KYLIE LANG

concerning findings in the OECD’s new Teaching and Learning International Survey, the gravest point to parenting so poor that teachers can’t possibly plaster over it.

Bullying, the survey of 4200 educators in 200 Australian schools reveals, is endemic.

In fact, it’s almost three times the world average, with 37 per cent of principals dealing with abusive acts between students every week.

As part of a global survey of 260,000 educators in 48 industrialised nations, it shows that 60 per cent of Australian teachers are struggling to cope with rowdy classrooms.

Certainly, this indicates some level of inadequacy in the initial and ongoing training of teachers to firmly manage children, but since when did kids get the upper hand?

If you look at China or Japan, the situation is far better. Only 8 per cent of Chinese teachers and 12 per cent of Japanese teachers complain of noise and disruption.

In a recent post on Explore, a Griffith University site for international students, Zoe Xue Lian, 22, listed classroom behaviour as one of the major differences between China and Australia.

“Education is the greatest cultural difference, especially regarding teaching methods,” Xue Lian wrote. “In China, all students sit and just listen to the teachers, they do not normally give any feedback in class.”

In other words, they do as their culture expects and, because it is one that truly values education, they don’t squander opportunities to learn.

This attitude to education is also evident in Australian children of Chinese descent, for whom mucking up in class would bring shame on their family. Their parents wouldn’t stand for loutish behaviour.

I realise I am generalising – which is also what research does in handing down a set of overall findings – but clearly there is a disconnect between home and school in this country.

Many parents pack their kids off to school expecting teachers to work miracles on their undisciplined or otherwise unfortunate offspring.

Others don’t expect much at all, since they themselves didn’t have a great experience at school and/or they don’t believe in the transformative power of education. Be that as it may, it is a parent’s job to prepare children for the world.

There are kids in our classrooms today who do want to learn, but unless the quality of parenting improves, then those children – which includes the “bullies” – will be fighting an uphill battle and society, as a whole, will be worse off.

Kylie Lang is a News Corp columnist. Hayley Sorensen is on column leave. She will return very soon!