High expectations coupled with discipline can turn around poorly performing schools

[alloverbartheshouting]

Pat, can I guess that you are a teacher, (possibly retired), who actually knows what he is talking about, through experience.

[reg11]

Oh

my

God

That's great, somebody has had a eureka moment.

[True Republican]

i diasagree with corporal punishment been reintroduced back into the schools but rigourous discipline should be enforced eg disruptive pupils should be expelled or segregated into different classes from the well behaved mainstream, also there is a culture in a lot of working class areas where education isn't valued and more people in working class areas need to value the importance of education.

[stakerwallace]

Our education system is in danger of complete false depiction by virtue of the folly of depicting grade acquisition as the totality of education, to the detriment of life and living. Of course, these issues of life and living are pursued courageously by many teachers, though often covertly and away from the obsessed viewpoint of media whose focus is on grade acquisition and third level entry. However, the courage to declare education as a life force which enhances imagination, criticality, imagination, perception, query and other less examinable qualities is often missing due to the predominance of a means-end reductionist mentality , one which is enslaved to exam outcomes. The wonderful work which often occurs in many schools in nurturing young people towards decent citizenship, reasonable behaviour, participation in real living situations, dealing with their often troubled lives and coping on a day to day basis with many stresses and pressures doesn't get measured in a technocratic fashion. It's time for some , indeed many teachers, to articulate a vision of their actual work rather than let the exam tyranny dominate the story and the headlines.

[Radix]

Our education system is in danger of complete false depiction by virtue of the folly of depicting grade acquisition as the totality of education, to the detriment of life and living. Of course, these issues of life and living are pursued courageously by many teachers, though often covertly and away from the obsessed viewpoint of media whose focus is on grade acquisition and third level entry. However, the courage to declare education as a life force which enhances imagination, criticality, imagination, perception, query and other less examinable qualities is often missing due to the predominance of a means-end reductionist mentality , one which is enslaved to exam outcomes. The wonderful work which often occurs in many schools in nurturing young people towards decent citizenship, reasonable behaviour, participation in real living situations, dealing with their often troubled lives and coping on a day to day basis with many stresses and pressures doesn't get measured in a technocratic fashion. It's time for some , indeed many teachers, to articulate a vision of their actual work rather than let the exam tyranny dominate the story and the headlines.

Can't really disagree with any of this, and I think most people would agree that most people became 'career' led rather than having a vocation of sorts towards helping others.

It's interesting to watch these things go full circle.

[patslatt]

Pat, can I guess that you are a teacher, (possibly retired), who actually knows what he is talking about, through experience.

I agree wholeheartedly with the premise of your OP, that ultimately a deficit in leadership just feeds into the problems of society, starting in the classroom.

Society in general in these islands at least, has flirted too much with a 'laissez faire' ideology, whereby we effectively have tolerated too much laxity in the personal development of those in our charge, at all stages of such necessary 'development'.

There was a time, when 'society' was stronger and more cohesive, when many of its members largely and unselfishly gave of their time, their talents and their resources to pass on strong values to the younger members of our society, in the hope that they would form individuals who would in turn contribute to the greater good of all. This they admirably did with much success, but unfortunately somewhere along the way we got corrupted with an excess of individualism, and an institutional tolerance of same.

That institutional tolerance of individualism has brought us to 'sackcloth and ashes' territory, sadly because of bad leadership, and with the associated legacy of societal disfunction and breakdown.

The Irish economy has very obviously 'broken down', and the solution to this is being put forward as 'economic discipline', so I can only surmise that a return to discipline has to happen also in the education sector, given the problems there as well.

Your OP is a good starting point for a debate on these issues, and I welcome it thus; well done!

As an American once joked "Let's go loosey goosey and let it all hang out". That is the discipline in many Dublin classrooms in socially disadvantaged areas,according to some teacher friends. Their school principal felt they should not expel persistently disruptive pupils but continue to teach over the din but is that possible?

[patslatt]

Our education system is in danger of complete false depiction by virtue of the folly of depicting grade acquisition as the totality of education, to the detriment of life and living. Of course, these issues of life and living are pursued courageously by many teachers, though often covertly and away from the obsessed viewpoint of media whose focus is on grade acquisition and third level entry. However, the courage to declare education as a life force which enhances imagination, criticality, imagination, perception, query and other less examinable qualities is often missing due to the predominance of a means-end reductionist mentality , one which is enslaved to exam outcomes. The wonderful work which often occurs in many schools in nurturing young people towards decent citizenship, reasonable behaviour, participation in real living situations, dealing with their often troubled lives and coping on a day to day basis with many stresses and pressures doesn't get measured in a technocratic fashion. It's time for some , indeed many teachers, to articulate a vision of their actual work rather than let the exam tyranny dominate the story and the headlines.

The foregoing is a statement of educational values that are not usually measured.

That said,schools in low income and disadvantaged areas need a rigorous focus on the the three Rs as survival skills in the economy.Many leave those schools without that. Basic literacy and numeracy can easily be measured in low cost multiple choice tests which need to be conducted frequently to measure each pupils' progress so that none is falling behind.

[patslatt]

No insult today? Your classroom stress level must be down from the occasionally hysterical!