I found a yellowed, curled up newspaper this morning in a file I had marked “interesting education stuff”. I searched the whole newspaper to see exactly what it was that I had found so interesting that I created a file in its honour and this was it: “In February, 2010, Paul Dix went into a staff meeting at Portslade Community College and put £50 cash on the table. Anyone who could list the school rules, he said, could have it. Easy money, you might think – a gift for overworked, underpaid teachers. But not one of them could manage it” (Rachel Williams, The Guardian 09.02.10)
The article went on to highlight that this college had, they discovered, 38 regulations for pupils. As Paul Dix, the education trainer, pointed out “If you can’t remember the rules, how do you expect the kids to follow them?”.
On our Effective Early Intervention page, I wrote that: “We would consider that Primary and Secondary school teaching staff be alerted to the very important role they can play in building good mental health blocks by keeping class rules simple and clear, encouraging play at appropriate times rather than, as we have recently seen at a primary school, a overly disciplinarian regime even at playtime. Such regimes can make children unnecessarily anxious as they try to conform with institutional mindsets”.
This is in keeping with Dept of Education’s own guidelines for building good mental health in young children.
I was prompted to write about this issue with regard to Early Intervention after a conversation with a primary school teacher who was complaining that a 7 year old didn’t understand the classroom behaviour chart – the Chart explanation went a little like this “If you are told to do something and you don’t do it first time, your name will be put on light pink, if you are told a second time – you move to darker pink. You can move back to light pink if you do respond the second time but if you are told three times, your name will move to purple. Once you are at purple, you get an opportunity to move back to dark pink“. She lost me at “dark pink”. However, more importantly when I asked her to explain the system to me again, she got totally confused “wait, er, give me a moment…..”.
I am not suggesting that there should not be school and classroom rules but rather that they should be simple and few for a purpose and further, that all teachers should be required to adhere to the same rules (i.e. if there is no chewing gum in school – then there is no chewing gum by anyone!). This reinforces the importance of rules for a purpose – but also indicates that the rules are respected by all rather than just to control children and young people (which is often how they are perceived by children and young people).
I don’t know Paul Dix but I like his style.
Eileen Murphy
www.brief-therapy-uk.com
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