PodcastRalph Jackman had been a sports reporter for 25 years but felt he needed a change and in his early 50s trained to become a teacher.
That might be tough enough of a transition, but Ralph’s first appointment was to Melbourne’s Parkville Youth Detention Centre teaching literacy and numeracy to boys on remand. He was teaching some of our country’s most damaged and vulnerable boys.
Ralph has written about that experience in his book Detention: A Rookie Teacher. The Toughest Prison School in Australia, where he narrates some amazing experiences he had in that environment. Jackman shows how being extra creative, as well as personally honest and vulnerable was necessary to make a connection with the boys.
He also tells of the reason he came to be a whistle blower against a system he felt was badly failing those in its care.
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Detention: A Rookie Teacher. The Toughest Prison School in Australia