THOUGHTS FOR PRE-SERVICE AND BEGINNING TEACHERS (16)

PREPARE FOR THIS TRUTH

As a long term educational practitioner in schools, it seems to me that those who look ‘at’ schools rather than being ‘in’ them, labour under a false belief. They perceive school as some sort of utopian environment in which all students thirst for knowledge and have a keen desire to learn. All that teachers have to do therefore, is teach.

Little do they realise that the issue of discipline is a major stumbling block to this being an actuality.

For many teachers in many schools in many parts of the world, MANAGING BEHAVIOUR is the key issue. Maybe a little teaching slips in on the side, but control of deliberately disinclined students who really don’t want to be there is a key stumbling block.

Teachers have ways of adapting to meet this challenge, or at least minimising it’s thrust.

But for administrators to believe there are no issues, or to know and not care is just so wrong. They need first hand exposure to classroom reality.