Chaos in our classrooms is the problem and don't blame the teachers

TGW-O was a reception teacher in a fairly stable middle class school and found that the job was getting stressful because of the degeneration of the behaviour of the children. This pushed her in to leaving the profession in 1998, as soon as we could afford it.

With this in mind, I am never totally surprised by what I read on the "To Miss With Love Blog", depressing as it is.

Just in case anyone is in doubt about where the problem lies :

Hmm. Twenty-four children, three adults, one of whom is an excellent teacher and still there is utter chaos. What does that tell us about education in Britain today? A LACK OF MONEY IS NOT THE PROBLEM. CLASS SIZE IS NOT THE PROBLEM. A LACK OF STAFF IS NOT THE PROBLEM. STAFF NOT BEING TALENTED ENOUGH IS NOT THE PROBLEM.

THESE CHILDREN ARE FUCKING 8-YEARS-OLD!!!

And this isn't a "black" problem, it is becoming endemic in society.

What to do about it? She has some intersting thoughts in this post which you may find surprising because she is definately from the left:

4. Ban Diane Abbott from speaking full stop. And stop the media from encouraging a racial divide. Oh, and ban Polly Toynbee too. In fact, let's just throw them in a prison cell together... :)

She's obviously never heard of hempen rope and lamp posts, but solitary confinement in prison is a start. I would go further and add in all the "apologists" for bad and poor behaviour - see the post mentioned above.

11. Allow schools to make up their own criteria for entry. Parents would be forced to compete with each other for places in schools, over meaningful criteria - not whether or not you live near a school or have a sibling that goes there.

If prison doesn't work this one will cause those in 4 to explode in a puff of righteous indigantion. A bit of healthy competition should help and I would add vouchers as well. It may lead to a few sink schools, but at least the majority will benefit and not be hel down by the lowest common denominator.

Perhaps we need to return to residential Approved Schools for the worst behaved children?

15. Ban free education. Everyone has to pay – something. All textbooks, exercise books etc must be paid for. How much one pays in fees may be decided by one’s income. There would have to be a system – like the tax system.

Interesting idea from someone on the left, but it should help deal with the Tragedy of the Commons issues. Its definately worth a try.

20. Give governing bodies and Heads the power to fire people. And then begin by firing about 20% of the teaching profession, which includes those at the top. Oh, and as an extra, fire most of the people who work in Local Authorities and various educational bodies like the Specialist School and Academies Trust etc. Yeah, fire the lot of them.

Wow, that could be straight from the Devil's Kitchen except it doesn't contain swear words or painful death, but the sentiments are the same.

Often we hear that parenting classes are the solution. I have always been against them on the basis that it would be just more socialist one size fits all bull shit. However the more I read about the problems of bad behaviour that more I become resigned to giving it a try, surely it can't make things worse*?

I certainly recommend adding her to your reading list, deressing as the tales can be, as an antidote to the waffle and crap we get from Ed Balls and the rest of the education establishment.


*Famous last words!