NOTE: remember (or go look at the blogs about) Spikey IQ to understand bits within this blog.
People all over the globe are pissed off about children’s behaviour in classrooms (especially teachers) but no one is willing to stop and learn instead of bitching and blaming everyone else. They keep doubling down on the same behaviourist crap that caused the behaviour in the first place. Read my other blogs to find out more about this. I won’t harp on it here.
I just want to quickly point out that one child isn’t ruining it for everyone. This is placing blame on an individual which is wrong and completely unfair.
Let’s look at who this “other 29” are and why their education is also being ruined… not only by behaviour that is being caused by the system that is blaming others…. But it also being ruined in other ways by that same system.
The school system is broken – we all know it, but we all won’t agree on why or how…. Or how to fix it. But can we all agree it’s broken? Can we all agree that it does need fixing? And can we all agree that we can’t go backwards. Backwards never solves anything. Many teachers and parents (for that matter) want to return to corporal punishment and the way ‘things used to be’. That’s not an option – get over it.
There are in this analogy – 30 children in the class, and people believe that only one is ruining it for all. But let’s look at the fact that 30 kids in a class never worked. If you have your rose tinted glasses on, you’ll think that “Once upon a time…. It did work” – no it didn’t!!! I laugh in your face if you actually think this. You are delusional and ignorant. It might have worked for you. But in actual fact it didn’t work for many. Many used to drop out of school, many didn’t graduate, many graduated but with severe trauma, many hated every minute of it, many struggled and remained silent, many were bullied and still are, many have suicidal tendencies now because of it, many beat their kids now because of it, many have no relationship with their own children because of it. But all 30 were failed in different ways – but not all talked about it or showed that failure using outward expressions of pain (through ‘bad’ behaviour). But it was there all along.
The change these days is that we don’t put up with it anymore. But we are all still being failed!!! And astronomically at that.
30 children is not a number of students that any teacher should have to try and teach – it’s not teaching, it’s lecturing (as I’ve said in the past). Kids (little kids and people under 18) don’t learn from lecturing. As you’ve seen in my previous blog – they learn through oral/spoken, written/writing and doing/kinetic... they sometimes learn through all three when they are done effectively and at individual ability and capacity. NOT at age group!
When you group according to age – you detriment all, because every person is different and learns at different rates and times and in different ways. 30 children are being detrimented by the ONE- the ONE system!!! The system that is set up to fail all 30... not 29, not 5, but all 30.
Each of those classes holds 30 children with completely different IQ’s, aspirations, thoughts, needs and abilities – by pushing them into an age group, instead of interest, capability, capacity or anything else – you fail them all and cause them to use behaviour to communicate that you are failing them.
Yes – one or two are using behavior – because those are the ones who are perhaps smart enough, or perhaps brave enough to tell you to your face that you are failing everyone…. Not just them. But because some are silent – you assume you are doing well.
What’s that famous quote: “say nothing and even a wise man won’t know you’re a fool”. Maybe you should check with those silent other 29 students to find out if they think it could be done differently or better as well.
When you teach to the average student – you detriment/ harm the outliers… and there’s way more outliers than you think or recognise. One child isn’t ruining it for 29 – one system is ruining it for ALL!!!!
There is no “quality of education” when you teach 30 students – it is “education for the ‘average’ masses”. That’s not good education or learning in the first place. You can’t say one child is ruining something that wasn’t good in the first place.