As teachers our greatest struggle
on an everyday basis is discipline. Schools in my area are rated on how well
the discipline is and whether the school management is truly in control or not.
This information is garnered from experience; no official surveys are carried
out, yet the local people can name out confidently the ‘decent’ schools.
Everyone knows them.
The school where I work is
currently in the league of decent schools. Its current status is mainly the result
of conscientious dedicated work on the part of the principal. The attitude of a
principal really dictates the teaching and learning environment of a school.
Technology has been used to document and support positive student behaviour,
discipline methods are consistent throughout the school, as are rewards and
punishments, and we boast a relatively respectful school community.
However the battle to create and
maintain an environment where students learn and develop to the best of their
potential is a constant one. No school will ever be perfect. Indeed the
evolving nature of modern society indicates that discipline in even Irish rural
schools will continue to be an ever increasing problem. The diminishing of
family, particularly paternal, authority, due to the trend of family breakdown
has led to a generation of pupils who have no clear knowledge of what respect
is, few boundaries in their own lives, and in most cases little idea of what
the word obedience is.
Added to this growing distaste
for authority is the problem of Ireland’s recent painful history regarding
Catholic schools. A fellow teacher recently regaled the staffroom with stories
of Brother Michael, a teacher of his, who delighted in using a heavy wooden
set-square to slam down on the trembling fingers of teenage miscreants. Today everyone has a Brother Michael story,
and some have even made a lot of money through relating their experiences. What
is vitally important of course is that today our schools will not give whiff of
old-school methods. No teacher wants to be another Brother Michael.
We all know that some people were
terribly abused and indeed their testimonies serve to remind us how inhuman
human beings can become. We regret such experiences had to be endured and that
there were teachers who were so obviously unfit for their positions allowed to
go on scarring young lives. However we rarely hear about the successes during
this period of Irish history; they exist. These are the students who were not
abused, but who were the recipients of the accepted system of discipline. They thrived
in a school environment of respect, encouragement and opportunity. These are our
parents and grandparents, writers, lawyers, doctors, scientists, academics,
civil servants, practical workers, artisans, builders – people who had
principles of good manners, honesty, critical thinking, and delight in learning
instilled into the them by gifted teachers who knew how to wield authority and
also how to truly inspire. Amidst all the sad stories, it’s so easy to forget
the successful majority.
In considering this situation, it
is interesting to examine what has happened in Germany over the last 70 years. Germany
during the 1960s experienced an education revolution. The children of World War
II were now students and young adults and, inspired by the anti-authoritarian
ideology of the 60s, wanted to rid their schools and universities of the dictatorial,
dogmatic methods of education which they believed had created the monster of
Nazism. The reason for Germany’s adulation of Hitler stemmed from Germany’s
culture of strict obedience and order. Ushering in a new era of education, they
abolished school uniforms, rewrote school rules, created a relationship of
equality between pupil and teacher, changed classroom structure, and abolished
the authority of both teacher and parents. It was an attempt to create an
ideal, equal, learning environment. ‘Let
the pupils grow, let them discover knowledge for themselves,’ was their mantra.
A few decades later, teachers were in despair; Dr. Bernhard Bueb wrote in 2007,
‘…all over the country, adults just got tired. Kids got used to arguing about
everything. They had to discuss why they should have to empty the garbage or
help in the kitchen... the result is
teachers can’t cope any longer’. Doris Schroeder-Kopf, wife of German
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, also drew attention to the difficulties that
post-war liberalism had caused in schools: ‘Things have to change. We must
bring our children up better and
teach them good values...a sense of duty, diligence, honesty, helpfulness,
reliability, decency and good manners.’ Here in Ireland we are in danger of
following the same disastrous path in our attempt to prove how liberated we are
from the ‘oppression’ of the past.
As teachers today much of our
energy is sapped by trying to keep our classes quiet, by remonstrating with the
insolent kids who have no interest in learning, by threatening those who
continue to disturb the learning environment with their behaviour, by worrying
over the kids who aren’t afraid of detention, suspension or expulsion. The good
kids often get ignored by virtue of their accommodating behaviour. Often we don’t
even know their names. Academic success is being pushed to the side as it seems
all that matters is the level of noise in the classroom.
For some classes in my school, we
have a new definition for the word ‘teacher’. You no longer ‘impart knowledge,
you simply ‘practice crowd control’. And I begin to wonder if there’s anything
positive at all we could learn from the schools of fifty years ago.
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