Teaching Students a Lesson (if they pay attention)

Tell me this. Why is it that Teachers get such a hard time?

Don’t get me wrong, I have a big problem with some teachers I had BUT that is a specific problem with specific people. In general I think they do a good job. Others, however, seem to disagree and broadcast highly inaccurate opinions followed by “I blame the teachers” or preceded by “Teachers don’t...” It’s ridiculous!

I was in a tutorial at University today and the tutor was saying that some students have an issue with the critical thinking aspect of Sociology. One of the mature students responded to her by saying “that’s because teachers don’t tell pupils how to do it. Kids are just sat down and told stuff and not allowed to ask questions”.  Now, this might just be my experience of school but I wasn’t only “allowed to ask questions” I was actively encouraged to do so. In fact a lot of the teachers I had, were annoyed that I didn’t talk more (actually really funny how most people in my class were told to stop talking and then at parent’s evening my Mum or Dad would be told “she needs to talk more”). We were asked for our opinions on issues. English lessons, in my experience, were about looking at a poem or piece of prose and taking it apart and studying it. It was about our interpretations and opinions of things. There was a whole term dedicated to debating and persuasive writing. History essays were about taking the question, covering the topic and stating whether the question was accurate or not. Example:

“The power of the Tsarist state was relatively unchanged after the 1905 Revolution.”

How accurate is this view?

The essay that you were to write for this question was structured along these lines:

1)        Introduction

2)      Reasons why the view COULD BE accurate

3)      More reasons supporting the statement

4)      Reasons against the statement

5)      More reasons against the statement

6)      Conclusion which summarises the essay

Where in this is the lack of critical thinking? Where is the lack of education towards critical thinking? English; Modern Studies; Religious, Moral and Philosophical Studies are the same. So no, as far as I’m concerned kids are not “just sat down and told stuff”. And they ARE allowed to ask questions and they ARE taught how to think critically. I mean in English the essays were called “Critical Evaluations”!

This kind of thing has happened before. A couple of weeks ago we were talking about essay structure and how some students can’t structure a sentence properly and how the standards of grammar and spelling are poor among a lot of students (without any disability causing it) and yet again one of the older students in the class (who repeatedly says things like “I done it” which severely annoys me) said “that’s because teachers don’t correct them or spend enough time on it while they’re in school” (local dialect and spoken errors have been changed because it pains me to type them). My first point in this is, “you’re over 30 what’s your excuse? And no, being from Dundee is not a good excuse”. Moving away from the slightly childish personal attacks and onto the facts (yes that almost rhymes!) Teachers do focus on spelling throughout primary and then in Secondary school they focus on it more. And it’s not just English teachers who focus on it, any class which involves writing essays (or writing anything for that matter) have some focus on spelling and grammar. I think the only class with no focus on it is Maths.

Regardless of this, Teachers should not be held responsible for every aspect of a child’s education. Parents/guardians (should) play a key role in their child’s education – primary school kids get spelling homework and regular spelling tests (at least we did in the 3 primary schools I went to) parents can help with that. If they don’t get this homework then parents can help them learn how to spell things properly. As for the essay structure comment I think I made my point in the last paragraph that essay structure does get taught.

For this next bit to make sense I should point out that the people making these comments are Scottish, born, raised and (somewhat) educated. During a discussion about Sociology in general the tutor pointed out that if you want to do Sociology you need to keep up with current events; read newspapers and have an interest in it. She also said that she is appalled by the lack of knowledge students, doing Sociology (and related courses) have of current events. Cue a one of the students chiming in with “that’s because they aren’t taught current events at school”. This was said a couple of weeks ago and it still annoys me. There is a class taught in Secondary schools in Scotland (I’d never heard of it until I moved back here so I assume it’s just here) called “Modern Studies”. Now, if the name doesn’t give it away this subject consists of: politics; current events; social issues and things like that. Every secondary school student (at my school at least) is taught this for two years and then they can choose to continue with it in 3^rd year. This subject IS Sociology minus all the theories. It’s about thinking critically, learning about the society you live in and – wait for it – CURRENT EVENTS! There is no way that kids do not get the opportunity to learn about this. And if, by chance, some kids don’t have this option then how about the parents/guardians get them to watch the news or parents/guardians sit and read the newspaper with their kids. It’s not rocket science!

This student also tagged on a comment about how kids know nothing about Scottish history and that they don’t know the trouble people went through to enable the rights and freedom we have today and that’s why they won’t fight for it. Well excuse you! Key subject taught in schools is History. The topics I remember studying in Secondary school include (but are not limited to): Migration in Scotland; Development of Trade Unions and the Suffragists & Suffragettes; Political activity in the years leading up to the Second World War and World War Two. So now tell me that kids don’t get taught this stuff.

My final little rant will be that you cannot blame Teachers for everything. You also can’t blame the lack of parental involvement for everything. They (Teachers, parents and guardians) can only do so much. I know it sounds like a cop-out used by the education system to avoid blame but there are some kids who just do not want to learn. And this is coming from someone who went to school with them. Parents who blame teachers for their kid doing badly (without putting any blame on the kid or themselves) have obviously forgotten those kids in school who mess around, shout abuse at the teacher and other pupils and spend more time in the Head Teacher’s office than in a classroom. Some parents were those kids. If kids were interested in current events they’d ask for a newspaper or go online; if they were interested in history they could go to a library or go online; if they were interested in proper spelling and grammar then they’d practise until they got it right (and don’t tell me that no kid wants to spend time learning how to spell properly because I did). Fact of the matter is if kids are interested, they will learn or at least try to.

I’m not saying schools and teachers are perfect, I’m also not saying that they shouldn’t be blamed for anything. I’m just saying that if people (not just kids) aren’t interested then they won’t learn. It infuriates me when these comments are made and if it happens next week I will say something because I’ve had enough of it. It is totally ignorant and, to put it bluntly, stupid to blame teachers for all of this. Just like rap music isn’t to blame for youth crime – teachers are not to blame for every educational problem.