The frustration is palpable. The stress is unfathomable, and the result will be demoralised teachers who keep on keeping on for the kids at the expense of their mental and physical health.
The situation is unsustainable and if nothing significant changes it will worsen in winter.
Expert tradespeople were employed across Tasmania to jimmy windows that were screwed shut due to chilly air in the depths of winter.
Yeah, nah ...
Read MoreLeave it out! Use idioms to press your case, but do not take us for idiots. The Tasmanian public is thankful that politicians are asking questions and holding the state and federal governments to account.
We have stakeholders in empty bars telling us not to overreact as restaurants close due to a lack of staff.
There are cafes and eateries resorting to takeaway service because they dare not risk exposure.
Thankfully, the Premier has chosen to be more circumspect, prefacing most sentences with, "I don't wish to sugar coat it".
Read MoreBeing the public face of leadership during a significant and ongoing crisis is relentless. Day after day of press conferences answering, or not answering, questions and attempting to share information in an unpredictable environment is tough work.
Due to the tragedy of coronavirus deaths and the loss of businesses and livelihoods, there will be also be a mental health impact across the community.
Mental health is important to all of us. Staying strong during times of challenge or crisis or failure or grief or loss is difficult for the most durable minds. Mental health should not be weaponised,nor hidden or forbidden from conversation.
Read MoreAnd since the end of World War II parents and guardians have been hyperventilating about ideas and preparation of costumes for primary school book parades with peak stress hitting at around 7pm the evening before.
What have you organised? What time is the parade? Who are your friends going as? You do understand the theme? We have left it too late ...
The questions and frustrated statements and guilt and panic continue creating all manner of hullabaloo.
Read MoreTwenty-twenty is akin to wartime where we ask leaders to bring us together, to help them fight the good fight. From bushfires at the start of the year to a health pandemic and subsequent global recession, it is difficult to recall a time where references to British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill and Australian Prime Minister, John Curtin, have been more prevalent. But it makes sense.
In a crisis we need a familiar face to reassure us that everything will be ok. To look us in the eye and, with compassion, tell us what we don’t want to hear.
Read MoreThe dancers, who attend several different primary and high schools around Launceston, come together as the tightest of friends to practise, rehearse, and perform at the highest level possible.
They form a formidable dancing clan: committed, dedicated, tightknit, and full to the brim with kindness and support for one another. And as much as Pearl MacDonald works hard at her own performance, it is her clan that she cares for most.
"Our dance community is encouraging and caring. We support each other to do our best and we make sure no one is left out," she said.
A clan is steeped in Scottish tradition.
Read MoreMr Ariti is privileged - he can work from his new home. An executive and sought-after corporate emcee and raconteur, his golden tonsils and turn of phrase remain in high demand.
Nonetheless an enforced break with a less hectic lifestyle will "do him good".
Just 18-months ago they took the plunge and invested in the state's booming real estate market finding their diamond far away from the hustle and bustle of the "inner ring of suburbs and big city life".
Read MoreChief Justice Mason, an elderly gentleman who rarely speaks on the record, wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald about the events leading up to the November 1975 dismissal soon after I met him. In 2012 he stated:
"I played no part at all in the preparation of Sir John's statement of decision, nor was I asked to do so, though I prepared, at his request a draft letter terminating Mr Whitlam's commission [which Sir John did not adopt]."
We can catalogue photos and delete hard drives, but we can't rewrite history.
What we can do is acknowledge wrongdoings and learn from the past to ensure our future is fairer and more just.
We can also hold those responsible to account, try to forgive, and recognise that history is written by those "in the arena".
Read MoreThe US instructed either "put distance between yourself and other people", or six feet (182.88cm), the World Health Organization and Singapore chose one-metre and, underpinned by 1930's research, New Zealand went for two metres along with the UK who after finally falling for the metric system soon realised that it was easily explained with, "Och, just stay six feet apart - the height of your bairn, or wee'un, or littlin, or lad or lass..." affectionately used well after such descriptors should have lost relevance.
Read MoreThe COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a common theme in the way we go about our business - the inbuilt desire we all have for relationships with one another. BRIAN WIGHTMAN tells the stories of three Tasmanians adapting their styles.
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