LEARNING new things occurs throughout a lifetime.
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Parental role modelling and school education are an early beginning to that process. The education system is suffering from reform fatigue. It is obvious it is time to take politics out of education and place it where it belongs - with the community.
Children are our greatest community resource. For too long this valuable resource has been ignored. It is time to question why. What do politicians think is the meaning of education? This is a vital time to review our approach.
Society is undergoing massive changes and our education system is completely out-dated. The job market has changed, and in addition to basic skills, different skills are required.
Together with this, changes to teacher training are needed to meet new demands. The aim of education should be to give each child the tools to achieve their potential to manage adult life and grow into a responsible citizen.
To do this, all educators need to understand child development and tailor their input to it. Children grow in five dimensions: physical, intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual. But growth in these dimensions is not all at the same time.
The first educators are the parents, both are vital role models.
Language (talking to a baby), learning trust and security, raising awareness of this important role and implementing support for them is vital. To build a sound foundation, the primary school is a vital time.
The valuable, researched and trialled, early learning program is already showing positive results. This caters for the total wellbeing of children but is one of the areas proposed by politicians to be scrapped.
Sadly, as yet there is nothing to help children in the middle school. Adolescence is not an easy time for many and presents problems for home and school. It is here that the Pathway Planners is to be replaced by integration into the curriculum where its value would be lost.
The dedicated person in Pathway planning becomes like an understanding friend who alleviates the stress of children having to make a change after year 10 that possibly leads to a career.
Too many negative bureaucratic decisions are made to scrap programs as with these two, valued by staff and students, children would appear to be seen as economic commodities, not as people. It is time for the community to take a stand and take leadership. It is time for a forward-looking strategic plan that takes education into the future. This plan needs input from the Education Department, principals, state and independent schools, business leaders, UTAS, TAFE, Parents and Friends and so on.
It needs to be re-evaluated at specific intervals to enable adjustments to be made to keep it relevant. Once the plan is adopted, it needs to be immune from election cycles and political expediency.
The time for action is now.
- Mollie Campbell-Smith is a former teacher who founded the Relationship Education for Well-being (Social and Emotional) program for Northern Tasmanian schools.
