TERM 3, 2020
Striking a fire inside From working as a teacher in juvenile corrections to coaching leaders and teams through major cultural change, Brian Fretwell says it’s all about finding the fire that everybody has inside, and throwing gasoline on it. He chats to Chelsea Channing about his early days working with at-risk youth, how a 15-year-old meth addict shaped his views on leadership and how school leaders can support their teams through the uncertain times ahead.
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So Brian, you started your career as a teacher in a juvenile corrections facility, can you tell us a bit about that role and what it involved? Teaching contracts usually go fall through spring and I graduated in December, so there were no real teaching contracts available. I worked in a youth shelter for about three or four months, and then I applied for a job as a teacher in a corrections facility and I didn’t know much about it. But essentially the kids are there for 24 hours, seven days a week, incarcerated six to nine months or longer. During the day they have classes, but in the classroom you might have a 12-year-old and a 19-year-old and all points in between, and then different learning abilities and styles, obviously mental health issues, and things of that nature. But there’s a group of 13 and you give them everywhere from their general education diploma, to some of them still going to high school, you’re managing the learning, but you’re also managing their behavioural change and their
