Veronica Shaw, Gabbie Stroud, Kerryn Jones and CR Bill Jayet at the author talk.
On Wednesday night, 9th August, guests at Parkes Shire Library enjoyed an incredible talk full of insight and humour from former teacher, and talented author Gabbie Stroud.
Gabbie, the author of moving memoir “Teacher”, delighted the audience with her impassioned talk covering everything from her life as a teacher, her consequential ‘burnout’, her writing journey from non-fiction to fiction and her fabulous new book “The Things That Matter Most.”
The audience particularly resonated with Gannie’s conflict between what she knew she needed to spend time on for her students, and what the system told her she needed to spend her time on, and the subsequoent toll this took on her mental health.
This led to an incredibly moving discussion about the importance of changing the language around burnout to describing it as “demoralisation”, to move the emphasis away from the individual and back to the system causing harm. Throughout the night, Gabbie’s passion for teachers and the incredible feats they perform every day was clear, even thanking them for their time at her talk as she understands first-hand, a teacher’s time is precious.
Gabbie read an excerpt from her new novel and talked about drawing upon that “what if” feeling teachers have. The constant feeling that something bad can happen at any time that they want to protect their students from. The feeling teachers have for some students when they “don’t get to go home with them to check if they’re safe,” and Gabbie’s own frustration with the phrase “it takes a village to raise a child.”
Gabbie’s new book “The Things That Matter Most” is available now and you can check out more about her at https://gabbiestroud.com.
Keep an eye out on the Parkes Shire Library Facebook page for their next great event.