Beyond the Classroom: Teacher effectiveness, Parent involvement and Abuse

For a while now teachers have been under very harsh scrutiny because of the educational deficit. Students aren't learning enough. Students aren't ready for college. Students are failing out. Students are dropping out. Students are getting kicked out. And this is obviously the teachers' fault.

I have no problems with the idea that some people are bad teachers... I've seen them. I've had to train them. I've been frustrated by them... they're out there. I understand.

I also have no problem with teacher's, or anyone in a job, being held accountable to a professional standard. I don't think school inspections are wrong. I don't think teachers shouldn't be scrutinized, or anyone else in any profession for that matter. Everyone should be held accountable for the work that they do and make good money doing.

I also think everyone is frustrated. Everyone. Parents. School districts. Leadership teams. The government. No matter how research goes at the equation, there are flagrant holes in the way education is done, in the way we can use scrutiny to improve the educational process and product, and in the way we engage with students and make the best possible future for them.

With that premise, I would like to propose that perhaps teachers be released from the prison of scapegoat in this equation. Of course there are bad teachers, just like there are bad businessman, bad waitresses, bad politicians, bad valets, etc. Not everyone is good at their job... it sort of goes to show, doesn't it?

I would also like to emphasize how important parents, community support, and family support is in the educational process. A friend recently quipped that schools might give out report cards to parents.

This article, highlights the importance parent's play in their children's education by being involved in their educational lives.

“Monitoring homework; making sure children get to school; rewarding their efforts and talking up the idea of going to college. These parent actions are linked to better attendance, grades, test scores, and preparation for college,” Barth wrote. “The study found that getting parents involved with their children’s learning at home is a more powerful driver of achievement than parents attending P.T.A. and school board meetings, volunteering in classrooms, participating in fund-raising, and showing up at back-to-school nights.”

"The kind of parental involvement matters, as well. “For example,” the PISA study noted, “on average, the score point difference in reading that is associated with parental involvement is largest when parents read a book with their child, when they talk about things they have done during the day, and when they tell stories to their children.” The score point difference is smallest when parental involvement takes the form of simply playing with their children." 

We all know children need good parents, but sadly, in my experience as a teacher, parents are more and more passing the buck when it comes to student performance. But this goes far beyond just doing well in school, many students seem to be in no psychological state to even be in school because of things going on outside the home.

I've had students sit in my class and quietly cry every lesson, distraught at personal issues. When I investigated, the student was in therapy and having counselling, so my highlighting the issue didn't go anywhere.

I've had students go through therapy and counselling but not have that stop the horrifying situations at home. "I just need to talk about it to someone to let it out." This student said this because he didn't want to continue self-harming.

I've had parents come to back to school nights drunk. I've had students come in reeking of drugs because of the homes they live in, not because they are users (we had them tested). I've had students talking about the men their mum's have over (because they're prostitutes). I've had students talk about drunken fathers getting into fist fights with their teenage sons. I've had female students confess their sexual abuse by uncles, neighbors and family friends.

I've had students taking care of younger siblings while running back and forth to the hospital, caring for terminally ill parents.

Beyond the issue of student performance and parent's "being involved" in student education, what do we do (besides follow procedures) when we see that significant personal issues are keeping our students from achieving? How do I teach them how to analyse a text, when my heart is breaking from their circumstances and what I really want to teach them is that the horrors they're living through are not their fault, that they don't deserve it? Do I really believe that education can lift them out of their circumstances? In this razor-edged job market, will they have a fighting chance even if they pass their exams?

Where is social services role in all this?

In the US and the UK, the divorce rate is upwards from 33%. Many students grow up in very different households than we think of, in situations many of us cannot imagine. Focusing on family relationships, discipline, integrity, and hardwork is more important than ever.

As a teacher, I think my work is very important, but I think a parent's role in a young life is so much more significant. If we can find ways of supporting communities, of coming alongside families, of breaking the cycles of abuse, of supporting family counselling, parenting classes, of providing atmospheres of celebration for the family is really important.

I can't help but remember that in ages past villages were designed around the church, the school, and the market on the high road. The school was a central point in the village in it's placement and importance for community affairs, not just a place to send kids for the day. Think about it...