Every school should have a bad teacher: Schools chief in foul-mouthed outburst
A fantastic article in todays Daily Mail. Fantastically stupid and misleading
"How can you defend rubbish teachers" you ask. I can't but I think the Daily Mail has misrepresented what the lovely Zenna Atkins, the outgoing OFSTED cheif was saying. I read her comments with a slight air of disbelief. She said rubbish teachers are one way children learn to cope with incompetent people later in life. She is quoted as saying
I would not remove every single useless teacher because every grown up in a workplace needs to learn to cope with the moron who sits four desks down without lamping them and to deal with authority that's useless.
I'd like to keep the number low, but if every primary school has one pretty naff teacher, this helps kids realise that even if you know the quality of authority is not good, you have to learn how to play it.
I had a few pretty rubbish teachers. The worst were the ones who made irrational decisions and meted out unfair punishments. As I thought about the article, I realised that although I didn't make it to Oxford (or any other University), I got something far better than an acedemic education. I got a fierce sense of what is just and what isn't. I read that Ms Atkins is a dyslexic. She got a U in English three times. As a fellow dyslexic around my age, I understand what her education was like. If you are a pupil at the margins, you are far more likely to see the worst of these teachers. As teh head of OFSTED, she clearly got something out of it.
The trouble with papers like the Daily Mail is they are not interested in what people are saying, they are only interested in sensationalist headlines. I don't necessarily think deliberately employing rubbish teachers is the answer to dealing with crap bosses. I do however think that if we can't make off the cuff remarks to start a debate, without getting crucified, then we'll never move on as a nation.
2 comments:
I have to say that I learned as much from the bad teachers as from the good ones. I remember more about my experiences with them, certainly more useful skills, than anything about I retained about ox-bow lakes.
I have to say that I learned as much from the bad teachers as from the good ones. I remember more about my experiences with them, certainly more useful skills, than anything about I retained about ox-bow lakes.
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