I am an educator, a psychologist, a human being but most importantly a father.
Yesterday I became extremely concerned at the psychological state of my young son. He is eleven , nearly twelve so his hormones are starting to fly around his body in preparation for puberty and in many respects he is likely to be up and down at the moment. However his state of being yesterday was beyond the norm.
Now he has had several challenges with school and due to being physically attacked by a teaching assistant at the age of four and a half it took until Year 5 before he was integrated back into the schooling system. This is something I have blogged about previously so will not go any further into that here. What I would like to concentrate on is what has happened to cause yet more distress and what is turning a bright articulate child into someone who is again becoming disillusioned with the educational system.
He has already had challenges with his Spanish teacher, an old fashioned beat them around the head type teacher, and those were addressed with his head of house however I have now discovered that his Geograpy teacher, someone known for hating teaching Year 7, threatened in front of the class to break his thumbs.Now although I did not witness this my son is no liar and I have been in turmoil as how to proceed forward.
You see the Neanderthal in me wants to take this guy out and show him that force will be met by greater force but the psycholgist and teacher in me tells me that that is not the right way to handle things. I know the higher brain functions will kick in and override my Neanderthal yet I don't want to be seen as a neurotic parent or a grass of any kind because I am neither of these things. Something clearly has to be done though for not only the sake of my son but because of other children too.
My first concern is that the school will deflect the issue, my second concern is that the teacher will target my son but my overriding concern is that my son is missing out on his education. And that is ultimately what this is all about. The schools in the Trowbridge area are all pretty poor. They may fool OFSTED but I am a parent who is also an experienced teacher and I know how you can fool the inspectors as I've seen it happen time and time again in many establishments. The tick box culture that we live in is all about perceived accountability not about education and it belittles the learning process at all ages.
Learning is a human right and should not be interfered with by outdated ideas in what is right and wrong about teaching. Teaching is something that evolves as the human species evolves, as the need to learn different skills evolves, or so it should be. Good teachers are often destroyed by a system that allows bad teachers to get away with bad practice. For it is the bad teachers that cause the child, or adult, to resent the need for learning. The good teachers then often have an impossible task of turning around the learner so as to empower the individual into loving the learning process all over again. And I say all over again because inately we are a species that wants to learn from the moment we have a nervous system and higher function.
So what will I do? I'm not entirely sure still. I have been reflecting on the challenge all through the night and deep into this morning which I why I decided to blog in the hope it would clarify my mind set. I know I have to speak to the school and I know I have to support my son. The trick is to make sure that there is a win win scenario for everyone involved.
Including the Neanderthal who still thinks he is a teacher
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