Even more worrying to me in this report is the evidence that poor classroom behaviour is contributing to the dilution of effective learning. Adding to this worry is the revelation that the poor behaviour is more pronounced in schools servicing low socio-economic areas. As an ex Superintendent of Schools for an area that contained large pockets of low socio economic communities I recall spates of poor behaviour in the schools but not to a level that we deemed affected the opportunities for the bulk of the students to learn in peaceful and safe environments.
Realistically school educators know that even one seriously disruptive student in a class can upset the learning environment for the other students, not to mention the stress for the teacher. Let me cite a couple of examples. A middle primary classroom with a disruptive student (Bill) and a graduate teacher who was highly skilled. She was at her wits end and was advised by a school psychologist to ring a small bell when Bill acted up so that everything could stop and be reset. Not a practical suggestion in my view and on visiting the school I organised for Bill to be removed from the classroom and a more effective long term solution to be found. Drastic you say but I could not countenance the rest of the students and that young teacher being subject to the daily stress of the bell caused by Bill's behaviour. Across the senior high schools in my district several very badly behaved students had emerged and the schools were struggling to get on top of this. Working with the Department of Community Welfare we found a venue and set up an alternative school location and model where these disruptive students could be helped to calm down and learn. The aim was to return them to their high school as soon as possible. It worked to a degree but I was never happy sending those students away from their school.
While I supported and even initiated the removal of the disruptive students from the classrooms it was never my ideal solution. However I could not sit by and watch students who wanted to learn be penalised by the behaviour of a few nor could I accept that effective teachers had to daily come to work to be faced with these disruptive youngsters.
Recently on TV there was a series on a Secondary School (Kambrya College) that had set up a separate classroom for disruptive students. The aim was always to return these students to the normal classes as soon as possible. It was tough gig for the teacher who bravely took on this class but he succeeded against the odds.
Having written all of the above I wanted to state that I loathe the label 'low socio-economic' that is bandied around far too easily when it is a term that should be quarantined for use by academic sociologists. It can affect teachers trying their best in schools that service these areas. Almost without knowing a self fulfilling prophesy pressure can kick in. This can manifest itself in accepting a lower standard for example of work presentation and even of mastery markers that indicate to the teacher that the student is ready for the next lot of new learning. This is in no way a denigration of any teacher as it is very demanding working in schools with a large proportion of students, who because of their circumstances, commence formal school with less grounding than more fortunate peers.
I must also express my concern that politicians talk too readily about low socio-economic areas and at times in respect of formal school learning.
Being retired from the business of principalship and superintendency I have more time to reflect. I look back and recall in my district servicing many communities where the circumstances were not wealthy, that the children responded so positively to being part of school performances, concerts and the like. There they were on stage being applauded for their efforts. Their little faces were filled with joy. I have also seen other evidence that students with learning difficulties respond well to being involved in performances. I have come to a view that I would seriously explore, if back as a principal, using the performing arts as a powerful tool in bringing all students, even those prone to misbehaviour, into sync with their school community. Rather than sending the disrupters off campus to some other opportunity I would love to have challenged myself to keep them on campus and to win them over through the performing arts. Maybe I'm just getting too altruistic but I don't think so.
As principals we have the power to skew a timetable to give more time to programs that will benefit certain students. This could be done with performing arts for the disrupters. It would be great if the whole school benefited from more performing arts experiences so that the disrupters were part of the whole as well as spending extra time on performing arts work. This does not mean less time for maths, science and English. Time would have to be spirited away from some other programs, especially for the disrupters.
I could say a lot about the value of an emphasis on personal fitness programs as part of the school's Physical Education. I have a strong feeling that the disrupters could be brought to value their school community more through this fitness focus. There is a lot of maths and data management with computers as students keep tabs on their improving fitness levels. For that matter there is a lot of organisational skilling and maths in setting up performing arts events as I would expect that part of student participation is in organising and running the performances.
In general nothing works better than well prepared teachers serving up exciting learning experiences for their students, however the reality is that there will always be the disrupters.
May the Force be with you!
GD
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