This article appeared on the BBC website: Here!
I totally agree, the problem being that when we already do this sort of stuff (it's not a new idea) most of the kids will say "I'm never going to do that kind of job". I had over half of my Year 9s claim that they would never work in a office the other week.
Essentially it boils down to child apathy and/or laziness. It doesn't matter what you do, many of the kids can't be bothered, simple as that. Make the curriculum more relevent, they say, but as so few children have any idea or inclination about what to do once they leave school, a lot of money, time and effort will be wasted rewriting the curriculum only for it to be slated by public and politicians alike.
A lose/lose situation.
Teaching's Pod: thoughts on education from an educator
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
Come and have a go if you think you're clever enough
Making sixth formers trying teaching to encourage the high achieving students of the UK to join the teaching profession is the latest plan from those in Westminster. I can see the logic, sort of, the only problem being that those sixth formers will only see a rose-tinted version of what teaching is, not the day in, day out abuse that teachers put up with.
It seems a remarkable change of tack from the Department for Education to start saying things along the lines of "Schools Minister Nick Gibb said the government valued teachers highly, but many top graduates chose other careers." The government has been slating the profession ever since it got into power, but just after figures stating that there are 10,000 less teachers than a few years ago come out, panic buttons are being pulverised in Whitehall.
What is reassuring is that many people who commented on the story on the BBC website (see the article here) seem to agree that teaching really isn't the way forward for anyone who wishes to have any form of job satisfaction. I am a mentor for trainee teachers at my school and always ask new student teachers whether they are absolutely sure that they have made the correct career choice. Many teaching posts are inundated with applications, certainly in certain subjects, but the quality of the applicants is questionable. The culture of allowing almost anyone to undertake a teacher training course has been disasterous for the profession, but can you blame the universities as bums on seats equals more money?
Top graduates can demand a far higher wages in other professions, and even if they did feel that they could sacrifice the financial benefits of working in industry, top graduates often make very poor teachers due to the fact that they find their subject easy and therefore have trouble explaining concepts that are simple for them, to others who aren't as gifted in that area.
The policy is also insulting because politicians are implying that anyone can do it. If anyone could do it surely they would take the opportunity to claim their 13 weeks holiday per year by signing up; or perhaps not.
Every time a politician speaks I just want to shout "idiot" - they are totally clueless about how any of the public services actually work, whether it be teaching, nursing, policing or whatever. They are only interested in winning votes at whatever cost they deem necessary.
No-one wants to become a teacher these days because it is a terrible job, with increasingly poor pay and awful conditions of service, alongside continual public derision, a lack of social discipline and zero public or parental support due to political interference as well as derisory portrayals of the profession through the media.
The profession is dead, and no amount of sucking up by an inconsequential politician will change that.
It seems a remarkable change of tack from the Department for Education to start saying things along the lines of "Schools Minister Nick Gibb said the government valued teachers highly, but many top graduates chose other careers." The government has been slating the profession ever since it got into power, but just after figures stating that there are 10,000 less teachers than a few years ago come out, panic buttons are being pulverised in Whitehall.
What is reassuring is that many people who commented on the story on the BBC website (see the article here) seem to agree that teaching really isn't the way forward for anyone who wishes to have any form of job satisfaction. I am a mentor for trainee teachers at my school and always ask new student teachers whether they are absolutely sure that they have made the correct career choice. Many teaching posts are inundated with applications, certainly in certain subjects, but the quality of the applicants is questionable. The culture of allowing almost anyone to undertake a teacher training course has been disasterous for the profession, but can you blame the universities as bums on seats equals more money?
Top graduates can demand a far higher wages in other professions, and even if they did feel that they could sacrifice the financial benefits of working in industry, top graduates often make very poor teachers due to the fact that they find their subject easy and therefore have trouble explaining concepts that are simple for them, to others who aren't as gifted in that area.
The policy is also insulting because politicians are implying that anyone can do it. If anyone could do it surely they would take the opportunity to claim their 13 weeks holiday per year by signing up; or perhaps not.
Every time a politician speaks I just want to shout "idiot" - they are totally clueless about how any of the public services actually work, whether it be teaching, nursing, policing or whatever. They are only interested in winning votes at whatever cost they deem necessary.
No-one wants to become a teacher these days because it is a terrible job, with increasingly poor pay and awful conditions of service, alongside continual public derision, a lack of social discipline and zero public or parental support due to political interference as well as derisory portrayals of the profession through the media.
The profession is dead, and no amount of sucking up by an inconsequential politician will change that.
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