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Speaker 1: One of Live's small ironies, speaking of industrial action as

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Speaker 1: the teachers spent another week Immerston industrial action. I got

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Speaker 1: an email yesterday from a bloke who was taught by

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Speaker 1: my mother in the nineties. My mum was a teacher,

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Speaker 1: and I'm pretty sure she never went on strike. I

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Speaker 1: certainly don't remember a picket line at our place, a placard,

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Speaker 1: or days at home when I was a kid. In fact,

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Speaker 1: even as a kid as a student, I don't remember

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Speaker 1: having a day off school because of strikes. I do

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Speaker 1: remember a lot of kids in the classroom, thirty something

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Speaker 1: kids in the classroom, one of today's great complaints. Of course,

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Speaker 1: didn't seem to be an issue then, or if it was,

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Speaker 1: we just got on with it. I also remember we

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Speaker 1: didn't have a lot at home, given teachers didn't get

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Speaker 1: paid all that much then, don't now sort of well,

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Speaker 1: I mean, you can say these days that quite a

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Speaker 1: few teachers are earning a six figure salary, so we've

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Speaker 1: reached a point where at least some are pretty well rewarded. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: the email, out of the blue, he writes and tells

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Speaker 1: me he was taught by my mum, who had inspired

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Speaker 1: him into teaching, which is where he is to this day,

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Speaker 1: and he was back in the old hometown for a

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Speaker 1: week or so and was hoping to catch up with

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Speaker 1: Mum so he could buy her a coffee and thank

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Speaker 1: her for her inspiration. And that, to me is the

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Speaker 1: essence of teaching. You were in it for the right reasons,

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Speaker 1: and as a result, you were passionate about what you did,

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Speaker 1: and as a result of that passionate rubbed off on

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Speaker 1: some of those around you. It's not a bad thing,

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Speaker 1: don't you think to think back thirty odd years and

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Speaker 1: remember why you are doing what it is you do

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Speaker 1: and pin it in part down to a single person

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Speaker 1: or motivation, and then, having done that, reach out and

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Speaker 1: want to in some way pay it back. How many

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Speaker 1: teachers today do it for the right reasons and are

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Speaker 1: genuinely passionate and want others to carry the torch. How many?

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Speaker 1: How many know the pay is never great, but that's

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Speaker 1: not why you do it. How many on the packet

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Speaker 1: line out of the classroom today will get an email

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Speaker 1: in thirty years time thanking them for their hard work

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Speaker 1: and wanting to acknowledge the influence in the answer. Maybe

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Speaker 1: the difference between then and now.

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Speaker 2: For more from the mic Asking Breakfast. Listen live to

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Speaker 2: news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow

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Speaker 2: the podcast on Iheartready Out,