You could do all the things I do.
Yes you. With your insecurities and your worries about your children.
Theres no special equipment. There’s no special location. We have all the things you have at home. probably less.
If you’re the type of person who questions your child’s teacher, or think about their child’s learning, you probably have everything you need. Branded stationary, smiggle notepads and scented pens in 100 colours. You probably have every board game. An ipad with learning apps. Most schools i go to lack enough pens or pencils or paper.
The only difference between what you as a parent can offer and me as a teacher, is I went to uni to learn how. How children learn. How best to utilise the resources I’m given. How to manage learning with multiple children.
In private schools there’s smaller classes, better food, children more ready to learn, less distraction and more support/staff. In private schools children are working years above their expectations. Children as young as 10 are prepping to take standard grades or gcses at 11 or 12. To get them out of the way so they can either widen their gcse base by studying other things later, or progress to higher levels more quickly so they can get to uni quickly. Or simply to free up their teenage years for all that social and emotional learning that goes on.
What about stay at home parents? If you wanted to follow the English curriculum for maths and lit (which has clear goals and expectations each year hence my use for it here) you could cover it in 3 mornings a week (presuming 2 different aged kids) and the rest of the time would be up to you to explore and provide other experiences. Scotland the expectations for math and lit are lower, you’d achieve way more.
My personal opinion is that no experience I offer a child in school can ever match up to what they can experience at home.
Pinterest can help you be creative. A child development book or a ‘ how children learn’ textbook will help you understand how to question them, what order to teach the skills, how to explain/show it 20 DIFFERENT ways until that lightbulb goes off.
If you think you can do it better than me, go do it. I won’t deny that. If you’re a parent with your own ideas and an ability to understand at a graduate level, then go ahead. You’re right, if you take your child out of school you CAN do better than me. But that’s not because I’m a bad teacher, it’s because I have 30 of them, not 3. It’s because I am restricted by budget. It’s because half the day is put to school organization such as registration, tidying, lunch. Learning management is where my skill is. Just imparting information to three children would be so easy.
The only magic I have is the ability to try and teach 30 children whose 60 parents each have different ideas and expectations and behavior, whilst still maintaining a healthy ego after being challenged twice a day by parents of 10 children who don’t understand this.
You are better than me, if you are already trying to be. There’s no magic here. If you had to do a degree involving child development to become a parent, less people would have kids and teachers would become obsolete.
Am I worried? No. The government arent about to reduce the 45 hour week yet. People still need child care.
FaerieFalls 