Pandering

Why do we pander towards children? And parents? And the government?

Today I saw a post about how to help a 10 year old reluctant reader, and if any particular books or unique strategies may work.

Now, whilst I totally agree that as teachers we should try our best to find ways to teach to children who may not understand things the first time. As teachers we should ensure children are ready to learn and ready to engage using nurture methods.

But I know this teacher and this child. This teacher is posting at midnight. This child does not read at home. This child can read but has no interest and doesnt engage in reading when he needs to in schoo therefore hindering his progress and generally being a nuisance during reading sessions. This child doesn’t own a book. The parents refuse to buy him things he’s not interested in.

What I don’t understand is why this is the teacher’s problem.

Are this child’s parents sitting up all night trying to find a way to get their child to read? Probably not. They might be at work or asleep after a long day of work. They probably haven’t given it a moment’s thought, even though the teacher has highlighted this gap in the childs knowledge. They don’t try to enthuse their child in reading because if they did THE CHILD WOULD OWN A BOOK . They don’t respect the schools position because if they did THE CHILD WOULD DO THEIR WORK AT SCHOOL.

So I ask again, why is this the teacher’s problem?

Sure it is our job to teach. To recognize where the gaps are, communicate with the caregivers, aim the learning in the right place for the child, bring in the appropriate other services when necessary. Then go back to teaching.

So I repeat. Why, when this teacher has highlighted a gap, made general class based efforts to close it, spoken to the parents, involved SLT and invoked testing and assessment for staged intervention, why WHY is this teacher still up at midnight trying to figure out a way to get this child to read?

Because she’s working for a government that is counting on her to be this way because it ain’t gonna make any special supportive measures any time soon.

All policies like GIRFEC and Every Child Matters have done is make the wellbeing of the child, the teachers problem INSTEAD of the parents.

For some, this is unnecessary. For many this distracts from the reason kids are in school in the first place.

Increasingly teachers are spending their time getting kids to learn whose parents haven’t sent them to school, ready to learn. Too many of these and a teacher’s entire day changes. And the government’s answer? Attempt to enhance nursery provision to help pave the transition into school for kids whose parents won’t help. But of course you can’t just do that for one child you have to offer these early skills to all. It’s just part of good practice right?

One of my closest friends is an engineer, many years of education and a good upbringing. she has a child. Her child is 4. Her child is at nursery 3 days a week and she works from home the other 2 days to spend more time with her child. This friend confesses she has time to be a good parent. She also confesses she doesn’t need to. The nursery does most of the hard work for her. In her own words, she keeps him fed and clean and reads a few books before he goes to bed and the rest is done by the nursery. They even go on tours to the country because lots of city parents can afford to give their children those experiences.

We’re just outsourcing parenting to schools. Without really equipping teachers for the job. And still allowing parents to have some sort of say in their child’s discipline, upbringing and behavior.

Why not just bring back child services and take these children away from the outset.

Our system allows for parents to hand the bits of parenting they dont like or have experience in, to teachers. But at the same time, if the parenting line gets crossed, treat the teacher like an unwanted step parent invading in on their territory. And the teacher is the one who gets the slap on the wrist.

And of course the types of people naturally drawn to teaching, care a lot for their kiddiwinks. They couldn’t possibly let little Peter fall behind, even though it’s entirely the parents fault.

Who panders to the teachers exactly?

I bet any answers to that question will touch on the long holidays.

Except a lot of them dont get them. Half my council’s workforce are on temporary contracts. Hourly and daily pay with holiday payments that equate to 4 n a bit weeks a year… But only if you get a full time temp contract. Day supply all year would only earn you 3. That’s less than a normal full time job. Yet those teachers are still expected to deal with all these issues.

Call me crass, but I wouldn’t help this child. I would find ways to manage him in the classroom and that’s it. I would continue to highlight this gap to SLT and to the parents. But if he fell behind, that’s the fault of him and his parents. I wouldn’t lose any sleep.

I was taught to teach. Not to pander to kids who have no interest in learning.

#rantover