My anger still lingers over the events of a few days ago. Let me tell you. While I was looking for the keys to the door, I could hear how a neighbor said to another: "I am taking my children to school so that the teachers can educate them." To take fresh wind! He was not aware that some parents detached themselves from their children in this way. Of course, everything is easy if the children are taken to an educational center and the teachers take care of all of them.
Teachers are not parents of students
It is clear that educational centers have to take into account the values, emotions and feelings of children. In schools, new values can be learned but the basic ones that children have to assimilate have to be taught at home. There are families who believe that teachers and professors are second parents of children. But that's not true. It is true that they also care about the personal, emotional and physical well-being of the students but they are not their parents.
A few days ago a friend who is a physical education teacher received an unexpected visit from the parents of a student. They said (in a very bad way, of course) that he had made his son play basketball when he was ill, that he had not taken care of him and that they were going to file a complaint at the center. My friend, of course, had no idea that the student was ill and answered them with a very apt phrase: “I did not know that he was ill. But why didn't they take him to the doctor if they did? " Obviously, the parents had to shut up.
Excessive responsibility of teachers, professors and educators
In this section I have to mention the verb «take care». Early childhood educators take care of the little ones but they also do many other things that are not taken into account. It is not the first that I have heard an educator friend say that the parents of a child have thrown her a monumental row because she had not learned the numbers one to five well. And it is not the first (nor will it be the last) that parents make an incredible scene because their son has a slight scrape on his knee. They don't even think about the other children that educators have to pay attention to.
If we talk about teachers and professors, their role is no longer to take care of students. Be careful, that does not mean that they do not worry if they fall during recess, if they hurt themselves or if they have been sick. Nor does it mean that they do not take into account the emotions and feelings of the students. Even so, there are still parents who blame the teachers and professors for absolutely everything bad about their children. If there are children who fail? Guilt of teachers. What if there are children who misbehave? Guilt also of the teachers.
Close collaboration between teachers and families
The teacher did not punish him. She went to him and spoke slowly, empathetically and assertively. He was looking for an explanation of why he had done that. When she told her parents, they said why she hadn't punished him and why she hadn't been tougher on him. My friend answered the following: «I do not punish students, I prefer to talk to them and I don't have to act as you would. I am not his mother. Again, the boy's family had to keep quiet because they couldn't say anything. It cannot be claimed that teachers and professors are the only ones who educate children and adolescents.
Collaborating is not leaving all the weight of the education of children and young people on teachers. Collaborating means that teachers and parents work together, closely and hand in hand for the same purpose. If students learn new values in school, it will be of no use if the family does not reinforce them. And the same happens if parents are the ones who teach their children something new and teachers do not take it into account in the classroom. Therefore, it is essential that teachers show their support and empathy for parents. But parents also have to support teachers along the way.
We can all change education. We can all educate
Grandparents, neighbors, friends, bus drivers, hairdressers, students, shopkeepers… Each and every one of us can educate. We can always teach something to others (and I am not just talking about children and young people). If we had more social conscience perhaps teachers and professors would be more valued. Perhaps there was less bullying in the classrooms (or none at all). If we all did our bit to improve education once and for all ... society would be very different. Students would be more sensitive, engaged, and more empathetic.
But we are wrong in thinking that all this is the work of teachers and professors. Nothing is further from reality. It is true that they are agents of change in classrooms and schools. But those of us who are not within schools and institutes are also, and we can contribute great ideas to improve education. Let's not leave all the work to the teachers. Let us work together for a quality education and for all. We are not all teachers. But we all have something to teach and learn.