By Romy Stephens
For many, the thought of working in an industry for 40 years seems unreachable. But for high school teacher Jayne Lauder, her years of educating have flown by.
“I don’t know where the years have gone, it’s just incredible,” she said.
“The concept of having taught for 40 years is just surreal.”
This year, Ms Lauder has been recognised for her long career dedicated to public education. She was among 400 teachers and staff that received an award at the Department of Education and Training’s Recognition of Service ceremony on 21 July.
Ms Lauder first started teaching at Hampton High School before moving to McKinnon Secondary College. She then settled at Yarra Hills Secondary where she has been teaching English, health, physical education and outdoor education for the past 37 years.
Like so many, Ms Lauder pursued her career-path thanks to the teachers she looked up to when she was young. She said she was lucky, as it was rare to have teachers that cared about students interests outside of school in those days.
“I had a really inspirational P.E teacher and another teacher who used to spend every lunchtime out with us kids playing volleyball. They really inspired me,” she said.
“Teaching now is very much about relationships, when I was at school it wasn’t, it was very unusual for teachers to take interest in you as a person.”
Those teachers not only helped influence her to become a teacher but she said they were the only reason she was able to play volleyball for Victoria between the ages 14 to 19.
But Ms Lauder said a lot has changed in the past 40 years, not only when it comes to student and teacher relationships, but also the influence technology has had on the classroom.
“Technology has just outgrown everybody, their (students nowadays) world is so totally different,” she said.
“I think technology can be a blessing and it can also create problems as well.
“I remember going to the library and actually doing the physical thing of looking at a book. Today’s generation missed out on that hands-on approach of libraries.
“There are many skills and things that we’ve gained, but there are also quite a lot of skills that we’ve lost.”
In the future, hopes to keep teaching and potentially undertake a course or two herself.
Her advice to young teachers that are starting out is to take care of themselves in a rapidly developing field of work.
“The demands on teacher these days are very high, the role has changed incredibly since I first
started teaching.”
“Look after yourself. If you don’t look after yourself you can’t look after anyone else.”
