Teachers’ Views

Abstract

Since I became a teacher the playground gate is more often wide open: the child’s two worlds of home and school meet more often and more profitably. In a village that still has its own school, I know the advantages of not having to pretend that at rising-five a child splits his world into two, school and home. In villages the pretence would be pointless. The children’s marvellously swift grape-vine keeps each ‘side’ informed about the other and the shared knowledge is one of the subtle strengths of the school. It is no use saying that you did not watch the late film because someone will know that you did and talk to you about it at dinner time. Current assumptions that schools are numbers of heads under differently priced roofs with plumbing to match are no doubt convenient administrative myths. In reality they are communities of people that develop in time and are affected by many subtleties difficult to define. Where a co-operative relationship exists between a community and its school, it is precious, worth any amount of equipment: in such communities ‘pre-school’ is a particularly inappropriate word.

One of our troubles is that we pretend there’s a mystery about our job. At least half the parents can do what we do. (Headmaster)

I sat her in a corner for half an hour in the kitchen yesterday and she still couldn’t read that page at the end of it. (Parent to headteacher)