Alwyn Poole
Alwyn Poole founded and was the head of Mt Hobson Middle School in Auckland for 18 years. MH Academy is now an in person private school for Year 11-13. There is now a nationwide online provision called Mt Hobson Academy Connected for Years 1-13.
I was talking to a very good teacher this morning and he mentioned just how frequently he hears teachers complain about the students they work with – their behaviour, morals, concentration levels… then they give it the “back in my day…”
Well, I remember “back in my day” and the best description is that my cohort were “brats”.
Around 400BC Socrates (the philosopher – not the football player) wrote:
The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs and tyrannize their teachers.
It is a common theme of humanity that the current generation think they are the peak, have earned it, and that the next generation have no gratitude and will take the whole ship down with them.
Children today are remarkably similar to how they have always been. The formula for them to grow into wonderful adults is also the same:
- Unconditional love. When I behaved badly as a child my mother would be telling me off and I would plead – “you don’t love me”, her reply was always – “I don’t like you much at the moment but I do, very much, love you.” My best teachers were those whose care and belief in me was unwavering.
- Inspiration and a sense of purpose. Children need to know that they are on the planet and a part of the human story for a reason. They need to be told about, led to and meet people who are doing remarkable things – including artists, social-entrepreneurs, change agents for good (past and present), people who work with the poor, great doctors and scientists.
- They need to know the great books and reading as an irreplaceable good. I am currently re-reading (for maybe the sixth time) Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Every sentence, paragraph, page, chapter, book (it is a trilogy in five parts) is a delight. As a teacher of economics, business, math, science… I always read from a great book at the start of my class. I never met a child who is not delighted by these stories – even more so when they read them for themselves.
Never be put off by a child who says they don’t like reading or a parent who says their son/daughter is “not a reader”. Humans are hard-wired for stories: a good teacher/parent gets through the barriers.