Members of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers will point out that disruptive pupils and their parents face almost no consequences for their actions.So, they are calling for the reintroduction of proper discipline in schools, right?
They will spell out how teachers are routinely interrupted and sworn at, and sometimes assaulted, by pupils who have never been taught to give and take.
Other pupils turn up to school 'dead tired' because they have been allowed to stay up late.
Wrong:
A generation of well-off pupils is failing to accept the authority of teachers because they are used to being indulged at home, according to Dr Mary Bousted.Wait, what?
Her union will next week debate a motion calling on the Government to dock the child benefit of parents who fail to discipline their children and to force such mothers and fathers to attend parenting classes.
You can't maintain discipline in the school, so you want to discipline the parents? Who are, of course, 'mostly' those dreadful middle classes?
Speaking before the ATL's annual conference next week, Dr Mary Bousted, the union's general secretary, said parents had a duty to ensure their children were brought up understanding 'where proper authority lies' and 'how they should behave in school'.The ones that only yesterday we learned should be discouraged from early education in favour of the disadvantaged?
She added: 'It's often the well-off middle-class who buy off their children through the computers and televisions and everything which isolates them within the home.
'And then they are surprised when their child doesn't come to school ready to learn.'
Make your minds up!
My wife is a Special Needs Teaching Assistant at our local school. She is assigned two children. One of them is a violent manipulative shit while the other wants to learn but has difficulties doing so.
ReplyDeleteGuess which one comes from a middle-class family and which one is from a benefits-class family?
Middle class kids are not the problem .. .. ..
Let's think about this (we would, after all, be the first to do so...).
ReplyDeleteThe problem is the well-off middle class parents. The solution is to cut their Child Benefit of, oh, £20 a week.
I'll try that again. We're going to scare the living daylights out of these well-off parents by stinging them £20 a week.
These would be the same parents who happily cough up £450 pa for their 4x4. Or, probably, £900 pa for their his 'n hers 4x4s.
Oh FFS. I give up. Can we have an election please?
happily cough up £450 pa for their 4x4.
ReplyDeleteWhere? Quick tell me where! I want to be first in the queue....
Leaving the children of the poor and feckless out of it for a moment, many middle-class children are a problem for teachers. Many come to school having been indulged from birth, bought off with toys, TVs and computers, and told they are marvellous in every way. No-one has ever said 'no' to them in their lives. When they get to school and are asked to be quiet in class, they are, not surprisingly, shocked and don't know how to cope. No-one has ever treated them like this before, and they are very difficult to manage. And, of course, the first thing they do is to complain to Mummy and Daddy. A working-class parent who comes into school to stick one on you is easily dealt with. An articulate middle-class parent who is convinced you have bullied her Tamsin can finish your career. I left teaching fifteen years ago, but I can't imagine it has got better since then. One incident that sticks in my mind - a very middle class boy saying to me: "why should I listen to you? You are paid less than my father's secretary."
ReplyDelete"Can we have an election please?"
ReplyDeleteSadly having an election won't rid us of the left-wing fucktards that have taken over the "education" system.
And, conversely, many teachers want to inconsistently exercise authority (really smug power) over both pupils and parents, instead of actually doing the job.
ReplyDeleteTeachers, forget the progressive ideology and get the basics right first.
1 - Maintain consistent discipline in school.
That actually means keeping the bullies in check, not their victims; anyone else notice a similarity with politicised policing? If you ignore the troublemakers and instead pick on the quiet ones because you want to demonstrate 'authority' all that happens is everyone is encouraged to be a troublemaker.
2 - Communicate your lessons in a clear, consistent and logical method otherwise what you 'teach' will not be what they learn.
I used to present technical IT training courses and give IT sales presentations - "Tell them what you're going to tell 'em. Tell 'em. Finally tell them what you've told 'em." If it's necessary to do this with adults then simply rote mumbling in front of a class of teenagers is not conducting a lesson, you're just handing over the initiative.
3 - Homework assignments and deadlines must be in writing, given well before the end of a class, and copied to the parents.
With email and the web keeping parents involved with homework is now incredibly easy, and parents keep the schedule for the family activities, not the children. However, instead of co-operating some teachers prefer to send parents seagull emails - fly in, dump some shit, fly off.
Of course, involving intelligent parents in homework can prove troublesome for some teachers. Did any of you see the recent Dispatches program on CH4 which showed how poor current teachers are at mathematics?
"why should I listen to you? You are paid less than my father's secretary."
ReplyDelete"Because I am paid far more than you get in your pocket money."
or
"Listen to me, and you'll have your own secretary one day. Don't listen to me, and you will be someone else's secretary."
I said something like "if you can only value people on what they earn, you are going to miss out on an awful lot in life." I preferred your second one, though. About 30 years too late, sadly.
ReplyDeleteNeo-Marxists like Bousted hate the middle-class because it is the hard-working, law-abiding, tax-paying back-bone of the country that Bousted and her commie mates have sworn to destroy.
ReplyDeleteAny lie, any exaggeration, any spurious urban legend will do.
It's worth pointing out that ATL is the least militant of all the teaching unions. In fact, the name reflects the idea that it is not a union but an association. It was the only one I was prepared to join when I was a teacher (having been 'asked to leave' the NAS/UWT when I refused one of their many instructions (not suggestions) to strike. They are not a bad bunch, a bit fuddy-duddy, but with their hearts in the right place. Certainly not a natural home for Marxists.
ReplyDelete"Sadly having an election won't rid us of the left-wing fucktards that have taken over the "education" system."
ReplyDeleteAnd the justice system, and the police, and...
"Teachers, forget the progressive ideology and get the basics right first."
That would certainly be a start.
"I preferred your second one, though. About 30 years too late, sadly."
The best comebacks always do come to you far to late!