Education???

As I retired primary teacher with 38 years experience I am really concerned where the education of our children is going, here is Australia at least. It seems to me that education has become less about our kids and more about the politics.

Over the years I've experienced many changes in our system but I must say the period where the child came first, where teachers were free to develop curriculum around the interests of the children, where the emphasis was on reading and writing and providing a range of relevant experiences, was the most enjoyable and the most productive period of my teaching career. Unfortunately these times have passed.

Now it seems that 'control' and 'accountablity' are the underlying foundations of the system here in Australia. It is all about assessment and evauation. It's all about confining teachers and teacher intiatives to predefined parameters. The move towards a national curriculum, while having the advantage of conformity throughout the nation will also concentrate the control of what is to be taught in our school in the hands of a few. The Politics of Education will be centralized. This I could lead to a retrictive, highly control, managed and monitored curricula where the success of the teacher will be measured against benchmarks and not against his/her ability to relate, to care, to impart relevant knowledge and to help the children in the class become productive, caring members of our society.

A friend once said to me, 'It doesn't matter how often you weigh a pig, it's still a pig.' Not matter how often we assess a child unless we do something to help the child, the problem will still be there. And there are many factors that effect a child's success at school, some of which we, as teachers, have little to no control over, however, we do have control, through Unions, professional meetings and the ballot box, over the systemic things that are happening in our school.

Here in Australia (and I know else where arond the world) we have State and Nation wide testing in some form. This means that our children. at the moment, are tested in Years 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 (and that's only in primary school). Is this excessive? Lately testing results have been linked to funding and maybe in the future teacher performance. Crazy!

Education is ,in my opinion, not just about teaching the 3r's and mass producing an 'educated' product. It's about assisting in developing a well rounded, inquisitive, caring individual who can meet the challenges of an ever changing society. An individual who enjoy learning and can make informed decisions, can think 'outside the box' and is not afraid to make mistakes. An individual who cares for others and satisfies the desire for competition on the sporting field where it's over in an 1hr or so. Who's hunger for success is achieved through self-improvement but not at the expense of others. And of course they have to be able to read, write and do some maths.

A little utopian, I guess, but I really feel 15-20 years ago we were on the right path.

Greg