Anti teacher?

Anti teacher? 

Are all home schoolers anti-teacher? It's a question I've asked myself many times before.

The simple answer is no- not all  home schoolers are anti-teacher. Some are, while others are not. While many home schooling parents aren't anti-teacher many have concerns about main stream schooling and the Education Department.

The home schooling ideas came about for us during a conservation with Simon about eighteen months ago. We were discussing the classroom management of a teacher at my school. This teacher treats their class as though they were in the army. They were allowed minimal time talking and were expected to move around the school, not quietly- but in silence.

Life skill?

I remember seeing the class practicing their 'lining up skills' and walking down the corridor- for twenty minutes until they 'got it right.' (I've yet to see "lining up skills' listed on a job description) All while having their teacher speak to them as though they were new cadets in the Australia Army. Back in the classroom students were punished for what was deemed poor behaviour in very inappropriate ways. They were physical punishments. I'm not talking about the teacher hitting them but it was more about what the students were expected to do to themselves. For example, in one instance a student was swinging on their chair. This is certainly something that needs to be addressed for both the safety of the student and that of others. This teacher required the student to stand on one foot for one minute per year of life, and if the other foot touched the ground the time started again. I've seen one student have to do this for half an hour. This wasn't helping the child in any way. In fact I saw the child swinging on their chair the following day. So it wasn't the deterrent the teacher was hoping it would be. 

So that's how it started. Simon asked me if I would send our boys to my school and I said 'while that teacher is working at the school my boys won't be attending." (Insert Mother Bear growl) This obviously lead to the question 'well whose class would you be happy to have the boys in?' I went through all the teachers at my school and one by one each teacher was crossed off the list in my mind.

Now this may get you thinking, "Gee there's a lot of mediocre teachers at her school!" No, that's certainly not true, but they do work in a system that's mediocre. It wouldn't matter if the school was filled with excellent teachers. It wouldn't matter because they are still expected to follow the same boring curriculum that's set out by the Government. They are still expected to have their students line up, wearing identical uniforms and work to a series of bells each day.

A working holiday

Teaching is hard work. It really is. Contrary to popular belief it isn't a 9-3:30 gig. And those much talked about twelve weeks of holidays a year aren't all they're cracked up to be. Teachers don't get in, and stay in teaching for the pay, excellent working conditions or for the holidays. Most teachers get into the profession because they genuinely love kids and want to help them to learn. They can live and breathe their jobs, often to the detriment of their social lives, sanity and own family time. In some cases they are filling in the holes where some parents can't manage. Some teachers bring breakfast and lunch into the same students each day because I haven't received enough from home- all out of their own pocket. So to say I'm anti-teacher is far from accurate.

Are your kids engaged in the classroom?

It's important to note that I have encountered more than a few teachers who home school their kids. They, like me, have seen the expectations placed on the schools and teachers, and they don't like what they see. They do the best they can to make learning engaging for their students within the limits put upon them by the Education Department. When it comes down to it I wouldn't want my kids in my own class because I'm bound by a long list of expectations- expectations that I won't have placed on me when I home school. I highly doubt my boys are going to request to learn about 'Rules and Regulations' when they are six years old. Let alone for ten weeks. I'm willing to put money on it.

Then there's the other side- the loud and proud teacher bashing home schoolers. These are the parents who've have really negative experiences with both teachers and the school. Sometimes they feel unsupported. From my experience sometimes this is justified and sometimes the expectations of parents are unrealistic. Sometimes parents forget that we are teachers- we have no training or have limited training in speech development, gross and fine motor skills, we aren't audiologist, we aren't optometrists but yet parents complain "why wasn't this (disorder, problem) picked up earlier?"

Teachers often do their own research.

The best most teachers can do is suspect something that is 'not right' with a child and do some research of their own. They can voice their concerns to the parents and can recommend the child get assessed by relevant professionals. Having said that, for every parent who has said "why wasn't this picked up earlier" there's another parent who just doesn't want to know about even a suspected educational or behavioural issue. A while back a colleague and I were discussing a student. Let's call her Jane. This colleague was asking my opinion about Jane's behaviour. We both agreed that the behaviours Jane was displaying in the classroom and play ground sounded like she had trouble following basic instructions. My colleague discussed with the parents that a hearing test would be beneficial for Jane. A reasonable suggestion made by a caring teacher looking out for the educational interests of one of her students. Unfortunately the parents didn't see it that way. A very nasty letter followed accusing my colleague of being 'up herself' and stating that she 'had no right' diagnosing deafness. "Wow" was my first reaction. I'm amazed at how defensive some parents can get towards well meaning teachers. It wasn't as if the teacher said this with malice or in an attempt to upset the parents- it was a legitimate concern. If I had a teacher say the same thing to me I'd be praising them for caring about my child, and I'd be on the phone to the relevant professional toot sweet- not sending a nasty letter. After being tested Jane was found to have a significant hearing loss due to fluid in her ears. In the following weeks and months her behaviour, language, reading and writing all improved dramatically. There was no apology from the family.... 



Schools have budgets to work to

Parents need to remember that schools work within a limited  budget so getting extra support from an aide or Special Education teacher just isn't realistic in many cases. When I started teaching we regularly had access to a visiting teacher who would not only work with individual students but would help teachers to understand the different disorders and how they could help the students when the visiting teacher wasn't there. This was beneficial to all involved. Then the funding just stopped. Scrapped. We now rely on a fortnightly, half day speech pathologist who works with a long list of schools each fortnight. I guess beggars can't be choosers.

Many teachers are aware some of their students require extra assistance but there just isn't resources or funding to provide the assistance some children need. The majority of teachers and schools have the best interests of their students in mind when making decisions and do whatever they can to provide for each child. 

I truly believe that 99% of teachers and principals want what is best for their students. The problem is that there are differing ideas about what is considered 'best.' Unfortunately there are people who have had really negative experiences within the schooling system and this is a shame.

I hope you've found this post to be informative. Please feel free to share and post a comment. I have Facebook page called "My life as a homeschooling teacher." Feel free to pop over and "Like" it.