My first teaching job was in a small government school in a tiny town in regional Victoria. From prep to Year 12, there were only 200 students, with some of the kids coming from multi-generational sheep farming families. Many others had moved to the area more recently, attracted to the cheap rents in the region.

It was in this close-knit community school that I really became a teacher. I learned how to manage a classroom of vibrant teenagers and how to coax young people away from their screens to the task at hand.

The differences between private and public schools are so stark they could be part of different industries altogether.Credit: Michele Mossop

I also learned how to educate the next generation in a cash-strapped, time-poor, resource-deprived environment.

At every turn, my little public school encountered funding barriers. When I tried to plan an excursion or a guest speaker, I sent the business manager into a frenzy. When I wanted new books or class resources, I had to buy them myself. I printed sparingly, and only ever in black-and-white.

But the most devastating repercussion of inadequate finances was in the classroom. Many of my students had learning........

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