I wonder what the people who think teachers are all moaners who have nothing to complain about, and those who think schooling could be delivered by online lectures and any old body manning the room would think if that comes to pass. Do they think they will see it as better?
Education has to be interactive for it to work. Children need a knowledgable human to be able to ask questions to, and the human has to be able to respond to the questions and adapt what they are doing, so that the individual learning needs in the class are met. It is a dynamic process, not something that is resources produced in isolation away from the specific children it is aimed at, and then simply thrown at them.
Even at university, students have tutorials and seminars where discussion is key. In schools, pupils are younger, increasingly less able to self-regulate and the less interactive school is, the more challenging already difficult behaviour will become.
But some parents are interested in childcare, not education. As long as the children leave the house for a few hours each day, they aren’t actually that interested in whether quality education is happening, or their child has spent most of the day sat with a baby-sitter. Some parents would rather see the school as an enemy to fight….that is, any school rules applied to their child, any attempt to get them to do work they don’t want to do.
Most parents do want their children to be well-educated, but probably aren’t well enough informed to know whether that’s really happening. As others say, schools have hidden the difficulties, to deliver a positive front. They play down teacher shortages, write letters to say the situation is in-hand and paper over the cracks….because they don’t want children and parents to worry. But it’s time to stop doing that,because parents DO need to worry. Many parents won’t see what the difference is between an Oak Academy online worksheet given out by a cover supervisor, and the worksheet made by a teacher for that particular class and interactively used in a collaborative process. All they will see is the worksheet. So they won’t fully understand that the experience and learning is entirely different.
In the end, children will get what we are prepared to pay for. Education can be cheap childminding, to the loss of individual children and to the future of the nation. Quality education which enables individual to get the most out of life and enables the country to be competitive in a global economy requires resources which comprise enough, well-qualified staff and the resources they need to deliver education - that means buildings, books, materials, support staff and services, sufficient time to plan and mark and do the other things that are necessary. But it costs.
Almost all teachers like teaching children and seeing individuals progress. They want to continue to do it. But they can’t and will leave if they are unable to do it due to insufficient time, resources and support to allow them to do it effectively and to also have a life outside of it.
People cannot expect teachers to put up with intolerable situations into the long term…..that is, intolerable conditions in schools due to insufficient staffing for complex needs, pupil and parent behaviour which is unacceptable and not effectively addressed, and workload which spirals into hours per week which couldn’t be contemplated in other similarly paid occupations. And if they leave, the children will be left with the alternative model of education, where a teacher in the classroom interacting with you becomes the exception and a tiny part of the week, and the rest is basically childminding with some resources thrown at the children.
Parents need to know what is happening. Schools and teachers need to stop saying ‘we are doing our best and getting the children through’ and be honest about what the children today are already missing out on.