The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled in favour of the B.C. Teachers Federation, giving teachers the right to bargain class size and composition. This is very important, especially for those parents who have ever received a call from their child's principal about their child's bad behaviour in class.
I am a teacher, but not a school teacher. I am a community art instructor. The pay I get from teaching usually barely covers my utilities, which is why I have to supplement it with other work.
Not only that, but I also happen to have a master's degree in art education. If only I would do my student teaching requirement, I would be able to work in the school system for a starting salary of about $50,000 a year, but I say no thank you.
As far as I'm concerned, $100,000 a year is not even enough to compensate for the complications of teaching in present-day classrooms.
Interestingly, the classes I teach at municipal centres have a maximum enrolment of 12, and 15 for older groups. If they are any larger than that, I get an assistant.
Even when I was less experienced, I have never had any "discipline problems" in my classes.
I don't have to send anyone to the director's office because she or he is disrupting the class. I never have to say "your behaviour is inappropriate."
I never have to yell, threaten, punish, reprimand, intimidate, berate, hand out detentions, write students' names on the board or talk to their parents after class... as so often happens in public schools. Why? The main reason: the teacher/student ratios in community centres are reasonable.
I am able to maintain discipline by keeping my students busy at all times, and I use plenty of redirection and positive reinforcement to ensure that good behaviour repeats. If a child is attempting to be disruptive, I ignore him/her and the behaviour quickly dissipates because he/she is not getting a response.
I direct my attention to children who are behaving appropriately, giving them the limelight instead.
To do this, I have to be able to actually physically see each of my students all at the same time and anticipate their possible next moves.
This is feasible in a class of 12 or 15. This is absolutely impossible to do with a class of 20 or 30 or 40 or more, at least for mere mortals.
I am of a certain vintage that I can remember when there was a strap hanging from a nail on the wall behind the teacher. Compared to what I see in schools today, we were respectful of authority and remarkably obedient. These days, kids seem to be fearless and increasingly clever in their acts of defiance. They have learned that they can disrupt class and face no real consequences, while also gaining the admiration of their peers.
Such admiration -along with the teacher's "negative attention"- acts as reinforcement for bad behavior and causes it to spread like a virus. Instead of being controlled with out-dated threatening class management strategies, students need to be kept busy and involved with their lessons; and, for that, a lower teacher/student ratio is needed.
Even in the daycare world, there is a much healthier view of supervision. In the B.C. government's own child-care licensing regulations, childcare centres that have Kindergarten and Grade 1 students enrolled must have one staff member per 12 children (there's that magic number).
In childcare centres that don't have kindergarten or Grade 1 students, the limit can be raised to one staff member per 15 children (another magic number), not 20, not 30, not 40 and certainly not 60.
If daycares only have to keep kids occupied and safe and there are such controls on adult/child ratios, why, in school classrooms - when children not only have to be occupied and safe but also taught - do teachers have to work with double or even triple the amount of kids? Why is something that is illegal in the "real world," allowed to go on in schools?
When school teachers have salaries that make some people envious - yet they are always going on strike - you have to suspect that there is something terribly wrong with the school system.
The present class room size and composition situation is simply a hangover from the days when violent punishments were the norm in classrooms.
Education now has to make a 180-degree turn and make learning appealing and satisfying to children.
Teachers need to be child learning supporters, rather than ineffective classroom police.
The only way to do that is to adjust teacher/student ratios to match the staff/child ratios outlined in B.C.'s daycare licensing regulations.
Debra Lynn
Mackenzie
