Schooling is in my blood. My mother,uncle and grandfather were teachers in government schools in Victoria and as a child I wanted to follow in their footsteps. After my undergraduate degree I was accepted into – but did not pursue – a Diploma of Education. I hold five university qualifications,including two Masters degrees,and spent over 20 years as a university lecturer.
Kate Gaffney was a school refuser who went on to spend her career in education.Supplied
I was also a school refuser for five years.
Had I been forced to attend through “tough love” I firmly believe I would have become a truant. I would not have finished. School refusal is complex and each child’s reasons are different. My experience only makes sense to me decades later.
My school refusal began in grade six. At the time my parents were going through a protracted divorce,my childhood home was almost destroyed by bushfire,my father was hospitalised with serious health conditions. My mother,a highly educated and articulate domestic violence survivor,did her best as we battled poverty. Clothes,food and heat were all luxuries. We had no car. Amid that,I was moved at short notice between three schools in 14 months,which removed any stability I had outside the home. At two of the schools I had been bullied due financial hardship.
When I did attend,I felt unstimulated and like an outsider. One Monday we studied decimals and I excitedly returned for the following days to find we weren’t studying decimals again. Watching Indiana Jones films was a class time activity and an entire lesson was spent studying the Women’s Weekly Birthday Cake book. I can’t imagine how much those teachers would have welcomed better resources. They certainly had no resources to support a school refuser. The term didn’t even exist.
Instead of attending school,I asked my mother to give me maths and spelling tasks at home. I read the daily newspapers. I read encyclopaedias and history books,anything I could get my hands on,developed a lifelong love of politics. I never stopped learning,I just stopped going.
Eventually,the education department truant officer turned up and my mother spoke openly about her despair. He couldn’t offer anything more than a warning that failure to attend school could result in her facing prosecution. Now my dislike of school threatened my mother. None of that helped.
One day,I asked my mother why,if she was a teacher,she couldn’t teach me. That’s how I became one of only 40 Victorian students at the time being home educated with the permission of the education minister. There were no resources back then,no support.
In year 12,I returned to mainstream school and thrived. I’ve barely left education since,spending two decades teaching in degree and pathways programs that offered tailored university entry for students outside the mainstream system. Because it is education,not mere attendance,that changes lives for the better.
What would have helped me to attend school earlier? Nothing that was available. I needed systemic change that lifted me out of poverty. I needed well resourced schools and teachers. I needed time to think and process everything that was beyond my control. My mother desperately wanted me to attend,but there was no support for her,just threats and ignorant judgments. We must do better than that.
Home education was a solution for me,but it is not for everyone. That’s the point,we need diverse,innovative thinking. A dislike of school does not equal a dislike of learning.
Shaming parents is cheap and counter-productive. I want to assure parents of school refusers that they are not to blame. They are not bad parents who should simply drop their children at the school gates and show “tough love”. We should listen to parents and educators. And we should listen to what children are trying to tell us through their behaviour;sometimes it is their only means of effective communication.
Generalisations and over simplification achieve nothing. We need to find innovative solutions and provide real support for current and future students,not just blame and stigma.
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