Saturday 10 January 2009

What about all the rubbish teachers?

I saw this story on the BBC (Click HERE) and had a wry smile. A group of girls set up a page describing their dislike of a teacher at their school. Had we had Facebook when I was at school, it was just the type of thing I'd done ( I suppose that is probably no surprise to regular readers). Back in the 60's & 70's when I was at school, I suspect that the issue would have been handled rather differently. We still had corporal punishment then. Had I done that at Finchley Catholic High school in 1977, I guess that I' probably been beaten black and blue for my efforts. Would the teacher have been "in Counselling"? then. I suspect they'd have been in the headmasters office to sadistically watch as the canings took place. I remember the first time I was hit at school. I must have been 5 or 6. It was in what we called Infants 1 at St Vincents. I'd misspelt the word Train as Trian. Our teacher wrote TRAIN on the blackboard, called me to the front of the class and asked me to spell it correctly underneath. She handed me the chalk and I wrote in big letters T R I A N. In those days we didn't have dyslexia, so I was just thick and insolent. I got a sharp whack with a metal ruler across the knuckles. For those of you who say corporal punishment doesn't work, I've never spelt Train incorrectly since.

I remember the last time I got the cane as well. That was at Finchley Catholic High School. I was in the 5th year. A 4th year had been kicked in the face by one of my class and had a broken nose. Mr Kelly, the headmaster gathered all of the likely perpetrators together (about 8 of us) and demanded that the attacker reveal themselves. Class 5b were a rather anarchistic mob, so no one said anything. Kelly then said we'd all get 6 of the best. If the perpetrator was identified, he alone would get it. If he owned up, he'd get 6, if someone else grassed he'd get 12. No one said anything. He then dismissed one of our group, as he was disabled, and proceeded to call us in 1 by 1. We all got a good hiding. The funny thing is that it was the disabled guy who'd perpetrated the crime. How did we react? We thought we'd put one over on the system. I don't know what lesson I learned from that incident, other than don't be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Shortly after that, I transferred my allegiance to Orange Hill Senior High School. When I joined, the headmaster, Mr Cully, told me that he'd seen my school record and said it appeared that I was a troublemaker. He asked me why he should admit a troublemaker to his school. I responded that, yes I'd caused trouble from time to time, but I felt that the headmaster had disliked me and not treated me fairly. I explained the background to several incidents and Cully responded that he was prepared to take a chance. He told me that the first sign of misbehaviour would be my last day at the school. 18 blameless months later, I got caught dropping a waterbomb on a 4th year. I was sent to Cully, expecting to be given my marching orders. He said "Look, I can understand that Taylor is annoying, but this really isn't the way to deal with it, is it?". He asked me to promise to deal with things in a more mature way in future. I did. I guess he'd decided that I wasn't really such a troublemaker after all.

One of the most life-changing moments for me happened shortly before I left Orange Hill. Mr Williams, the then deputy head, called me into his office. As usual I expected to be getting the blame for something. He poured me a glass of scotch (I think I was 17 at the time) and said "I would like you to do me a favour". He explained that he was a jazz nut. He loved Charlie Parker and he'd like me to put together a presentation for him showing the development of modern music from Parker to the Pistols. All of a sudden I realised that he actually respected me. I did my very best and it went well. Up until then, the only music I'd had any interest in at all was Punk Rock. As a result of Mr Williams, my tastes broadened immeasurably and I learned to appreciate music which I'd never have listened to.

Reading about the girls and their facebook site lead me to think about my education. I remember spending hours thinking up ways of winding teachers up. I used to bring in fishing line and rig up things so they'd fall over during lessons. I used to order cabs for the headmaster at times when I knew they'd be taking assemblies. I remember dismantling a desk so that it collapsed when a teacher put their books on them. I once broke into the headmasters office at Finchley during a summer holiday to glue his desk drawers shut. The funny thing is, I never, ever did it to a teacher who I respected or who treated me fairly. It was always in response to what I felt was an injustice. When I went to Orange Hill, where I was treated like an adult, I stopped the pranks. Maybe I'd just grown up, but I think there was more to it. We had an extremely poor maths teacher taking us for Maths A Level. At Finchley, I'd probably have tormented them hoping they left. At Orange Hill, I did something completely different. I spoke to the other pupils. They agreed and we felt that it was damaging our prospects of passing the exam. I organised a delegation to see the headmaster and head of mathematics. The head of maths said that "it wasn't our place to decide who was a good teacher". I responded "yes it is, we are the ones who'll be affected if we fail". The headmaster was swayed by our arguments and we got a new teacher. When I left Finchley, I felt the school had not helped me. I realise now that it had, but probably not in the way it should. It made me an extremely belligerent individual, who will fight to the end. Orange Hill then gave me the tools to do that in a successful manner. I'm pleased to say that I've friends who have children at Finchley and it seems that the school has improved immeasurably since my days (I must also say there were good teachers there at the time, John Shuttler, my physics teacher deserves a special mention ).

The point I'm making is that we learn as much from bad schools and bad teachers as we do from good ones. The trouble is the lessons we learn are all negative ones. I suspect that the girls in this case are responding in this way for a reason. Maybe they are responding in the only way they know how to someone who is letting them down? Maybe a more imaginative school headmaster would have dealt with this in a better way, so it didn't end up on the BBC website. Maybe a better head would run a school where this didn't happen in the first place. In my experience, every school has a few bad teachers, a few inspirational teachers and the vast majority are average and do their job. The bad teachers cause immeasurable damage. Schools should have mechanisms for pupils to raise these matters, other than Facebook hate sites. One final point is that in my experience it wasn't the really strict teachers who pupils conspired against. It was either the ones who weren't any good or were grossly unfair who we resented. I never heard a single complaint for a justly delivered punishment. I think that teachers should have a teaching license. If they are no good, they should have their license revoked.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Rog - bit of politics....

The problem, as I see it, with Schools is there is really no effective accountability as to what happens in the classrooms. Things have got even worse with the increasing isolation of the School from the surrounding community due to increased paranoia about everyone being a threat to kids. Schools are becoming more like fortresses out of touch with the real world.

My main point is the system at the moment kinda falls between two models. Schools could be run directly by elected Boards with people properly accountable to the local community who would hold real clout. I don't favour this approach but it is logically coherent. Alternatively Schools could be dependent on vouchers or payment following the kids. If they piss parents off too much parents could easily move their kids AND THE MONEY to another School. This wonderfully focusses any institution.

At the moment Schools are in limbo. Governing Bodies are increasingly dominated by Teachers and a few Parents who have strong personal interests in not rocking the boat. Headteachers and school managements are rarely held to account, most Governors don't have a good idea as to what is going on.

The same debate needs to be had, the same with the NHS. It is right that the state provide funding for education and health but there is no reason why the state should be running schools and hospitals. They have proven cr*p at running most things and their monopsony of supply has ensured low standards. The University sector manages fine without Ministers running them. Bastion of socialism Sweden doesn't run schools and hospitals and citizens there have a great life.

So to get rid of rubbish teachers, let parents have control of their own money to govern their kids education.

Rog T said...

Dan,

I pretty much agree with everything you've said. I'd like parents to have the ability to dismiss a head with a vote. I'd say that if say 15% of parents request it then it goes to ballot. If the head gets more than 51% then thats that for say 3 years.

Roger Owen Green said...

Rog T.-

When I was young in the US (b. 1953), there was corporal punishment in the public schools in the US, at least in Binghamton in upstate NY.

Rog G.

Anonymous said...

Rog,

Thanks for your comment back.

Knowing politics well and it's unwieldiness, I'm not sure that would be effective.

Let me put it like this, what motivates a supermarket manager to keep his store tidy and clean, queues short and loos hygenic? It's the certainty of his customers immediately taking their money elsewhere. It's what keeps him honest.

Him worrying about some busybody organising a ballot wouldn't worry him.

Also parents using their purchasing power is free to the state,

I'm glad we're agreed as to where the solution lies, roughly.

Rog T said...

Dan,

In my experience, trying to get the best deal for your kids is a very primal motivator. Socialists send kids to public schools, Muslims to RC schools and Athiests to C of E. If a head is not performing and the parents had the ability to get rid of the head they would. I doubt that a busybody making trouble would get the 15%.

I suggested it on a phone in to the head of the headteachers union and he nearly had a heart attack, but he didn't give me a good reason to not give parents a veto on a rubbish head. So long as the process is hard enough to discourage the disgruntled troublemaker and easy enough to remove rubbish heads, I suspect it would be beneficial.

Don't Call Me Dave said...

Looks like Rog is turning into a Tory with his apparent support for school vouchers! Given how many billions the government has wasted on failed IT projects, the cost of setting up a school voucher scheme would be quite modest, but the potential for long term savings would be enormous. More importantly, though, is the potential to drive up standards of education.

However, I don’t believe there is any chance of this under a Brown government with his love of micro management and state interference. An e-mail I received a couple of years ago from a certain councillor and now parliamentary candidate led me to conclude that the Conservatives were not interested in the idea - or perhaps it was just him?

But that was two year ago and most people now recognise that the state is pretty useless at running things. The grammar schools debate touched a nerve with the public. If the Conservatives offered parents more choice and more control over schools, I believe that would be an absolute vote winner.

Don't Call Me Dave said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rog T said...

David,

I recognise that different children have different needs and a degree of specialisation in schools allow for the best to be brought out. I don't think anyone thinks a completely comprehensive style of school is a panacea anymore (certainly not anyone with children of school age).

I don't think thats being a Tory, it's just being honest and pragmatic. Having said all of that, education is one thing Barnet have done pretty well under Tory and Labour councils. It's probably the one area that they do well in.

Anonymous said...

Rog,

I don't like the 'voting' approach as I know that the School will pull lots of tricks to stifle the will of parents or be hijacked as you suggest. And as I said before it's very bureaucratic.

Most people also don't want to get involved in collective action / political movements to assert in this 'post bureaucratic age' they want to use their power as consumers to make a difference.

This isn't very Conservative stuff. This is how most of Europe operates. We're just stuck with a bloody stupid ideologically driven set of institutions that the short lived post war Labour government landed us with.

Whereas pretty much everything has been modernised ie steel and coal, electricity etc etc The government still thinks it has some clue how to RUN Schools and Hospitals resulting kids not being able to read and write and filthy hospital wards.

This isn't something that can be improved by Ministers, it is always going to be this way, which is why no other sensible country (outside of Cuba) runs things like this.

Rog T said...

Dan,

Firstly, I'm glad you think Cuba is a sensible country. This is progress !!!!

The Americans elect just about everyone, mayors, sheriff's etc and it seems to work quite well. I think you've got to trust people. If a hed is rubbish, then no amount of shenanigans will save them from the wrath of parents. I've also noticed that busybody parents are not generally well supported. No system will ever be perfect, I just think that as the only regulation is by quangoi at present, a bit more choice for parents would be a good thing.