Male role models; a primary concern
My daughter is twelve years old and already has her mind set on a career as a primary school teacher; I have a son of eight who doesn’t. Truth be told, when I was eight, in fact when I was eighteen, teaching in a primary school was not on my radar, yet I spent twenty years of my adult working life as teacher in primary education, I worked with amazing people; creative, dynamic, hysterically funny and deeply committed…most of them were under eleven years old.
We are in the midst of a major recruitment crisis in education and one of the most acute areas of concern is the low number of men choosing a career as a primary teacher; some of the latest research says that less than 15% of all teachers working with children between the ages of 3 and 11 are men. It is not a problem unique to England in the United States of America the figure is less than 10%.
It is crucial that we do not underestimate the importance of good, male role models for our young children. It is during our earliest experiences of school that we develop most of the attitudes that will stay with us through our educational journey.
It is widely reported that there are a significant number of boys in our school system that underachieve, often due to a belief that education is not ‘macho’; that it holds little of importance or value. It is for this reason that we must, as a matter of absolute urgency, recruit a significant number of high calibre male teachers to work in our primary schools. Without these crucial role models, a large number of our boys will continue to feel that education is simply not for them.
As a young teacher, a number of my own friends and family would raise an eyebrow when I told them what I did for a living, one even asked me, how many years I needed to do with the little ones, before I could apply for a promotion to a secondary school! There are many reasons for the lack of interest amongst young men many of which are borne out of cultural mythology. I have had the privilege of working with many world class teachers in my career, some of the very best being male; red blooded, sport obsessed men.
The Government have never really taken the problem seriously as their focus, during most of their time in office, has been on secondary education and attracting enough teachers in that sector. I am not entirely sure that they realise the gravity of the problem or indeed, that if we were able to recruit and retain high quality male teachers in the primary sector, some of the most significant problems around behaviour and underachievement would be considerably reduced.
There are some who will argue that it is a question of salary or lack of it, which is a smokescreen; teachers, whether in the primary or secondary sector get paid on the same scales and start on the same figure which is around £20,000, not a bad salary by anyone’s standard, especially in our current climate. It is true that graduates choosing to teach the core subjects and particularly in the sciences, are often rewarded with ‘golden hello’s’ which can bolster pay.
Teaching, let alone teaching in a primary phase school is just not an aspiration for most. In order to attract a greater interest we must encourage more boys to experience working in primary schools through work placements. We must also encourage male ‘A’ level students to spend time in their local primary schools sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm with our young children, immediately being of great benefit to both. The Government needs to concentrate more funding and resourcing into the drive for male recruitment; we need national male primary teachers to work as ambassadors and role models throughout the country in our secondary schools and colleges. Most importantly of all, we need the media to fulfil their social responsibility and help us to portray the profession and the role of male primary teaching in a positive and encouraging light.
Take it from me; teaching in primary education is a great privilege. I remember a young boy in my first class giving me a present on the final day of the school year. He had chosen it himself. It was a photo frame that had inscribed on it ‘To teach is to touch a life forever.’ What greater job can there be? I just hope that there are enough young men out there who are brave enough to take up the challenge!
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Tuesday, 20 January 2009
For Education its Crunch time!
It is 9:30am on the 20th January 2009. As I write this piece the world is less than eight hours away from witnessing one of the most significant moments of the 21st Century…maybe any century. With the election and inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of The United States of America, the world has a symbol for change that is perhaps unprecedented in history; and boy do we need one.
Globally we stand at a point where three significant threats to the future of our species are marching on relentlessly; the environmental crisis is still to be addressed to any real degree, the racial and social tensions around the world show no signs of diminishing and at the very top of our current agenda is the depth of an economic meltdown that has already cost tax payers trillions in monetary terms let alone the human cost.
And so it is that amidst this fog of uncertainty and instability the Government in England has begun to review and reform the teaching and learning experiences of our children through reviews of the National Curriculum. In 2007 we had major reforms of the Key Stage Three curriculum for 11 to 14 year olds, that was followed with the scrapping of key stage three tests. By the time that this article is published, we should have the final findings of Sir Jim Rose into the review of the primary school curriculum, a review that has already caused some considerable disquiet amongst our friends in the media and across the dispatch box in Westminster. I have been fortunate enough to be involved, at various stages, with both processes and in principle the work that has been carried out by Sir Jim under the guidance and advice of the curriculum team at the Qualification and Curriculum Authority has been refreshing and visionary. It is good that it has been provocative and is stimulating serious debate amongst the education community and beyond. It is about time! However we are still cursed with a system that is led by academics and some senior civil servants who want gentle reform that will not disturb traditional values and accepted norms and as a result, the political will needed to affect the dramatic transformation is stifled.
Our children deserve an education system that will prepare them for their future; a future that is so uncertain, largely because of the actions of current and previous generations. Yet whilst our system remains rooted in the traditional belief that education is first and foremost about academic prowess and the acquisition of knowledge, we will find no real solutions.
We are not alone in reviewing our education system; in the US, educators across a number of key states are working furiously to develop strategies that will undo the incredible damage left as a legacy of the Bush administration’s ‘No Child Left Behind’ policy, a policy defined by high stakes testing and the huge levels of funding, that were diverted from other areas, to pay for the intensive schooling needed to produce high outcomes. Unsurprisingly, the policy has left untold damage amongst children and teachers and created a suffocatingly narrow school system. In Japan the country embarked on an educational reform programme, to create a harder academic edge, with a high stakes exam approach; after the embarrassment that was caused, when the 2003 OECD PISA league tables of literacy and numeracy performance rated Japan as average. When the second set of tables were produced in 2006 after this dramatic policy change had occurred, Japan had shown little or no gain. Many of Japan’s finest educators are questioning the policy of the last few years and again testifying to high levels of damage, amongst young people and their overall development; particularly in the crucial area of creativity.
A couple of years ago, I had the honour of spending some time exploring the education reform programmes in China; they had embarked on the world’s largest ever curriculum development programme; their review resulted in an education system that was ruthlessly efficient and connected to the national vision; as a result children experience learning that is technically challenging, rich in knowledge, highly intensive and requiring of immense mental stamina. The impact is impressive and terrifying in equal measure; children leave school with an extraordinary level of technical skill but completely lacking in creativity, the ability to question or generate ideas.
Our education system has historically been the envy of the world but like so many facets of British life we have lived on our reputation for far too long; our reputation was born in the Victorian age when our innovation and creativity changed the world. In education ours is a model that is still copied; truth is, it not an appropriate model for a changing climate. As the events on that extraordinary night in November 2008 have shown us, the world is ready for change, it needs it…If our children are to conquer the problems that we have left them, they will need a different kind of schooling; a new approach. So as the debate regarding curriculum development and school transformation gathers pace; please, please, please; let’s stop arguing about what to call the subjects, what wars and rivers we should teach and start the real debate which is how do we develop the culture of entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation that will help us out of the mess that we are in. It is time to use the Obama momentum to build our future through transforming our children’s education.
It is 9:30am on the 20th January 2009. As I write this piece the world is less than eight hours away from witnessing one of the most significant moments of the 21st Century…maybe any century. With the election and inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th President of The United States of America, the world has a symbol for change that is perhaps unprecedented in history; and boy do we need one.
Globally we stand at a point where three significant threats to the future of our species are marching on relentlessly; the environmental crisis is still to be addressed to any real degree, the racial and social tensions around the world show no signs of diminishing and at the very top of our current agenda is the depth of an economic meltdown that has already cost tax payers trillions in monetary terms let alone the human cost.
And so it is that amidst this fog of uncertainty and instability the Government in England has begun to review and reform the teaching and learning experiences of our children through reviews of the National Curriculum. In 2007 we had major reforms of the Key Stage Three curriculum for 11 to 14 year olds, that was followed with the scrapping of key stage three tests. By the time that this article is published, we should have the final findings of Sir Jim Rose into the review of the primary school curriculum, a review that has already caused some considerable disquiet amongst our friends in the media and across the dispatch box in Westminster. I have been fortunate enough to be involved, at various stages, with both processes and in principle the work that has been carried out by Sir Jim under the guidance and advice of the curriculum team at the Qualification and Curriculum Authority has been refreshing and visionary. It is good that it has been provocative and is stimulating serious debate amongst the education community and beyond. It is about time! However we are still cursed with a system that is led by academics and some senior civil servants who want gentle reform that will not disturb traditional values and accepted norms and as a result, the political will needed to affect the dramatic transformation is stifled.
Our children deserve an education system that will prepare them for their future; a future that is so uncertain, largely because of the actions of current and previous generations. Yet whilst our system remains rooted in the traditional belief that education is first and foremost about academic prowess and the acquisition of knowledge, we will find no real solutions.
We are not alone in reviewing our education system; in the US, educators across a number of key states are working furiously to develop strategies that will undo the incredible damage left as a legacy of the Bush administration’s ‘No Child Left Behind’ policy, a policy defined by high stakes testing and the huge levels of funding, that were diverted from other areas, to pay for the intensive schooling needed to produce high outcomes. Unsurprisingly, the policy has left untold damage amongst children and teachers and created a suffocatingly narrow school system. In Japan the country embarked on an educational reform programme, to create a harder academic edge, with a high stakes exam approach; after the embarrassment that was caused, when the 2003 OECD PISA league tables of literacy and numeracy performance rated Japan as average. When the second set of tables were produced in 2006 after this dramatic policy change had occurred, Japan had shown little or no gain. Many of Japan’s finest educators are questioning the policy of the last few years and again testifying to high levels of damage, amongst young people and their overall development; particularly in the crucial area of creativity.
A couple of years ago, I had the honour of spending some time exploring the education reform programmes in China; they had embarked on the world’s largest ever curriculum development programme; their review resulted in an education system that was ruthlessly efficient and connected to the national vision; as a result children experience learning that is technically challenging, rich in knowledge, highly intensive and requiring of immense mental stamina. The impact is impressive and terrifying in equal measure; children leave school with an extraordinary level of technical skill but completely lacking in creativity, the ability to question or generate ideas.
Our education system has historically been the envy of the world but like so many facets of British life we have lived on our reputation for far too long; our reputation was born in the Victorian age when our innovation and creativity changed the world. In education ours is a model that is still copied; truth is, it not an appropriate model for a changing climate. As the events on that extraordinary night in November 2008 have shown us, the world is ready for change, it needs it…If our children are to conquer the problems that we have left them, they will need a different kind of schooling; a new approach. So as the debate regarding curriculum development and school transformation gathers pace; please, please, please; let’s stop arguing about what to call the subjects, what wars and rivers we should teach and start the real debate which is how do we develop the culture of entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation that will help us out of the mess that we are in. It is time to use the Obama momentum to build our future through transforming our children’s education.
Friday, 16 January 2009
Who and why?
Hi I'm Richard Gerver; a former elementary school prinicple in the UK. After being privileged enough to lead the incredible Grange School to international success by ripping up the conventions of educational thinking and developing a system that was based on preparing our kids for their future and doing so through creativity, context, purpose and dynamic, I felt that it was time to spread my wings and am now determined to work on transforming thinking world wide.
I am more than fortunate to have Sir Ken Robinson as my mentor and guide and work closely with him on the issues that are the foundation to his new book; The Element.
I believe that we have yet to realise the incredible depth of human potential that we all possess and that tragically, we underestimate our abilities as adults; as leaders and as managers and most tragically the amazing abilities of our young people.
We are facing quite possibly the greatest set of crises we have ever faced as a species: the economic, environmental and socio-ethnic issues that burn around the world...we need radically different thinking not just to meet the challenges of these issues but to rise above them and create a better, more stable world as a result.
In my blog I will try to communicate my thoughts on the issues we face and how I think we must radically transform out thinking about education and the development of human potential if we are to realise our positive future.
I am an optimist; in the face of crisis I see opportunity; we have a significant opportunity to evolve and find new strengths and new solutions...through this blog I want to provoke thinking and debate and above all, shake the small c conservative thinkers out of their slumber...It is time to lead ourselves into the unknown!
I am more than fortunate to have Sir Ken Robinson as my mentor and guide and work closely with him on the issues that are the foundation to his new book; The Element.
I believe that we have yet to realise the incredible depth of human potential that we all possess and that tragically, we underestimate our abilities as adults; as leaders and as managers and most tragically the amazing abilities of our young people.
We are facing quite possibly the greatest set of crises we have ever faced as a species: the economic, environmental and socio-ethnic issues that burn around the world...we need radically different thinking not just to meet the challenges of these issues but to rise above them and create a better, more stable world as a result.
In my blog I will try to communicate my thoughts on the issues we face and how I think we must radically transform out thinking about education and the development of human potential if we are to realise our positive future.
I am an optimist; in the face of crisis I see opportunity; we have a significant opportunity to evolve and find new strengths and new solutions...through this blog I want to provoke thinking and debate and above all, shake the small c conservative thinkers out of their slumber...It is time to lead ourselves into the unknown!
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