THE greatest thing about my job is seeing people fizzing at the bung and excited about their work. This can be while engaged in vocations, occupations, callings, hobbies or what to the casual observer appears to be the most menial task. But a huge difference which can go unnoticed to the untrained eye. The difference between the job done and the job done well is like night and day to the end user.
Some of the most infectious enthusiasm comes from teachers and it is in their hands that the aspirations and expectations of young people are often held.
This week I visited Castlecliff School and found an excited bunch of teachers, students and teacher-aides in love with their work and totally focused on their work. The configuration of classes was different from when I went to school. In the post-war period it was a matter of being grouped, across the classroom, silent unless spoken to, learning by rote, hair off the collar, hem above the knee etc.
"Mind you, we all knew our times tables." But the gaps between those who learned easily and those who struggled to learn were much closer. The social impacts that deny the ability to learn for some, such as unemployment, absentee parents, drug use, crime families, poor housing, and low wages largely didn't exist or were well mitigated by full employment; stay-at-home mothers, closer neighbourhood supports and interventionist government agencies. So educating children today is a challenge.
At Castlecliff School, kids learn in classes set up for them to learn best. The teachers deal with issues of the day that get on the road of learning, rather than try and teach despite the elephant in the room that is distracting the child.
