Schools going the same way as prisons…

Maria Arpa

Wednesday Whisper

8 May 2019

This week

Schools going the same way as prisons…

Plus…

Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness

and

The Wednesday Whisper

Teachers face weekly violence from pupils, says survey

In a poll of 5000 teachers, a quarter (24%) of teachers say they face violence once a week. Four in 10 (42%) have been threatened verbally. “Verbal abuse is now part of the daily working landscape for a primary teacher,” one teacher said.

Teachers are expected to tolerate verbal abuse and threats as ‘an occupational hazard’. There appears to be no appetite for tackling the issues that face teachers in the classroom.”

Of course this is completely unacceptable to expect anyone to work under these conditions.

I often compare schools to prisons and we have seen the deterioration of prisons into violent places where Prison Officers fear for their own safety.

But what can be done?

In the Dialogue Road Map, one of our principles is that anything anyone says or does can be seen as feedback. It lets you know whether your system, policies and procedures are working or not working. If I look through that lens then pupils are telling the system that it isn’t working. If that system remains rigid or even tightens the screws on how it does things, it can expect the feedback to become escalated.

It is completely unfair for frontline workers, such as teachers and prison officers to be the messengers of a system that its service users are complaining about to the point of violence.

So there is a responsibility for the architects of those systems to admit that their methods are no longer working and look at other ways of tackling the issues that do not place the onus on service users to ‘behave better’ with no sign of change from the system.

Our latest schools project is beginning to have an effect in 3 primary schools and in the very prestigious Wellington College. I have been going into schools and experiencing the issues first hand since 2001.

Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness

I challenge the Department of Education and Headteachers everywhere to talk to us about implementing the Dialogue Road Map as the method of communication and conflict resolution in our schools.

The Wednesday Whisper

When you are a service user, what systems do you think would benefit from an overhaul of communication processes?

Would you be willing to send this out to anyone you think might be interested in getting a little dose of mindfulness each week?

4 Comments

Ambrose Ngare
Posted 5 years ago Reply

Maria, i have been a Board member of secondary schools and a retired Prison officer in kenya. It is true teachers often complain of threats from students especially form 4s. Prison officers too live in fear frm threats from inmates. I wish to get more of the Road Map Dialogue Communication tool appropriate for the schools and Prosons.
- Maria Arpa
  Posted 5 years ago Reply
  
  Hello Ambrose, thank you for contacting me. I’d like to arrange a time to chat by phone or Skype. My Skype name is maria.arpa. please send me a contact request.
Jackie N
Posted 5 years ago Reply

This really resonates with me Maria, as Chair of Governors at our local Church primary school we are very much championing an approach that every child/student is an individual where we try to address individual needs and personal learning approaches, whilst working alongside each other to our shared values (which the whole school developed) of: respect, courage, friendship, forgiveness, truth, generosity, trust and hope.
The challenge I feel, and have experienced this with my own children, who left the primary and have now gone through the high school where a ‘one size fits all’ approach is the most creative solution to education they can come up with!
There are some fantastic, caring teachers working in our schools, doing their absolute best for their students, however, in my opinion change in a school starts with strong governance working alongside the senior leadership team to embrace change in the system and deliver a creative curriculum, taking pupil and parent voice into consideration (Real customer feedback, isn’t this what we would seek in business?). Schools will get far more from their students if they start to treat both them (and their staff) like human beings with individual needs rather than producing regurgitating robots who’s entire value seems to be measured by how many A* grades they have or haven’t attained! Would love to hear more about your Dialogue Road Map, Maria.
- Maria Arpa
  Posted 5 years ago Reply
  
  Music to my ears, Jackie. And you’re right that there are some amazing human beings who decide to teach yet are expected to function within a system that is out of date and unfit for purpose. This system was invented by industrialists during the industrial revolution in order to bring up a generation who could be obedient to the clock instead of the natural rhythms of nature and take orders from a hierarchy within a punitive structure using competition and enforcement to get compliance so that shame and fear are the motivators for compliance. When you speak of feedback this is where schools and prisons differ. The service users (prisoners) in prisons are consulted whereas pupils are not!!!. I would love to talk to you about the Dialogue Road Map and how we are using it in schools. Let’s arrange a time to talk.