Reclaiming the Safety of the Classroom: Empowering our Students
“Education is for improving
the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found
it.”- Marian Wright Edelman
The increase in incidents of physical attacks on the nation’s teacher is appalling as it is problematic. As centres of learning our schools are supposed to be safe for both students and teachers alike. The classroom is no longer a safe space for teaching and learning; sadly, the classroom has become a battleground where the strongest willed individual is rewarded and moves on to another day. Regrettably, teaching and learning have become secondary features of our elitist education system where teachers have been forced to take on the additional roles of police, security guard, correctional officer, surrogate parent and probation officer. Unfortunately, in recent times we have seen the videos which have gone viral in which students have attacked or threatened to attack teachers. The principal at Homestead Primary was physically attacked by a student and had to seek attention. The principal subsequently went on sick leave while the staff had a sit in later that week. Of course we have heard of, or have seen the videos involving students from Pembroke Hall High in which students tossed chairs and stools across the classroom while the petrified teacher was unable to get the students to end this dangerous action. There is also the video involving Oracabessa High School involving male students fighting on the road and a police officer gave chase firing his service firearm. Oracabessa High made the news recently when a male student physically attacked the Dean of Discipline. The dean had to seek medical attention and the student was later arrested. It was frightening to have heard the principal of Oracabessa say that teachers are afraid of some of the students. The situation is bad! The Donald Quarrie High School also made the rounds on social media as videos circulated in which female students were seen and heard cursing expletives and bringing the school into disrepute. There was also a video of Wolmer's Boys' School in which second-formers hurled sexual innuendos and insults at the female principal of neighouring Wolmer's Girls' School; which resulted in criticism from the wider society. The action of those boys was most disgraceful.
Societal Issues
The problem the Jamaican society face is not a classroom dilemma. The classroom is only a mirror to what the wider society is like. Jamaica has become a rough and tough place to live, work and to raise families. In addition to the high crime rate plaguing the society, corruption is pervasive and continues to eat away at the social fabric of the society. The society also has to contend with a dysfunctional family system in which children have become the parents as parents continue to retreat from their responsibilities. Many children are forced to fend for themselves with little or no supervision. Additionally, the society has a significant number of single parent families in which the parent have very little time to adequately mentor, supervise and give support to their child. Our students are from homes where there are no structures and anything goes. How then do you expect such students to listen to a teacher when in their communities they are in charge of what they do, and where they do it without any consequences? Are we in a crisis? If you are undecided just take a second or third look at the now viral videos. There is also the issue of poor school leadership. The fact is some of our principalships are weak and ineffective. Students pick up quickly on a weak principal and they will create situations just to expose that principal. This is not a theory, this has been proven times and times over by the National Education Inspectorate which speaks to the unsatisfactory management in most of our schools. We also have in many instances many divided schools where the staff is not behind the principals sometimes for good reasons. We often hear a chain is as strong as its weakest link. The exodus of our most experienced teachers has, and will continue to weaken the education system. There are some schools which are short of teachers in the critical areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and this undoubtedly facilitates indiscipline to strive and flourish as students are not actively engaged. The issue of placing so many students of the same kind to a particular school is also problematic. It is not uncommon for a class to have 40 students; just imagine that many students from broken homes in one class with one teacher. A school with mainly students with maladaptive behaviours is courting trouble and we continue to experience this in our education system. Teachers are not superheroes, they have feelings too. There is not a quick fix to the problems we face as a society, specifically in the education system. There are those who argue that we need to re-masculinize Jamaica’s education system. The feminization of the education system over the years has led to a breakdown of discipline and respect for authority especially among our boys. Our boys in particular are lacking positive male role models and mentors. Many of them are acting out as a result. Unfortunately, a significant number of the students involved in teacher-student conflict are boys. This clearly indicates that a gendered approach is needed in arriving at workable solutions to the problem. Research tells us that boys learn in different way than girls, yet for the most part this reality is rarely taken into account when planning lessons. Carol Ann Tomlinson, professor of educational leadership, foundations, and policy at the University of Virginia describes differentiated instruction as factoring students’ individual learning styles and levels of readiness first before designing a lesson plan. The education system would benefit from having more male teachers especially at the secondary level. Our policy makers should explore all possible intervention to restore our classrooms to centres of teaching and learning. In the near future we can see a situation where schools ask that teachers have self defense training as a prerequisite for teaching. Are we moving towards ninja teachers in our classrooms? Our policy makers need to come up with some solutions to tackle the increase attacks on teachers. The future of our society is at a crossroads and time is of the essence.
Domains of Learning
Educational theorist Benjamin Bloom classifies three domains of learning. These are the cognitive, affective and psychomotor. The cognitive includes knowledge and comprehension. Most teachers' lesson plans tend to fully comprehend this aspect of teaching. The psychomotor domain is also evident in most teachers' plan. However, the affective domain of learning has always been problematic for many educators. The time has come for us to re-examine the curriculum and place an emphasis on the affective domain. It is obvious that our students are lacking in this regard. The affective domain includes integrity, empathy and appreciation. It is widely accepted that consistency of character and ethical matters are objectives for the affective domain of learning. When students learn new information about themselves or their surroundings, it must impact the way that they interact with their environment. The Jamaican society on a whole is suffering from a lack of integrity. Too many individuals who are role models have questionable characters. We need an infusion of character based education in the National Standards Curriculum. Integrity, as a learning objective for the affective domain, refers to an individual's ability to make choices that are morally consistent with his knowledge of the world. The ability to understand the differences in each other’s upbringing and socialization are critical elements in the teaching and learning experience. Too many of our students do not appreciate this difference and are unable to empathize with their colleagues. Teachers who emphasize the affective domain include activities where students interact with those of different ethnic, religious and national origins. Sadly, a significant number of our students have no appreciation for what they are learning. There are windows of disconnect in the teaching and learning experience and this needs to be corrected.
The Power of Partnerships
The escalation of teacher-student conflict is worrisome and needs urgent attention. Our students are out of control. Parenting is woefully lacking in the lives of many of our students. We need to call on the Parent Teachers’ Association's national body to assist our schools in having parenting workshops. The National Parent Teachers Association of Jamaica needs to be restructured. Jamaica’s education system needs to move to that place where parenting seminars and workshops become best practices. We need to be creative and as such parents who attend a required number of these seminars could be given discounts from other stakeholder groups. We should never discount the power of partnerships in order to achieve the desired goals. We are at a national crisis and urgent measures are required to address the issues at hand. It bares thought that each of the 6 Regions of the Ministry of Education should have a residential time-out facility fully resourced for students who display maladaptive behaviours. These students should be pulled from their regular schools and re-socialized at least for a term before they can return to their schools. There needs to be more school/church partnerships. Many of our students no longer attend Sunday or Sabbath school. There was a time when parents would send their children to church even if they do not attend. There was also a time when Religious Education was an integral part of the curriculum. Why is it that most of our schools no longer include Religious Education in their timetable? Are we still training teachers to teach Religious Education? Another critical partnership which cannot be discounted is that of the Past Students’ Associations. These Alumni bodies have been giving back to many schools. Among the activities of these associations are mentorship programmes, they participate in devotional exercises, assist with coaching schools’ challenge quiz teams and they assist in boys and girls championships. They give both of their time and financial resources to enhance their respective schools.
It cannot be business as usually. Jamaica's education system should be moving towards normalizing surveillance cameras in every classroom. As a society we need to change our modus operandi from reactionary to one of being proactive. Our schools are in need of more resources especially human resources. Social workers are needed in every school. For every incident which makes the news regarding attacks on teachers perhaps another three incidents go unreported. All hands are needed on deck. We need to reclaim our classrooms and return them to safe spaces in which students of various learning styles can be educated. Failure is not an option.
In the words of William Arthur Ward, teaching is more than imparting knowledge, it is inspiring change.
Wayne Campbell is an educator and social commentator with an interest in development policies as they affect culture and or gender issues.
waykam@yahoo.com
@WayneCamo
#education #religion #parenting #socialization #gender #princialship #leadership #Jamaica
©
The increase in incidents of physical attacks on the nation’s teacher is appalling as it is problematic. As centres of learning our schools are supposed to be safe for both students and teachers alike. The classroom is no longer a safe space for teaching and learning; sadly, the classroom has become a battleground where the strongest willed individual is rewarded and moves on to another day. Regrettably, teaching and learning have become secondary features of our elitist education system where teachers have been forced to take on the additional roles of police, security guard, correctional officer, surrogate parent and probation officer. Unfortunately, in recent times we have seen the videos which have gone viral in which students have attacked or threatened to attack teachers. The principal at Homestead Primary was physically attacked by a student and had to seek attention. The principal subsequently went on sick leave while the staff had a sit in later that week. Of course we have heard of, or have seen the videos involving students from Pembroke Hall High in which students tossed chairs and stools across the classroom while the petrified teacher was unable to get the students to end this dangerous action. There is also the video involving Oracabessa High School involving male students fighting on the road and a police officer gave chase firing his service firearm. Oracabessa High made the news recently when a male student physically attacked the Dean of Discipline. The dean had to seek medical attention and the student was later arrested. It was frightening to have heard the principal of Oracabessa say that teachers are afraid of some of the students. The situation is bad! The Donald Quarrie High School also made the rounds on social media as videos circulated in which female students were seen and heard cursing expletives and bringing the school into disrepute. There was also a video of Wolmer's Boys' School in which second-formers hurled sexual innuendos and insults at the female principal of neighouring Wolmer's Girls' School; which resulted in criticism from the wider society. The action of those boys was most disgraceful.
Societal Issues
The problem the Jamaican society face is not a classroom dilemma. The classroom is only a mirror to what the wider society is like. Jamaica has become a rough and tough place to live, work and to raise families. In addition to the high crime rate plaguing the society, corruption is pervasive and continues to eat away at the social fabric of the society. The society also has to contend with a dysfunctional family system in which children have become the parents as parents continue to retreat from their responsibilities. Many children are forced to fend for themselves with little or no supervision. Additionally, the society has a significant number of single parent families in which the parent have very little time to adequately mentor, supervise and give support to their child. Our students are from homes where there are no structures and anything goes. How then do you expect such students to listen to a teacher when in their communities they are in charge of what they do, and where they do it without any consequences? Are we in a crisis? If you are undecided just take a second or third look at the now viral videos. There is also the issue of poor school leadership. The fact is some of our principalships are weak and ineffective. Students pick up quickly on a weak principal and they will create situations just to expose that principal. This is not a theory, this has been proven times and times over by the National Education Inspectorate which speaks to the unsatisfactory management in most of our schools. We also have in many instances many divided schools where the staff is not behind the principals sometimes for good reasons. We often hear a chain is as strong as its weakest link. The exodus of our most experienced teachers has, and will continue to weaken the education system. There are some schools which are short of teachers in the critical areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and this undoubtedly facilitates indiscipline to strive and flourish as students are not actively engaged. The issue of placing so many students of the same kind to a particular school is also problematic. It is not uncommon for a class to have 40 students; just imagine that many students from broken homes in one class with one teacher. A school with mainly students with maladaptive behaviours is courting trouble and we continue to experience this in our education system. Teachers are not superheroes, they have feelings too. There is not a quick fix to the problems we face as a society, specifically in the education system. There are those who argue that we need to re-masculinize Jamaica’s education system. The feminization of the education system over the years has led to a breakdown of discipline and respect for authority especially among our boys. Our boys in particular are lacking positive male role models and mentors. Many of them are acting out as a result. Unfortunately, a significant number of the students involved in teacher-student conflict are boys. This clearly indicates that a gendered approach is needed in arriving at workable solutions to the problem. Research tells us that boys learn in different way than girls, yet for the most part this reality is rarely taken into account when planning lessons. Carol Ann Tomlinson, professor of educational leadership, foundations, and policy at the University of Virginia describes differentiated instruction as factoring students’ individual learning styles and levels of readiness first before designing a lesson plan. The education system would benefit from having more male teachers especially at the secondary level. Our policy makers should explore all possible intervention to restore our classrooms to centres of teaching and learning. In the near future we can see a situation where schools ask that teachers have self defense training as a prerequisite for teaching. Are we moving towards ninja teachers in our classrooms? Our policy makers need to come up with some solutions to tackle the increase attacks on teachers. The future of our society is at a crossroads and time is of the essence.
Domains of Learning
Educational theorist Benjamin Bloom classifies three domains of learning. These are the cognitive, affective and psychomotor. The cognitive includes knowledge and comprehension. Most teachers' lesson plans tend to fully comprehend this aspect of teaching. The psychomotor domain is also evident in most teachers' plan. However, the affective domain of learning has always been problematic for many educators. The time has come for us to re-examine the curriculum and place an emphasis on the affective domain. It is obvious that our students are lacking in this regard. The affective domain includes integrity, empathy and appreciation. It is widely accepted that consistency of character and ethical matters are objectives for the affective domain of learning. When students learn new information about themselves or their surroundings, it must impact the way that they interact with their environment. The Jamaican society on a whole is suffering from a lack of integrity. Too many individuals who are role models have questionable characters. We need an infusion of character based education in the National Standards Curriculum. Integrity, as a learning objective for the affective domain, refers to an individual's ability to make choices that are morally consistent with his knowledge of the world. The ability to understand the differences in each other’s upbringing and socialization are critical elements in the teaching and learning experience. Too many of our students do not appreciate this difference and are unable to empathize with their colleagues. Teachers who emphasize the affective domain include activities where students interact with those of different ethnic, religious and national origins. Sadly, a significant number of our students have no appreciation for what they are learning. There are windows of disconnect in the teaching and learning experience and this needs to be corrected.
The Power of Partnerships
The escalation of teacher-student conflict is worrisome and needs urgent attention. Our students are out of control. Parenting is woefully lacking in the lives of many of our students. We need to call on the Parent Teachers’ Association's national body to assist our schools in having parenting workshops. The National Parent Teachers Association of Jamaica needs to be restructured. Jamaica’s education system needs to move to that place where parenting seminars and workshops become best practices. We need to be creative and as such parents who attend a required number of these seminars could be given discounts from other stakeholder groups. We should never discount the power of partnerships in order to achieve the desired goals. We are at a national crisis and urgent measures are required to address the issues at hand. It bares thought that each of the 6 Regions of the Ministry of Education should have a residential time-out facility fully resourced for students who display maladaptive behaviours. These students should be pulled from their regular schools and re-socialized at least for a term before they can return to their schools. There needs to be more school/church partnerships. Many of our students no longer attend Sunday or Sabbath school. There was a time when parents would send their children to church even if they do not attend. There was also a time when Religious Education was an integral part of the curriculum. Why is it that most of our schools no longer include Religious Education in their timetable? Are we still training teachers to teach Religious Education? Another critical partnership which cannot be discounted is that of the Past Students’ Associations. These Alumni bodies have been giving back to many schools. Among the activities of these associations are mentorship programmes, they participate in devotional exercises, assist with coaching schools’ challenge quiz teams and they assist in boys and girls championships. They give both of their time and financial resources to enhance their respective schools.
It cannot be business as usually. Jamaica's education system should be moving towards normalizing surveillance cameras in every classroom. As a society we need to change our modus operandi from reactionary to one of being proactive. Our schools are in need of more resources especially human resources. Social workers are needed in every school. For every incident which makes the news regarding attacks on teachers perhaps another three incidents go unreported. All hands are needed on deck. We need to reclaim our classrooms and return them to safe spaces in which students of various learning styles can be educated. Failure is not an option.
In the words of William Arthur Ward, teaching is more than imparting knowledge, it is inspiring change.
Wayne Campbell is an educator and social commentator with an interest in development policies as they affect culture and or gender issues.
waykam@yahoo.com
@WayneCamo
#education #religion #parenting #socialization #gender #princialship #leadership #Jamaica
©
Excellent article. Fact is, we need people like you in government but like most good folk, they don't want power. The flipside of not getting involved is what we have now; the nefarious and their clueless sycophants running countries. And as you mentioned, some of these guys become role models.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that the foundation is education but we must have change. Please check out my website LetsBuildaBetterJamaica.com, if you do I'm sure to hear from you soon.
John