I was catching up on the day’s news when I stumbled across this headline: “Teach children how to avoid dog bites, say MPs”. For God’s sake. How many time have we all read something like this and thought, ‘Are we expected to fix every single one of society’s ills?’
Or maybe it’s that I’ve somehow, along the way, forgotten to grasp the notion of what school is all about… Who could forget that earlier this year there were calls for litter picking to be put on the curriculum?
So, there we have it, teachers. In addition to your day jobs of teaching literacy, numeracy, a little bit of PE and a small dose of the other curriculum, you’re now expected to fit the following national issues into the school day:
Those of you who have read anything that I’ve ever written will, of course, realise that I am long in the (clean) tooth, and retired from the teaching game. But even someone of my dotage can realise that it’s just not possible in the 23-hour teaching week we have currently.
Teachers can’t fix all of society’s ills
Should we extend the day? Or the year? (I can hear the screams of despair at those suggestions…) Obviously, we shouldn’t. Instead, we should recognise the fact that, actually, teachers cannot do it all.
Teachers should be left to teach and parents should be parents. Before they even enter a school building, children should be able to brush their teeth, go to the toilet without assistance and dress themselves properly. Of course, traits like kindness, tolerance, empathy and respect are encouraged in schools, but it must be a joint effort between schools, parents and the wider community.
Teaching time is precious, and already much is lost with things like religious festivals such as Christmas and Easter, and fundraising days like Children in Need and Comic Relief. These are all really important and do deserve time and attention, but to ask teachers to spend any time teaching children how to avoid dog bites is a serious waste of their time. And, let’s be honest, most of the pitbulls who entered my school were actually Ofsted inspectors...
Teaching, while immensely rewarding, is hard enough without another bright idea popping up daily to be slipped into the already-packed curriculum.
Come on, we cannot do it all.
Colin Harris led a school in a deprived area of Portsmouth for more than two decades. His last two Ofsted reports were ‘outstanding’ across all categories
To read more of Colin’s articles, visit his back catalogue
