The classroom environment of Lachlan’s Silent Disco is a world of boredom. Disengaged students look for any kind of distraction rather than engage in the here and now. It is a world peopled with long-suffering teachers who are constantly waiting; waiting for the attention of the classroom, for students to answer their questions, for the drone of the aeroplane flying overhead to pass, or for the bell signalling the end of another period. There is tedium and pointlessness to the events that occur within the walls of the classroom on a day-to-day basis; student after student passes through these four walls and, like Helen Petchall, we question what becomes of them.

Lachlan manages to capture this world directly and authentically—as an ex-teacher himself he has been there and knows the terrain only too well. He knows implicitly what Petchall faces each day—in particular, the never-ending battle to attract attention over an iPod. It is a confrontation with a generation that tunes out and retreats into its own pulsating soundtrack with a tiny piece of technology that allows them to remove themselves from the immediacy of their own experience. Confiscation becomes a tug of war, as the dreaded iPod is tucked under collars and hidden in hair, providing relief from the discussion of S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, unbelievably the same text that was taught in my high school in the 1970s.

The microcosm of the classroom and interaction between students and their teachers is a world where nothing ever changes, but everything changes. Lachlan’s analysis and reflection on this intensely structured world highlights its incredible impact over the shaping of all of our lives. Through Petchall’s frame, we consider the position of the teacher in this world. We wonder at the endless stream of students who have passed through the doors and disappeared without notice, leaving behind assignments uncollected and ambitions never realised. Through her we learn of the strange behavioural codes around students coming to the staffroom, career expo travesties, teacher conferences on how to keep challenging students in the classroom and staff meetings where bitter and angry teachers want to punish students by cancelling the school formal, potentially the only bright spot on an otherwise drab year.