Why our schools are bottom of the class
Prepare for an unpopular opinion.
To preface, let me just say that I love teachers. Some of my best friends are teachers, many of my family members are teachers, and, amazingly, my children are taught by teachers.
I know it’s a bloody tough job because when I help my children with homework I often consider going out for milk and never coming home.
But perhaps it’s time our teachers learned a new lesson.
Indeed, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s education policy outlook in Australia report, released this week, shows the disciplinary climate in our schools is among the worst within the organisation’s 38 member countries.
According to the OECD’S Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) index, which asks students how often noise and other disruptions occur in the classroom, and grades countries around an average of zero, Australian classrooms rate at -0.2 while the OECD average is +0.04.
The report also found evidence of “growing disengagement” in the later years of high school.
“Student truancy was also higher than the OECD average, with onein-three 15-year-olds reporting to have skipped at least one day of school in the two weeks prior to the PISA test, compared to one-in-five on average across the OECD,” the report says.
While I’m absolutely sure that our students will bear the bulk of blame for these results, and perhaps rightly so, our teachers must take some accountability too.
Because, as any parent of a Gen Z child knows, times have changed.
My own son was born the same year as the first iphone, and so I’ve watched first-hand as this technology and ensuing paradigm shift entered our home and our heads.
The children of this generation are accustomed to constant stimulation, although I am far from saying that this is either right or good.
Regardless, I know that when I need my children to listen and obey, I need to make my instructions dynamic. Does it mean choreographing a Tiktok dance to ensure they complete their chores? Well, I’m not saying no.
Not that I expect teachers to go to these lengths (no doubt they’d only be dubbed ‘cringe’), but the days of lines on a blackboard are well and truly dead. Yet just a little effort to liven up the classroom goes a long way.
One of my high school daughter’s favourite subjects is one she detested just last year. And the teacher?
She’s strict and a hard-marker, but she makes learning fun.
She introduces games, trivia and encourages input from the students. And those students behave. Which aligns precisely with the findings from the OECD, which state that teachers have the main responsibility of ensuring that the classroom environment is conducive to learning.
That shouldn’t mean ruling with an iron fist, but engaging the students so that they want to be there.
It also means listening to the students.
This generation, like any other, was born with a bunch of issues. From the pandemic to poverty, cost-of-living to the property crisis, the problems of the parents are so often borne by the children.
But a study by the University of South Australia shows that, too often, teachers are not looking at the big picture when it comes to issues of discipline.
“Often discussions on how to manage students’ behaviour focus on responding to the individual’s academic failure, behaviour or disinterest in school. They don’t look at the broader complexities of their lives,” says the study.
“If Australian schools want to improve student discipline, they need to address this issue.”
That does not mean students should not be disciplined, but it does mean any misbehaviour should at least be considered as symptomatic of something greater.
Which is why our educators should perhaps adopt a technique employed by, of all workplaces, the Queensland Police Service.
Anyone who has ever been pulled over for driving just a little too fast would be familiar with the first line from a cop: “Any reason you were speeding?”
Now, I’m sure police have their own reasons, but I would love to see teachers employ this same method with students. “Any reason you were talking/cheating/vaping?”
No answer should get the student out of trouble, but it could help solve a bigger problem by revealing underlying issues in the student’s life, whether at school or at home.
Look, I understand that our teachers are facing something of a battlefield when it comes to the classrooms of 2023, but we have to adapt our tactics to help our children.
Anything less can only be considered a failure.