Still Searching

I just read Jem’s post on this subject and it made me think. I neglected to add a few things and missed a few explanations.

I have to admit my bias I am from a family of teachers. Both my grandparents were teachers for forty years, my uncle is a teacher and my aunt is a college lecturer, my mum was a teacher until she was driven to quit over the appalling behaviour of students. Therefore, I have also been pro-teachers as unlike many students I can see it from the other side of the fence. However, something I didn’t address in my previous post is the support staff that a school has, technicians, teaching assistants, receptionists and the like. They also work at the school and while some of them don’t have to take work home like teachers some do and they all have to put up with crap. In my view anyone who works at a school deserves a medal. I don’t know what these ancillary positions get paid but it’s probably not enough. I think anyone who works at a school should get a hefty bonus on top of a salary which is in line with similar positions in the private sector (and raised alongside inflation) to put up with all the rubbish they have to go through.

Now, I need to admit another bias I have a rather large chip on my shoulder. I’ve also been the good kid at school, the one that teachers tell supply teachers to ask if they need any help, the one that will always help if asked (I don’t volunteer I’m not that much of a swot), always hands in homework/coursework on time, listens when the teachers talking, doesn’t chat and gets on. Basically an all round boring person. Now, I didn’t have the easiest time of it at high school, sixth form has been a revelation in many respects, but that’s a whole other story and one I don’t care to publish on the internet.

However, the biggest problem I had during my high school years was the bias from teachers, yes the same ones I was defending earlier. You see there’s a double standard. If you’re always good then you never get any rewards or any praise because that kind of behaviour is expected all the time, and heaven forbid you ever step out of line, e.g. chatting in class, then they’ll come down on you twice as hard as someone who does it all the time. Serial offenders are ignored because they don’t pay any attention to what the teacher says, therefore they pick on the easy targets, the good kids who got a little distracted one day.

That’s not even the main thing that irked me, that I could understand, after all in order to keep some sanity they have to feel like they’re exerting some control. No, the thing that bothered me the most is something driven by the government targets. I alluded to it in my last post. You see my high school was regarded as one of the best in the county, the results were really good, hardly anyone got less than a C in the core subjects. Do you want to know why? The teachers coached them. The good kids, like me, who busted a gut to get coursework done the best they could and on time, competing for the teachers time and help got shafted. As the people who didn’t bother handing in coursework got granted a week or so off from regular lessons at the end of the year and had one to one help from the teacher concerned so they could do their coursework and thus not bring the school down in the league tables. Does that seem fair?

I’m a firm believer that people who try, no matter how intelligent and what their final grade is going to be, are worth the help, time and effort from teachers. However, the system doesn’t seem to allow that. People who frankly deserve to fail because they don’t put in the effort themselves and meet the teachers halfway are given extra time and effort to pull them up to standard, time that would be better spent with those that want to learn and do their best to make sure they manage their very best. I was watching GMTV this morning and it had the banner running at the bottom and one of the people had texted or e-mailed in about how unfair the teachers action was to the kids studying for exams. Well, I remember year 11 quite well, it was only two years ago and unless I am very much mistaken the curriculum was just about finished and classes were all about revision. That means that any of those year 11 pupils could do work at home, probably a damn site more work given how the classes run at the speed of the slowest person. I’m not saying that the time at school is completely wasted for them now but it should be about clarification of understanding, marking of practice papers etc. A few days at home won’t do the kids who try hard any harm at all, in fact it’ll probably help de-stress them as they can concentrate on what they need to brush up on personally. The only ones it’ll harm is the people who don’t try, who won’t meet the teachers halfway and expect everything to be done for them.

I just hate the league table system that tries to force everybody into the same mould. Maybe those little buggers who piss away their time at school would do better on less academic studies. I’m not saying the old system of grammar and comprehensive schools was perfect but it’s a reasonable option that could help a lot of people. As for the plans to extend the school leaving age to 18, that’ll just cause even more trouble. I know that the options for after school education isn’t just sixth form but college and day release from work but that doesn’t suit everybody either. My cousin for example hated school and couldn’t wait to leave, he didn’t want to go to college or do any more learning. He got a job at 16 that involved no training and a few months in he quit and went to one that involved training, much more engaged and ready to learn. He’d had a reality check. I hate to think though what would have happened if he’d had to wait for that reality check till he was 18.

I don’t quite know how this turned into a rant on education. I guess to summarise I support the teachers strike and would support further action for teachers and on behalf of anyone who works in a school environment. I don’t support the changing of the school leaving age and I think the pressure of league tables should be removed.

It’s Thursday in England and that means the NUT teachers have walked out over a row over pay causing disruption in 8,000 schools across the country. (For more information read the BBC article).

My school is one that is affected. However, only the high school part of the school is closed, the sixth form which I attend is open. Now, I’m a studious kid and I value my education but that doesn’t mean I’m not cheesed off that I didn’t get a day off. The teachers here that aren’t striking are annoyed as well.

I fully support this strike. I think teachers should get paid a lot more than they do. People argue and say they have short days, weekends and long holidays. In actuality it’s not like that for the vast majority, those who are actually good at their jobs. There’s preparation work and marking. I give in maybe three essays a week to my politics teacher, on average the length is two typed pages. There’s over 20 people in my class. The teacher takes at least five other classes of similar size in addition to mine and sets the same amount of work. That’s 300 essays a week to mark in addition to coursework, exams, classwork, extra revision work that make up the weekly workload. There’s also reports to produce, paperwork to fill in, resources to create, classes to prepare on top of the weekly meetings with other teachers and other obligatory events like parents evenings, open days and fundraising evenings.

Think about all that work on top of having to deal with kids everyday. They’re horrible, it’s a battle to keep them listening and quiet so those who want to learn can (because heaven forbid we exclude anybody) and then there’s the really obnoxious ones who answer back and can even attach physically as happens at some rougher schools. There’s all the pressure of targets and league tables, so time has to be taken to chase up the buggers who won’t do their work, who deserve to fail but who the teachers have to coach sometimes individually to make sure they pass as it looks bad if they don’t.

Perhaps teachers should be given the politicians salary. They certainly deserve it a whole lot more than they do.