I spent over two decades of my life teaching. For a total of about fifteen years I was first a Creative Dance teacher and then a Gym teacher. For the health and safety of my students they needed to listen to me. And considering the high percentage of outdoor lessons when I taught sports, shouting, supplemented by a loud whistle, was the only way I could be heard. Those were the days before portable loud-speakers. No surprise I developed the reputation of a teacher always yelling.
Teaching became very difficult after the elementary school classrooms became larger, and the students got used to sitting "in groups" around square tables. The children faced each other, not the teacher, nor the board. Eye-contact was with each other, and even when I had them all together they had much more difficulty (than their elder sisters whom I had also taught) following instructions.
A few years after I ended that career, I reentered teaching as a EFL (English as a foreign language) teacher. At first I was more a glorified tutor helping small, highly motivated groups of high school boys. It was a pleasure and very easy. Those boys wanted to succeed and succeed they did.
My problems began when I was "promoted" to regular classes. Gentle encouragement was perceived as weakness, and I couldn't revive the tough persona needed to keep the kids in line. They didn't accept nor understand the concept of "no." This was/is a generation raised on whispers and sweet voices, hearing things like:
"Kootchy kootchy coo, sticking the lollipop stick in the baby's eye may be unpleasant."
The local child psychology gurus brainwashed parents into believing that the shout of "no, stop" would stunt something in their child's psyche.
For decades now the noisy, open classroom is the norm in many countries, the countries where there are problems controlling classes. Kids aren't educated in quiet listening. The classrooms aren't arranged to maximize teacher control.
Nobody and that includes both the teachers and the students get enough sleep. Sleep deprivation cause concentration, attention span, impulsivity, memory problems. That's bad news for the classroom.
And lastly to the new teacher who realizes that with all the pedagogy and education classes he/she was required to take, there was no course with tnt, tried and true classroom control techniques, it's because your university professors haven't a clue. They're teaching you, not a bunch of seven or seventeen year olds.
6 comments:
every word is absolutely true. I left the classroom 12 years ago for all the reasons you listed. now I'm unemployed after a 12 year office job and in a moment of weakness considered going back to teaching. Thanks for bringing me back to my senses.
a, thanks for making me feel better! One thing I'm sure of. If I was a student in today's classroom I'd be a failure, not able to concentrate on anything at all.
I don't have kids and have never been a teacher but it seems to me that the problems with unruly kids does boil down to bad parenting.
I am grateful my mother was a "housewife" now called a stay at home mom. That meant I wasn't shuttled off to a kiddie kennel (daycare) at six weeks old and housed there for eight hours a day and raised by total strangers.
As an older child and teen I wasn't forced to get up at the crack of dawn just so my parents could get me to school before they had to be at work.
So parents feel guilty about neglecting their kids that they run them ragged with afterschool and weekend sports or other activities. Kids don't get a decent night's rest. They're irritable and distracted and act out.
I don't know if the TV shows Nanny 911 or Super Nanny are available in Israel but it's amazing how many parents call them for help because they can't say no to their kids (out of guilt etc) and have never heard of time out; and providing structure.
Kids actually crave structure in a disorganized family and world.
I empathize with you Batya. All through nursing school I was taught to be a patient advocate. Then when I spotted patient physical abuse and complained on my first nursing job and quit I was given the "When in Rome" line.
As a reporter at a small newspaper the idea of being a community watchdog was drummed in my head. Yeah, watchdog provided you don't need to step on tender political toes.
Anonymous--best of luck to you in finding a job:)
Yes, keli, the problems radiate to all aspects of life, politics, too. "Apease Now" is just another sign of the "me generation."
So true, Batya. That as well as the new secular religion of diversity and multi-culturism, which has led people into a state in which to take a firm stand on an issue--any issue at all--is almost a crime and a sin.
oy, what will we do?
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