Union address: Voice: "Adult roles and responsibilities": SecEd, 4 September 2008
Adult roles and responsibilities
Philip Parkin, General Secretary of Voice
Schools are being required to take on more of the responsibilities that belong to parents; and to provide more of the stability in children’s lives that should be provided by families, blurring the boundaries between education and social service. I’m concerned that the focus is moving away from education towards child wellbeing.
When I worked in school, I believed in co-operative working between agencies involved in children’s welfare and education, but was concerned about the disruption by other agencies to children’s education. The children would always be leaving the classroom for one thing or another – yet teachers’ performance is judged on their pupils’ performance.
Some children’s only stability in life comes when they’re in school and it can seem unfair to take them out of class. We’re adding to the disruption of their lives instead of creating islands of calm. We have to get that balance right and agree that what is in the child’s best interests shouldn’t be governed by what is convenient for various agencies.
I’m concerned that disruption, distraction and disorder may be increased by having other services – health professionals, social workers and so on – located on the school site. I understand the logic, but we have to take care.
The social model that has developed over the last 30 years has changed the nature of parenthood significantly. I’m making no judgement, but the focus on the individual rather than community, changing family structures, the shortening of many relationships, the creation of more step-families, the emphasis on parents working and the consequent perceived devaluing of the role of full-time parent have all changed the way we behave and the character of childhood.
Schools are being asked to monitor things that aren’t education – obesity, gangs, weapons, drinking, drugs, stolen goods, extremism, and wellbeing. Why aren’t parents being asked to take on these responsibilities? Recent Department for Children, Schools and Families work has concentrated more on parents’ rights. The more you do for people, the less responsibility they take for themselves and the expectations on parents reduce.
I’m uncomfortable about the direction society is going. Missing from the lives of many disenfranchised teenagers is a functioning parental figure. If there’s no functioning parent, there’s no food in the house, no-one washes your clothes, you don’t go to the dentist. You live in chaos. If you have good care as a child, you can survive almost anything. Emotional deprivation is a lethal weapon.
We may deplore some young people’s behaviour, but they’re a minority. We may find some pupils difficult – a General Teaching Council for England survey suggested this was a major reason why up to 40 per cent of young teachers don’t remain in teaching – but we need to see children positively.
Who has created this social climate? Adults. Parents have to take their share of responsibility, but so have adults who comprise and vote for governments, control the media, commercialise children, promote the cult of celebrity, or promote greedy, selfish behaviour – adults who don’t understand "community".
We need to be aware of adults’ roles and responsibilities in creating the environment in which children grow. Schools are expected to compensate not just for parents’ shortcomings, but also for the pressures adult society imposes on young people.
The government’s vision for the 21st century school is expressed in the Children’s Plan, but what does the government say about parents? Does it tell them, as it tells schools, what they should be doing for their children? Are they going to be held accountable for the people their children grow into? Of course not – but schools are.
The children’s agenda can’t exist outside of a vision for the whole of society. The government needs to articulate what sort of a society it’s trying to create – and to share it with us. That includes the responsibilities we all bear – as adults and parents.
philipparkin@voicetheunion.org.uk
Article adapted from:
General Secretary’s Conference speech, 30 July 2008
www.voicetheunion.org.uk/conference2008
pressoffice@voicetheunion.org.uk
