It’s all about good teachers
Professor Gervase Phinn is a retired school inspector who has become a best-selling author. His forthright views on the current trials and tribulations of the teaching profession appeared in the Yorkshire Post 13 January 2007
TEACHERS returned to school this term to learn that the Government has commissioned a report calling for a major overhaul of the school system with its accompanying raft of proposals and schemes.
“In my 37 years as a teacher, then an education adviser, Ofsted inspector and Visiting Professor of Education, I have witnessed a series of unremitting changes in the education system. Teachers have had to cope with a constant reworking of the school curriculum, with incessant new initiatives, endless guidelines and ceaseless evaluation. They have had to deal with targets and league tables, new procedures, strategies and recommendations, and a frighteningly rigorous, and now refined, inspection system – and still try to maintain their enthusiasm and dedication.
I am not against change. There needs to be some re-evaluation of what goes on in schools, but let us not forget that at the very centre of the process of education is the teacher.
It is the teacher who makes the difference in a child’s education. At a time when fewer young people are entering the teaching profession and more experienced teachers are taking early retirement, high teacher morale and job satisfaction are more important than ever. Reports and guidelines will gather dust, initiatives will come and go but the inspired teacher in our lives will never be forgotten. I was an average scholar, a member of the unremarkable majority, a quiet, biddable ordinary little boy, but I achieved because I had the winning combination of loving, supportive parents and enthusiastic, challenging teachers who built up my self-esteem and confidence and had great expectations of me.
My father, a steelworker at the great foundry of Steel, Peach and Tozer, in the Don Valley, never swore or shouted or smacked me. He greatly valued education and took me to castles and abbeys, museums and libraries, long walks on the beach at Filey and visits to Clifton Park on Sunday afternoons. He was a great storyteller who encouraged me to ask questions and give my opinions. My mother, an avid reader, read with me every night. I was taught not to drop litter, not to answer back, to stand up on the bus for elderly people, to do my homework and finish household chores before I went out to play. My parents were the very best models for a growing child and they endeavoured to instil in me politeness and kindness, unselfishness and truthfulness, self-control and application.
Unlike some parents, they respected, valued and supported my teachers and if, God forbid, I got into trouble at school, I would be in twice as much trouble at home. It is all very well for the Government to introduce new initiatives in schools and burden teachers with yet more work, but parents have to play their part and accept their responsibilities in their children’s education. They have to take an active interest in what goes on in school, have aspirations for their children, provide them with opportunities, read with them, ensure that they attend school regularly and complete their homework and, above all, they need to support teachers in what they are endeavouring to do.
All Government strategies will ultimately fail without parental commitment and involvement. There was a quotation in the Yorkshire Post some months ago, which is well worth repeating. It was taken from an address, written in 1871, to parents bringing their children for admission into the Brampton New National School:
“You must remember that you have not done all that is required by merely gaining admission for your child into our school. Do not suppose that its education is left entirely to the care of the master or mistress, and that you are to do nothing. Unless you labour together with them for your child’s welfare, disappointment to all parties will be the result.”
“Whoever educates a child,” wrote Samuel Wilberforce more than 100 years ago, “undertakes the most important duty in society.” All of us – parents, teachers and Government Ministers – would do well to remember this.
13 January 2007
Click here to read the full article.
