Education matters

I heard a very thought-provoking quote recently: ‘What has changed the most in schools over the last 30 years isn’t technology; 30 years ago, if you got in trouble at school, you got in trouble twice, but not anymore…’

The viewpoint really is quite controversial but obviously that was the point of the exercise. The author made the statement on purpose, as a prompt to get fellow professionals to consider the changing relationship between home and school … and how to ensure this important partnership blossoms if students are to develop and grow into adults that contribute positively to what is becoming a more challenging world everyday. 

So, what is your perception of the statement? It is claiming that 30 years ago children would have been punished by their parents for getting in trouble at school but less so these days?

Some of you might therefore summise that it is saying that parents cared more about how their children behaved in school 30 years ago than they do today.

Now that is controversial.

So where do we go with this? A good place to start is to consider your own relationships with your child’s school and ask yourself what you would do if your child got in trouble and actually was in the wrong. 

Would you feel that the school’s response was enough to demonstrate the errors of the child’s behaviour, or would you punish your child at home as well? 

Would you support the school or would you defiantly defend your child and question the schools policies? 

Once you start to consider your own answer to the question, you begin to open up the true meaning of the statement itself. Society used to be different and parents did have a different perception of schools, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it used to be right.

I believe that what is really being suggested is that perceptions toward schools and education have changed over the last 30 years, not the ways in which parents view how their children behave and this perception shift has come about because schools have consistently evolved to ensure that a mutual trust is developed and that parents and teachers really do work in partnership.

It has also come about because children and parents are now much more informed about what constitutes standards in education and, as a result, are much more closely linked with schools and what happens there. 

This understanding, also empowers parents, and that puts schools increasingly in the spotlight, meaning they have had to become much more robust in their policies and practices. 

This scrutiny of practices by schools, isn’t a bad thing since it has created the safe and solid learning environments we are familiar with today but it has also created a culture of accountability that parents can be quick to enforce should they feel that their child has been wronged in anyway.

I believe that 30 years ago parents may have been more willing to blindly follow what a school told them about their child’s behaviour. 

A secondary punishment from parents wouldn’t so much have been about what the child had done, but to some extent would have been a punishment for embarrassing them.

Three decades later, however, parents are much less likely to blindly follow what a school is telling them. They may come in to complain. This change in itself is also a form of evolution because it has provided a platform for strong, sensitive parent / school partnerships to develop and that, when managed well, benefits all concerned.