School Teachers As Instructors In Social And Moral Values

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32349, 15 July 1970, Page 22

School Teachers As Instructors In Social And Moral Values

<Bv the RISV. P D. RAMSAY) Our nation’s primary industry is not wool or butter but the preparing of children for life. Their education and our prosperity are inseparable. By education 1 do not mean the examination stairway (which we climb' from five years by successive steps until we step off at the first floor landing with a degree at 20) but rather the ability to cope with and appreciate the world in which we live. Call it personal maturity, responsible citizenship, social development if you will. I mean a growing ability to look at our problems and opportunities intelligently, and to see more clearly the choices and consequences of conduct: the help we can give a child now in hope of the valued contribution be will make to our modern democratic community later. And the purposeful fun he’ll get along the way. To be-sure, this is a complicated task and slow. It takes a quarter of life’s span for most of us. Some are wise enough to say the apprenticeship never ends and others give up too early. But beyond the difficulties is the all-important question: who shall do it?

To say the responsibility rests on parental shoulders is begging the question, for in too many homes the positive lessons are simply not given. To expect a miracle in moral training from the churches is too credulous, since fewer than 10 per cent offer themselves for training on the regular basis of an hour a week.

Society then fastens its Collective guilt and panic on the schools. More and more human problems are loaded on to an already over-full curriculum. Schools are expected to educate children on the values and morals of our society, and if the finished product of the assembly line is not to our satisfaction, we are quick with blame. Parents and community expect the educator to patch up every wound, calm every rising fever, and to fulfill this healing venture alone. New Handbook Primary school teachers, with a dedication to the task of preparing children for life that exceeds most parents* performance, are “giving it a go.” They have in their hands a new Health Education Handbook. It is, in promise, a useful tool. " This new syllabus places greater emphasis on general health problems which affect family and community than was the case with earlier syllabuses. Particularly is this so in the area of social living and the hazards to health of alcohol, smoking and drugs. In the chapter. “Healthy Living” for the senior school (Forms I and II) these are listed as harmful to the body. In a later section each is in turn given fuller treatment. The aim of the syllabus is to help children achieve optimum health by equipping them with the knowledge and skills that they can use to understand their own, their family, and community health problems. It should help them develop favourable attitudes towards healthly living and to value health as a community asset. The new handbook tells us that “Health is not a set of rules but a pattern of everyday life which is sought for what it can help us to be and to do.”

A growing number of secondary schools see in the provision of courses covering a wide range of social and personal problems an opportunity to train pupils in useful citizenship. “Over the put

few years there has been a noticeable increase in the interest shown in the community, and by the schools themselves, in the contribution of secondary schools towards their pupils’ social education," says a recent Department of Education curriculum bulletin. “This interest has often been expressed in the form of proposals that schools should provide explicit and planned opportunities for their pupils to learn about themselves as people, about the society in which they live, and about their present and future roles in that society.”

Key To Success

School principals are agreed that the key to success of courses of this kind is not so much the nature of the programme of topics, as the acceptability, personally and temperamentally—as well as academically—of the course organiser and other adults involved. Group discussion rather than the didactic approach is the primary method. The teacher who succeeds is the one who can stimulate class members to discuss freely the issues and topics as they attempt to develop their own points of view and as they establish effective relationships with the group and individual class members.

Family life education or social education is by its nature a prime responsibility of parents. Neither the Department of Education nor schools can be expected to assume the full or even a major part in imparting knowledge about alcohol, drugs, sex, illegitimacy, venereal disease or similar problems. But if home and church abdicate, where else is the child to be helped? There are, of course, many situations beyond formal class periods where children learn. Influences of home, community background, and association with other adolescents are more powerful in shaping young lives than school courses in social living. But this is no argument for the schools to soft-pedal these difficult and controversial themes. Indeed, it is to the credit of both primary and secondary schools that they are sloughing off an understandable caution and expanding their curricula to develop this particular area of family and community living. Two Questions Who will do it—and how—are the questions that follow from the decision that it shall be done. If we take alcohol education as our example, shall we rely upon the class teacher, the physical education or biology teacher, or call in a specialist from the outside? Should we treat alcohol as a separate subject or weave it into the broader issues of life which are undoubtedly involved? If it is a health topic do we take it under normal or deviant community behaviour? That - is, do we inflict adult assumptions of the incidence of alcoholism, or do we begin where the pupil is or shall shortly be—in a drinking situation with decisions to make? Whatever the school decides, teachers know there will be satisfaction from some parents that the “right thing” is being done and from other parents disapproval or indifference. As a pedagogical cloud hovering over him, the teacher is aware that teaching a child on controversial community values without any positive participation on the part of the community has little prospect of success. To their credit schools keep trying. The increased interest in social education and the proviaion of revised sylla-

buses should encourage the public. Sporadic Instruction Perhaps the delay in helpful education concerning alcohol is due to community indifference. The school can-; not go too far ahead of the I home. The influence of I parents and the example of; the community, activelyl linked with what the schools; teach, should be mutually! supporting. Although the j Education Board's syllabus of! instruction has included the! harmful effects of alcohol! since 1928 there has been at! best sporadic classroom performance. In 1945 a joint committee issued a new syllabus of health education in 1945 featuring alcohol in the light of modern research. “The treatment of alcohol in this way largely removes much of the controversial element that hitherto caused some difficulty in presentation,” the syllabus said. “The lessons outline simple facts! in a manner that does not! lend itself to misinterprets- [ tion. A knowledge of these; facts is esssentiai for all; children." Still the instruc- 1 tion was not given. In 1963! the Department of Health came to the aid of teachers who may have felt inept in this field by publishing an excellent resource book, “Alcohol and Health. Suggestions For Teachers” (Pamphlet No. 128). It filters ever so slowly into our schools, even though it’s free. If slowness to act is not

i by reason of public indifference or inadequate teacher training, could the “hang up” be in a teacher’s own attitudes to drinking? If this - is so it is an indication of the ! failure of sound alcohol ' education one stage further back. A teacher is trained to -teach all his subject matter as objectively as possible. He .knows he is human, has his built-in prejudices, but avoids ; slanted presentation either by ' his words or his silences. In ' this instance he evaluates his ' personal views on alcohol, develops an open-minded yet ! critical attitude in studying ; its use and abuse, then prepares his lesson plans. No, alcohol education and other ' health aspects remain low on teacher lists because it is not i an examination subject nor a topic for grading assessment I It remains a book entry. [ Teacher As Guide The specialised health ! topics such as sex, smoking, alcohol and other drugs have increasingly im-i ■[portant Preparation for ’[ modern living demands l Inadequate treatment if our (children are to be other than I;“dragged up.” These subjects, i once regarded as moral; >; matters hedged about by! i!home, church, and mystery,; i are now capable of treatment! , in the school of scientific and ■ “open ended” inquiry. The! • modern student finds in the • school teacher a confidant j i and guide. In sensing that Mum and Dad are out of their 1 depth or that the answers!

they would give are not ’ addressed to the questions ! they are asking (for social change is rapid) he works out ways of communicating his problems and solving them as best he can. On his own, or with bis peers in the school community, he gratefully accepts the guidance in social education from his teachers and grows toward personal maturity and responsible citizenship. His purposeful life becomes a national asset The Youth Forum in May, 1964, and the National Youth Committee’s report of September, 1967, urged the Government to conduct a full inquiry into courses on the art of living and citizenship. The latter argues persuasively for a course in modern living as a core subject in schools. “Irrespective of the interests of pupils in different occupations and subjects there are skills and areas of knowledge which all young people must learn about to ensure their effective participation in society.” If we fail in our school [system to provide for their [stated needs we cannot right|ly complain when they [respond with protests and rebellion. They are trying to [express by their frustrations [and misadventure that we are [not giving them what they I want Or that what we do [offer is not meeting their deep felt needs. A dose of social education will cure [such sickness. We should be glad that schools are dispensing it now in stronger I mixture.