The Meeting of the School Staff

Situation: The teachers’ staff is to discuss Brian Jones’ behaviour and to take a decision concerning his future in the school. Brian is a 14-year-old youth who is notorious not only in his school but also in his whole neighbourhood. He always has his own way. Resents any advice. Talks back. Fights. Can tell lies. Does not care about school. Has problems with his classmates. Some days ago was found at school threatening a pupil with a flick knife.

Participants:

Jane Brown, Brian’s form teacher

Teacher of English. Hates the boy. He is always “a pain in the neck”, a real trouble-maker. Jane is sick and tired of her colleagues’ and parents’ complaints about Brian. Thinks he is hopeless and should be isolated to prevent spreading his bad influence on other pupils. Insists on Brian’s suspension from school.

Stephen Jones, Brian’s father

An engineer working for a big company. Has little time for the family. Always busy. Rather clever, full of sarcasm. No real contact with his son. Thinks that problems of raising children are for school to solve. Believes that his duty is to support his family financially, in exchange demands absolute obedience from his son.

Pamela Jones, Brian’s mother

A housewife. Thinks that Brian is a much nicer boy than people give him credit for. Pamela is very shy, with a mild character, adores her husband and is under his thumb. She exaggerates her son’s kindness, imaginative nature, love for animals, eagerness to help. Thinks teachers are unfairly prejudiced against Brian.

Elizabeth Carter, Head Teacher

Has seen many cases of the type. Is not inclined to make hasty decisions. Thinks that Brian is passing through a difficult period of his life. Is sure that he will get over it provided that adults help him. Thinks that Brian is a born leader, he has ambitions. Isn’t it possible to give him some real responsibility?

Angela King, teacher of History

Belongs to “the old generation” of teachers. Has conservative principles and attitudes. Dislikes Brian’s behaviour, considers his mental abilities low, questions ridiculous, influence on his classmates disastrous. Is annoyed by Brian’s lack of discipline, responsibility and manners. Is not quite sure but thinks that suspension from school will do good both to Brian and other pupils.

Anna Wizard, teacher of Biology

Graduated from university last year. Rather likes the boy and thinks she can understand him. Anna noticed Brian’s interest in her subject, the original questions he asks, his knowledge of animals’ life. She agrees that often his behaviour is most irritating, but maybe Brian needs adults’ help and attention? In Anna’s opinion Brian lacks contact with his father and trust on the part of teachers.

Helen Broadway, psychologist

Thinks that parents and teachers should remember that Brian is entering adult life where he has to be on his own. He must feel that adults are behind him not after him. He certainly needs adults’ guidance, but he does not want them to live his life for him. Help him - but stay in the background. Suspension from school is out of the question.

Jeremy Waters, headmaster

Willing to listen to teachers’ opinions. Is against any extreme measures. Gives everyone possibility to explain their ideas. Encourages his colleagues to reach consensus and to find the solution which could be most beneficial for Brian’s future.

The rest of the students take roles of other teachers and are free to develop their characters and attitudes. The aim of the discussion is to reach some final decision concerning Brian Jones’ future in the school and to work out some recommendations for Brian’s parents.

14. DISCUSSION CLUB “CHILDREN AND SCHOOL”

Exchange ideas about the contribution made by some prominent educators of the past into children education. Rely on your knowledge of the History of education and the following information.

The ideas of the child-centred approach to education were first explored in Europe, notably in Rousseau's Emile (1762) and in Pestalozzi's How Gertrude Teaches Her Children (1801). According to the principles of the child-centred approach the school should be fitted to the needs of the child and not the child to the school. These ideas were developed in America by Francis W. Parker. Parker became superintendent of schools in Quincy, Mass., in 1875. He fought against the mechanical, assembly-line methods of traditional schools and stressed "quality teaching," by which he meant such things as activity, creative self-expression, excursions, understanding the individual, and the development of personality.

During the first decade of the 20th century, the educationists Maria Montessori of Rome and Ovide Decroly of Brussels both successfully applied their educational inventions in schools. The Montessori method's underlying assumption is the child's need to escape from the domination of parent and teacher. According to Montessori, children, who are the unhappy victims of adult suppression, have been compelled to adopt defensive measures foreign to their real nature in the struggle to hold their own. The first move toward the reform of education, therefore, should be directed toward educators: to enlighten their consciences, to remove their perceptions of superiority, and to make them humble and passive in their attitudes toward the young. The next move should be to provide a new environment in which the child has a chance to live a life of his own. In the Montessori method, the senses are separately trained by means of apparatuses calculated to encourage spontaneous interest at the successive stages of mental growth. By similar self-educative devices, the child is led to individual mastery of the basic skills of everyday life and then to schoolwork in arithmetic and grammar.

The Decroly method can be characterized as a program of work based on centres of interest and educative games. Its basic feature is the workshop-classroom, in which children can go freely about their own occupations. Behind the complex of individual activities there is a carefully organized scheme of work based on an analysis of the fundamental needs of the child. The principle of giving priority to wholes rather than to parts is emphasized in teaching children to read, write, and count, and care is taken to reach a comprehensive view of the experiences of life.

The Montessori and the Decroly methods have spread throughout the world and have widely influenced attitudes and practices of educating young children.

Pestalozzian principles have also encouraged the introduction of music education into early childhood programs. Research has shown that music has an undeniable effect on the development of the young child, especially in such areas as movement, temper, and speech and listening patterns. The four most common methods of early childhood music education are those developed by Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, Carl Orff, and Zoltan Kodaly and the Comprehensive Musicianship approach. The Dalcroze method emphasizes movement; Orff, dramatization; Kodaly, singing games; and Comprehensive Musicianship, exploration and discovery. Another popular method, developed by the Japanese violinist Shinichi Suzuki, is based on the theory that young children learn music in the same way that they learn their first language.

Continue the discussion voicing your opinions on the following problems:

Before sending their children to school parents should provide them with preliminary preparation in reading, writing, counting.

Children's attitide to school depends on what their parents say and feel about school, teachers, school administration, etc.

Cooperation is the key to constructive relations between school and parents.

15. Group work. In groups of three or four consider the following statements, decide whether you agree with them or not and write your arguments for or against:

1.Children should only leave home after they are married.

2.Children should always obey their parents.

3.Young people should not get married without their parents' consent.

4.Families should not have more than two children nowadays.

5.Family life is less important in the present-day world than it used to be in the past.

16. Make oral or written commentaries on the following quotations:

“The childhood shows the man as morning shows the day” (John Milton)

“It is a wise father that knows his own child” (William Shakespeare)

“Children need love the most when they desire it the least” (Gene Bedley)

“To educate a child in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society” (Theodore Roosevelt)

“Truth must be passed from friend to friend, from teacher to student, from parent to child” (William Bennett)

“When children are doing nothing they are doing mischief” (Henry Fielding)

“No one ever became thoroughly bad all at once” (D.J.Juvenal)

“Nature is often hidden; sometimes overcome; seldom extinguished” (Francis Bacon)