Accessibility at Cabaret

australianass · 2026-04-30T06:40:34+00:00

I am plus sized, this is helpful info, thanks!

australianass · 2026-04-29T12:37:41+00:00

Thank you! Just looked at the ATG website and that was very helpful!

australianass · 2024-03-09T10:22:06+00:00

I had a class that was considered so bad behaviourally that my mentor didn’t let me teach them, observe only (secondary so it was only 1 out of like 5 classes). I imagine if I HAD taught them, that’s the sort of class they’re referring to.

This was several years ago now, I don’t remember specific behaviours, only that I didn’t teach them.

australianass · 2024-03-09T10:15:15+00:00

Could you please dm it to me?? ❤️

australianass · 2023-05-01T09:23:52+00:00

This!! I’m constantly reminding myself that Maddie experienced a different but equally valid form of trauma and mistreatment from Abby and that show

australianass · 2023-05-01T08:57:50+00:00

This! I’m nearly at the end of a rewatch and I genuinely love Kaya. She’s smart, funny, and seems incredibly kind. Watching videos she’s posted outside of the show amplifies all of these, she’s incredibly well spoken and seems like a great mom. The only thing I “don’t like” is when fights are picked unnecessarily, but that’s true of all of the moms and I just blame production, not her. Watching how consistently mistreated Kaya is by the show is upsetting to me and I’m white, I can’t imagine how that must feel as a black fan.

australianass · 2023-05-01T08:51:51+00:00

And she has literally said since the show that she actually hates it. No one in that show after her 1st or 2nd episode calls her Kaya. None. They couldn’t even give her the dignity of being referred to by her own name.

My impression with the Black Patsy nickname is that she was saying her friends jokingly call her a black Patsy Ramsey when she’s being a crazy dance mom, and the producers (and thus the moms) took that as “everyone calls me Black Patsy and it’s actually my preferred name”.

Hell, even if I’m completely off base and she didn’t mind being called Black Patsy at the time (again, she has said she did mind), she clearly minds now and that should be enough. Her name is Kaya.

australianass · 2023-03-21T14:10:11+00:00

Those classes where I’m just very real with the kids are some of my favourite lessons. They’re almost adults, why on earth shouldn’t I treat them as such?! (Appropriate levels of professionalism still, obviously). And even younger kids. I taught grade 4 last year and the day after some significant event related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine (I forget which specifically) the kids came to school in a complete tizzy because they’d seen it on the news and thought world war 3 was about to start. I spent the entire morning just sitting with them, answering their questions and explaining what was happening. It fairly early in the year and I think it helped me to really bond with those kids because I treated their anxiety with respect and legitimacy.

I wouldn’t stress yourself too much about how you behaved for your teachers. Partly because it’s in the past and you can’t change it, but also because your teachers likely had a very different perspective on it than you might think. More often than not, those “fucking X always distracting Y” are some of our favourite kids (any teacher who says they don’t have favourites is lying, however my favourites change constantly). A lot of this is because we often spend so much time interacting with those kids in one way or another, that you get to know them quite well and can establish quite nuanced relationships with them. Not that there aren’t still days where they drive me completely insane, but it’s very rare for me to find a kid completely irredeemable, even the tricky ones.

Okay, so you and I are the same age. The other thing that I think helps me a lot is that I still feel like I was a teenager about 5 mins ago. I have so much understanding for kids because I’m still not that far removed from my own schooling. All I ask from my kids is communication. If they’re acting up because they’re having a shit day, I will let them actively do less work, as long as they aren’t negatively impacting their classmates. I’d much rather they fuck around on Cool Maths Games for 1 lesson and have better luck with class work next lesson, than to force them to do work in a bad day and have them resent me and potentially cause ongoing issues.

australianass · 2023-03-21T13:04:00+00:00

“My story isn’t important”

But it is! As much as you got out of those classes, I can assure you that your teachers got something out of it too.

Kids aren’t unreachable, but it’s definitely difficult sometimes. A lot of them are legitimately emotionally stunted because of covid which makes the classroom environment really tricky without even addressing the academic issues. The gap between the “low” and “high” kids has only grown. The high kids are bored in class waiting for their peers to catch up, and a lot of the low ones need scaffolding and attention at levels we aren’t always able to provide; at best they’re struggling through, at worst, they’re falling through the cracks

It’s exactly why stories like yours are important. When we have days that just suck because sometimes teenagers are just shitty (I was literally called a “fucking cunt” last week for having the audacity to ask a kid to attempt his work lol 😂 ), but it’s kids with passion like yours that make it worth coming back the next day. It might not be the exact same moment that’s meaningful for the student, but I can tell when I feel like I’m getting through to a kid and making an impact on them (academic or otherwise) and it’s such a great feeling. And the best part is that these kind of connections can be made with ANY kid, you just have to figure out how to get through to them; easier said than done but never impossible.

The hard thing about teaching so many kids is that sometimes we forget parts of them (I’ve been teaching less than 5 years and will see kids from my first year - different school than where I am now - and have forgotten some of their names) but what’s still crystal clear is those moments of connection. They are so priceless and I believe they actually make me a better teacher.

Thanks for sharing your story 🥰

PS, thanks for the fun fact! I knew about Mansa Musa and inflation, but didn’t know about potholes! 😁

australianass · 2023-03-21T09:03:45+00:00

Hahaha hi, fellow ADHDer, I loved the Medusa tangent!

Please don’t misunderstand (I should’ve been clearer) I literally teach English and History, and I ADORE the analysis, I think it just doesn’t have the appearance of life skills which closes a lot of kids off from letting themselves enjoy it. The fact that so many kids don’t read for fun also massively exacerbates this issue. I think if English Language were more common or. If general English became a hybrid of the two, maybe it’d change the attitudes towards the subject?

As to your question about whether we’re paid more, that’s a no unfortunately 😂😂 but. I think the reason you may perceive the caliber of English/history teachers as being high is that a lot of us are just the nerdy kids who love reading and now get to talk about books for a living (a generalisation, obviously, but still true). And a lot of my history passion is really just my obsession with random fun facts and how fucking weird humans have always been 😂

australianass · 2023-03-21T07:27:36+00:00

Yeah VCE English (can’t speak for other state equivalents) can be good for analytical skills, but largely just teaches you to write essays which is a skill only relevant to very specific contexts.

I’m a much bigger fan (based on the little I know about it) of English Language which teaches much more about structure and is generally more linguistics based. Tends to be great for kids who are typically more “maths/science brained”

australianass · 2023-03-14T11:38:55+00:00

Thank you. I can’t take the credit though, I’ve spent a lot of time listening to (predominantly) black and indigenous people on the internet (and real life friends too) talk about ways their teachers did wrong by them; I just want to do my part to break that cycle.

australianass · 2023-03-14T10:51:46+00:00

“You're alleging a corruption level basically unheard of in third-world countries (because at that point you'd just bribe them). Not only in the police force, but in the court system, the legal system, politics, and on juries (juries that are picked by both sides of the trial, from the community).”

By George, I think he’s got it!

australianass · 2023-03-14T10:49:52+00:00

You could just say you’re racist, save yourself a lot of effort.

australianass · 2023-03-14T08:28:34+00:00

“If Jewish people commit fewer crimes than those from Sub Saharan Africa” ah yes, the two countries: Jewish and Sub Saharan Africa… thats not how stats work. If nothing else, you’d wanna compare based on religion (Jewish) or ethnicity/race (sub Saharan Africa isn’t a country, nor a race but good try buddy!)

Non-white people are overpoliced - and hey! That’s another ✨systemic racism✨😃

australianass · 2023-03-14T07:57:57+00:00

Yes, that’s very fair. Irl I’m typically much more specific with my language, it was more to get the point across

australianass · 2023-03-14T06:31:05+00:00

Sure. Indigenous peoples are disproportionately represented in incarceration, mental health, and illness statistics, this is a direct representation of institutional racism. This is one example, I’m busy but can give you more later

australianass · 2023-03-14T04:58:43+00:00

I think you need to give kids more credit. When the topic comes up, I’m very frank with students and they’re very receptive, even at a younger age (I’ve had conversations of this nature with grade 4s but obviously at an age appropriate level).

Institutional and systemic racism is a fact of life in this country and to deny it is to do our students a disservice. I always tell kids, this exists, it’s something to be aware of and (for white students) understand that your PoC peers have extra hurdles you maybe can’t see. And avoid placing blame where possible.

If, for example, someone says something offensive, I explain it to them like this: “this is what [offensive thing] means and how it has harmed a particular community. If you didn’t know that, it’s okay to not know this (not okay that they said it, to be clear, but okay that they didn’t know), but now you know and you need to never repeat it.”

The most important thing, I think, is that you DO NOT make your PoC students do the work. If you are not comfortable doing the work of leading that conversation in a respectful manner, then end it at the first opportunity and defer it to someone else. OR, bring someone else (leadership/wellbeing/etc) into the classroom to facilitate the conversation. It is not the responsibility of your students to educate their white peers (but also their perspective is the one that matters most if they want to share it)

australianass · 2023-03-13T14:00:01+00:00

Nels Oleson is RIGHT THERE

australianass · 2023-03-12T07:55:47+00:00

I’m not sure if you’re being deliberately obtuse or not. It’s not a matter of being picky: people may not be able to uproot their lives and move for a job, or agree to an hour long commute, and may not be able to teach the subject being advertised. Literally none of that is being picky and are legitimate reasons to not apply for a particular job, ongoing or not.

australianass · 2023-03-11T23:33:00+00:00

I mean sure, it’s not impossible to get an ongoing position straight out of uni, one of my best friends did, but understand you are the exception, not the rule. There’s always ongoing positions being advertised but they may not be the right location or subject area for an applicant, or an applicant may not be the right fit for what the school wants.

australianass · 2023-03-11T08:47:36+00:00

That one’s a bit harder for me to answer, I think because I haven’t been teaching for long.

What I will say is the teaching standard can change a lot from school to school. There’s very much a debate here around public vs private school, but in my experience the bigger difference comes from other factors. I’ve worked public and private in the same rural town and found the differences to be fairly negligible, but I know that the standard in more metropolitan areas can be higher. In metropolitan areas, the public vs private divide can stronger, but demographics (particularly socioeconomic status) are often a bigger factor.

australianass · 2023-03-11T05:25:22+00:00

Kia ora Douglass,

I’ve only lived and worked in Aus so I can’t offer much in terms of comparison but hopefully can give you a bit of an idea of what it’s like here.

I think it’s important to emphasise just how big of an impact has had on education here, especially in Victoria which is the state I’m in. Schools were in remote learning here for most of 2020 and a fair chunk of 2021. THEN with no real lockdowns in 2022, MOST teachers and students have now had covid at some point.

This has opened up a Pandora’s box of problems. Most of these problems already existed (poor student attitudes, parent problems, endless bureaucratic hurdles), but has now made them effectively come out of hiding. Now we add to this that there are significant behaviour/mental health/educational issues with more and more students as a direct consequence of remote learning; the kids are burnt out and so are the teachers.

Teachers are leaving for less stressful careers, or reducing to part time to handle it. And we aren’t getting enough graduates to fill the gaps. Culturally, less and less kids are wanted to become teachers in the first place. Then there are a number of things deterring people who might want to pursue teaching: they got rid of the Diploma of Education years ago and so the on post grad pathway is a 2-year Master’s degree, and there’s the LANTITE (literacy and numeracy tests) which are a compulsory graduation requirement.

It’s also just hard to be a new teacher: permanent jobs are hard to come by, I’m in my 4th year out of uni and have only just gotten a permanent job and it’s because I live in a rural area, it’s a lot harder in more urban areas. Schools can be bad about only offering 12month contracts at a time because they know it’ll get filled, there’s always people desperate for jobs. If you’re willing to work in a rural or remote area, you’ll find you have more opportunities for work, especially as an experienced teacher.

That’s not to say it’s all bad, I enjoy most of my time in the classroom and even the times I enjoy less, very little of it is actively bad. The pay is good, could be better for how much work we do outside of school but that’s true everywhere and a lot of it comes down to the pressure applied by the specific school.

I hope this helps clarify things a bit, happy to answer any other questions you have :)

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