To thing school need to radically rethink their offer

[BlooDeBloop]

In lockdown everyone understood that schooling was optional. Everyone understood that missing a day or week didn't matter in the grand scheme of things

During lockdown students learned that rules could be arbitrary and not make sense

Lockdown taught parents that school was critical as childcare to enable them to work

Since then, kids are back in school. They are challenging the rules on an unprecedented scale. Parents are laughing at the SLT. Kids are cheering when they clowns are removed from class. The kids know there is no real punishment, no real consequence for deliberately, chronically disruptive behaviour.

Teachers are breaking down and leaving in droves, more than ever before. Leaving young, inexperienced colleagues in the trenches.

After having to educate their own children parents understand that Shakespeare, French, geography and more have no modern relevance in the UK. The curricula are unimaginative and disconnected from the future world of work. There is no longer home support for the suck it up attitude with which kids were once sent to school.

Once upon a time there was an understanding that the kids would go to school, get an education, leave to pursue training or higher education. Today, that understanding has broken down. Under the scrutiny and transparency that SM provides, we collectively understand this is not true. Schools are failing, not through lack of care or competency but a lack of relevance. Further, the social mores that governed acceptable behaviour have softened to such a degree a good 10% of every state secondary class will seek to destroy the locus of power in the room (teacher, SLT, whoever). To compound the issue, students are all seeing for themselves on SM how to disrupt and then go about emulating their heros.

This is a cluster fuck of gigantic proportions.

AIBU in thinking that there needs to be a big scale conversation (revolution!) around what schools offer in this new world? For starters, moving with the times to offer skills that are actually needed and valued in the workforce and in further ed (e.g. IT at all levels, from typing to programming, and not shoved into one hour a week). Real alternative curricula for non academic kids (let's not pretend these kids need Chaucer in their lives).

And when students are persistently disruptive over a long period of time, borderline encouraged by their parents, they should be sent home. Permanently. To be educated (or not) by their parents. That would sort out 90% of poor behaviour overnight.

Ahhhh. That feels better 😁. Thank you for reading if you got this far.

Who said that?

My kids' school didn't accept any branding on the shoes and Kickers tended to have them very obviously emblazoned. DMs are dead uncomfortable plus a boot looks horrible with school uniform!!!

Having you as an employee must be joyful.

Oh come on, schools are unrecognisable from 100 years ago too!

It figures now!!

I think schools are having to resort to more strict rules (as distinct from their previous laissez-fairism and everyone’s a winner attitude) to compensate for poor parenting.

My son has just started secondary. I’m helping sort his homework, helping him to make sure he keeps on top of everything as it’s a big jump. Parents are on WhatsApp complaining , detentions for missed homework (all clearly visible on an app), moaning about uniform that clearly doesn’t meet the uniform policy.

None of it is difficult. People just have an attitude of if it doesn’t interest me or I don’t agree I’m just not going to do it.

Maybe if the OP had studied a bit harder and read more Shakespeare they would have understood how life works a bit better.

Hilarious that she thinks French has no relevance...but she's a translator 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Totally!! 😂😅😄

I agree that the education system needs to change in many ways.
However, there will always be a hardcore group of parents and pupils that seek to disrupt and destroy the education of others,

Often enabled by the management of the school

When I spoke with the plumber whose child is also at secondary - for people like this it's the elites shoving crap down their throats.

I'd like to introduce you to the Pitmen Painters and the fantastically skilled musicians who made up brass bands like Faireys and Grimethorpe whilst having a day job at the works or pit up until the seventies. "People like that", your classist prejudices are showing. It's beyond offensive to try to argue that working class people aren't interested in the arts.

Personal jabs are not the hallmark of an adult. I got a bonus earlier this year so I must be doing something right.

The thing with feet is that everyone's are different and what's "dead uncomfortable" for one person might be bliss for another. Which is why excessively prescriptive shoe policies are a bad idea.

DMs is a brand, not a boot. They make shoes, sandals and boots. And surely comfort is a personal thing?

To be fair, OP probably it in after a few weeks if she’s in her mid forties and never held down a job for more than 10 months!

Probably “jacked it in”

I have always had a problem understanding what some people mean by “the real world.” Do they mean that the only “real world” is their world?

Just home on a Friday night after a week’s teaching and feel too tired to comment and too exhausted to even think about changing the curriculum yet again so I won’t comment…..

I assume so. The world I live in seems real enough to me and involves Shakespeare.

I’ve deregistered both my DDs and they are now Home Educated. The choice of subjects has really made a difference and removed a whole heap of stress that was caused by them being forced to study things that they had zero interest in. It’s been a year now and they’re like different children! Excited, creative, innovative and have regained their love of learning. I realise it’s not for everybody but Sir Ken Robinson (RIP) put it best for me…www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

Turning schools into nothing more than employment skills training centres is not the right way to go. However I do agree that we should be adjusting our offer to children based on their aptitudes and interests more otherwise we are labelling the proverbial fish as a failure because it can't ride a bicycle.

However, we have a long standing issue with anti-intellectualism in this country and a chronic undervaluing of education. The real issue is how do we attack that in society and change hearts and minds. We need to stop the corrosive media and political commentary about teachers, education and expertise for a start...

But not that different from 30 years ago when I was at a crap comp. Doing the tours for my son a decade ago, couldn't really believe how things really hadn't changed. Wood/metal work rooms looked the same, science labs looked the same, art classrooms looked the same, even teachers looked the same, subjects offered were the same, 90% of the curriculum was the same as we found whilst he spent his years there. The only big difference you could see were white boards instead of blackboards/overhead projectors! So much for progress!

In what world is English literature, languages and geography not relevant?? Surely geography is more relevant than ever. And English literature may be vital for a child who wants to persue the arts, become a writer, enjoy writing and comedies and know where it all came from in our past and learn about different styles of writing which would be helpful in any further education, communication, employment etc.

Is it really true that all pupils are trying to disrupt?

Excluding children..... Are we to just right them off? Don't they just need more support or help?

Me,too 😊