

As I have posted before, our education system is broken. Sadly, fixing it will not be easy or simple. But we owe it to our young people and the young people of the future to acknowledge that this isn’t working, and that change is essential. As 2025 draws to a close and I look forward to the adventures of 2026, I am pondering a more personal question. Will this be the last time I teach a group of Young People?

The following Hypnosis and Training Materials below are recommended training enhancements to this blog post.