School, time to learn?
posted: Jul 22, 03:03 PM
Let’s talk a bit about public schools and the standard of education offered. I’ll begin with this observation, in Canada teachers are very well educated and not particularly well paid. I suspect we are not unique.
I’ve also noted that teachers who remain in this very tough profession do so because they are committed to educating children. I doubt many of them teach because “the hours are good and so are the holidays”. I won’t argue with being off through July and August, but your salary is pro-rated to reflect your time off and believe me when I tell you the average classroom is not comparable to the average office environment. Unless, of course, you are working with some very unpredictable and challenging colleagues. Colleagues who may swear at you, who may be physically aggressive towards you and towards others. If you are and it’s working well for you, you may want to consider a career change, you know, to teaching.
Did you know statistics indicate it is within the first three years of teaching when most new teachers leave the profession (taking with them outstanding student loan debt) and look for alternative work? I could offer my theory on why this could be the case, but I’ll let you ponder.
The profession of teaching has changed in the last 50 years, but schools have not kept up with the changes. Teaching used to be about sharing knowledge. The children and youth who were in school wanted to learn, those who weren’t interested in school dropped out at 13 or so and found appropriate work. Those who remained in school saw education both as desirable and as a privilege.
Today young people are required to remain in school until a much older age. I agree with this as I value education and believe an educated society benefits all its members. I would suggest, however, that if young people are required to remain in school we, I mean the collective we here, not just the teachers, need to model respect and also value education and teachers.
This certainly does not mean the teacher or school is always right. It does not mean teachers and schools should not always be striving for improvement. What it does mean is parents should work with the school and the teachers as a team. If the school and teachers are not receptive to this team approach, I’d be worried, but, I’d also be surprised.
Property markets are certainly being driven by individual school’s performances on English and Math outcomes. As a parent I want my daughter to be able to write creatively, effectively and grammatically; I want her to be able to read fluently and with comprehension and apply what she has learned from her reading. I would like her to be a strong and confident math student. As a teacher I want my students to develop these identical skills and abilities. So, even I look at the neighborhood schools when it comes to buying property.
Our society sets great store by standardized testing. Standardized testing is a slippery slope because we as human beings are not created in a one size fits all mold. We have different learning styles and abilities. We have different likes and dislikes…all of this will impact on how we perform/achieve on standardized tests. Some communities are made up of new immigrants whose first language may not be English, whose culture may well be quite different from ours, certain words or expressions which are familiar to us may throw this new citizen for a loop. See that rope go by? We tend to use many idioms in our day to day language.
We are not learning machines, if we write a test the first day back at school after a hurricane or after a community or family crisis, we will not perform as strongly. If the community is one where there are a high number of ESL students or … our student results will probably be somewhat skewed. Consumers will not be aware of these “glitches” to the assessment process and may just assume the school community is not strong.
I’m interested in the subject of curriculum, you know, what our children are learning while they are in school. I don’t know about where you live, but our system is outcome driven. This means subject area teachers are given an extensive list of grade level outcomes they must teach their students through the course of that academic year. The students are then evaluated/tested on their learning.
Well, when your school board says the students have to learn something, off you and they go on the journey of learning. Learning very specific information. I believe there are many teachers who are able to continue to create an exciting classroom learning environment, but hmmm…what if a wonderful learning opportunity jumps out at you, or a teachable moment rears its beautiful head…pass it by, stick to your outcomes, because if you don’t cover them all you’re out on your ear! (You’re noticing the idioms, I’m certain). I know teachers who still manage to utilize the teachable moments, but often there just isn’t time to take advantage of those moments of spontaneous learning.
I have a colleague who used to teach in the States. He shared recently there were financial incentives available in his school district for teachers who had a high percentage of their students perform well on the standardized assessment tests. He also shared what this meant in the classroom was the teachers taught to the tests. Translated this means they had a fairly good idea of what would be asked of the students and they drilled this material into the students’ heads. Care to put a wager on what information/knowledge the kids actually took away with them? I’ll bet their rote learning was wonderful though.
I’m doing some research into curriculum development at the moment. Did you know that curriculum is often strongly influenced by government, special interest groups and the publishers of text books? Teachers have minimal influence on what curriculum should look like. I find this quite amusing as teachers are the ones who are specially educated in the “business” of educating children.
Class size is another issue. How well do you function in a room with 25 plus people? Think of the noise, the smells, the comments/chatter, the hub-bub that 25 or more people can create and we’re talking adults here. Imagine a room filled with 25, 30, 40 children or young people with one adult creating order. I say creating order, because you can not teach without it. Once you’ve created order you need to maintain that order. It’s not easy. Whether you teach in a school like I do or in an affluent neighborhood, kids just want to be kids and most kids are squirmy and chatty.
Add to the issue of class size our philosophy of an inclusive system of education. I am in favor of inclusion, but let’s give the teachers and the students the supports they need to make inclusion work! Inclusion means including all students no matter what their learning style or needs. In theory this is a commendable goal, in practice many students learn to find school a very stressful place to be; their teachers also experience feelings of helplessness when it comes to meeting the varied learning needs and styles within the classroom in addition to managing a variety of behaviors. When a junior high student can throw chairs, threaten another child with a knife, scratch or threaten the teacher or classmates and then only miss four or five days of school, his/her teacher can be challenged in discovering effective behavior management skills and strategies.
When budget cuts are required art, music and sports programs are among the first to go in the public school system. Government money is a bit iffy on value for money spent here. This is a sad commentary on our society that these programs are not valued. Additionally, many learners are strong in these “elective” areas and may lose a wonderful opportunity to shine within the school environment.
Every human being has diverse learning needs, styles and abilities. This what makes us both interesting and unique. Why does our system of education describe itself as inclusive and, yet, try to make human beings fit into the one size fits all mold?