Teach For All’s Post

Transcript

I always hated the politicians that were talking about some stuff that they knew nothing about. And so father myself, OK, I really missed teaching and I really want to feel connected to the classroom again and that's why I started teaching again. I love it. I tried to spend as much time in the classroom as possible and then use these experiences, use the stories that I see in the kids with the kids in the political work I do. My name is Felix Stadler, I'm from Vienna, Austria, I did the program I teach for Australia in 2016 and I am now a part time teacher. And a politician. So I'm now a member of the state parliament in Vienna and my party spokesperson for education and the Austrian education system, it's still A2 track system. So at the age of 10, people get separated into two different types of school. They're both public, but one is seen as a more academic school than the other one. The difference in the results, in the educational results of the kids that are from a privileged, more affluent background and the kids that are that have migrational background and they come from poor areas. From poor families. And also we have like one of the biggest gaps in results for these kind of groups within Europe is enormous. And I didn't know much about before teaching. And when I came into the classroom it really struck me how big that difference is and that we in a very wealthy country would have kids. That had no really no chance of employability or of a chance of going to a higher school or even going to university because of their socioeconomic background and because of where they come from. I could not really. Believe what their level of literacy was, what their level of numeracy was. And at the same time, I remember I was amazed by how some of their skills, like the social skills they had and the empathy they had and the motivation they had, but they were completely let down by the system we have. But there was a time when education was really talked much about in the media and in the public in Austria, but it was very much talked about in a very negative way. And the kids were blamed for like their results and, and and the inequity. And a couple of teachers, fellows and alumni and I said we have to start talking differently about education and the kids especially. That's why we came U with like a platform which evolved into like a block and a podcast where we invited teachers sharing their stories about amazing kids in very underprivileged areas of Australia and in underprivileged districts within Vienna. And that kind of blew up a little bit. I would never have gotten into educational policies if I would not have done Teach for Austria Fellowship. I would not have. The skills to do that, I would not have competency in the field of education to do that. And I also would not have changed into the education sector without doing the Teach for Austria program. If I've learned one thing from the last three years in politics is that even if you're in government, even if you would have like the best secretary for education in your country, this person would not be able to do all the changes we want to see in an education system. So I think when it comes to collective leadership. He teaches that do the work on the ground that won't change. You need help, teachers that do the change, everyone working in the field of education. So I think you need to create some sort of movement and some sort of wind of change and you need politicians that set the framework where change is possible. So my vision for the Austin education system is that no matter what your background is, no matter where you come from, no matter where you born or how wealthy your parents are, every kid should have the opportunity to do what they want and what they are good at. At the moment that is not the case. It is very much determined by your background and by the wealth or the education of your parents, what you set out to do. We need to change the way that what we teach children and the way we teach it. All of these kids are going to be adults and going to grow old in a world which will be very different from the world that we have today. So we need to teach them the competences and the skills to adapt to change very rapidly. And so I want for every kid in Austria to be able to adapt this to these. Changes that we're going to see over the next like 50-60 or 100 years.