It’s just bewildering how unprepared our system seems to be in dealing with students who turn up to school without basic language skill.
When a person fronts up to a doctor with an ailment that came about from unhealthy eating habits and reckless behaviour, the doctor doesn’t throw his/her hands up in the air and tell them that they can’t properly help them because of their inability to look after themselves.
When a plumber gets called to a house to inspect a toilet that has been clogged due to the owners stupidity and laziness the plumber doesn’t refuse to take the job citing that they can’t fix a problem that wouldn’t have existed had the owner stuck to flushing toilet paper only.
There are professionals that are prepared to take on all kinds of cases regardless of the negligence or challenges involved. And then there’s teachers …
Traditionally, teachers seem to crumble when presented with students who haven’t acquired basic skills at home. I am glad to hear that our wonderful profession is taking more positive steps in dealing with this problem:
In socially deprived areas more than 50% of children begin school without the ability to speak in long sentences, which experts say can lead to problems in later life. Schools across England are taking part in a day without pens to tackle this speech deficit.
It took the whole class of five and six-year-olds six attempts to reassemble these jumbled words into a coherent sentence: “Past the walked we shops.”
Partly it was the noise in the classroom which made listening difficult.
Partly it was the distracting presence of a man from the BBC with a microphone.
But mostly it was unfamiliarity with the basic rules of English, their first language, which made the exercise so long winded.
The children, from Baguley Hall Primary School in Wythenshawe, south Manchester, are bright and normal children.
But they have had few opportunities to develop conversation skills.
It is a poor area with high unemployment and a large proportion of children living in lone parent households.
Family discussions do not happen very often.
Of course I am making a generalisation (and I am not comparing a child with a clogged toilet!). There are plenty of teachers fully equipped at dealing with this issue. But there are too many that aren’t.
For me this has little to do with effective teaching and more to do with effective teacher training. Teachers are not fully prepared for the child that doesn’t know how to carry a conversation because practical skills aren’t properly covered in a Teaching degree.
Whilst it would be nice for parents to ensure their children turn up to school with basic language skills this just can’t be relied upon. Teachers need to be prepared for all types of scenarios.
Unfortunately, they are not prepared at all!
Topical Teaching 