RELUCTANT LEARNERS—CULPRITS OR VICTIMS ?

Press, Volume C, Issue 29504, 4 May 1961, Page 6

RELUCTANT LEARNERS—CULPRITS OR VICTIMS ?

[Specially written for "The Press" by ELSIE LOCKE)

When I was at primary school in a small country town, we had as near neighbours a family by the name of Doe. The father was a drunkard, a “no-hoper;” and the mother, I suppose, found everything too much for her. The children were ill-kept and had ‘‘things” in their hair, for which reason most other children were warned against playing with them. In school they were little terrors New teacher A new teacher who arrived to take over standards 1 and 2 found herself with two Does in her classroom. Soon afterwards, my sister saw the teacher going unobtrusively into the Doe's house. The appearance and behaviour of the boys began to improve. But the real surprise came at the breaking-up concert. Dressed in a blue velvet frock with a lace collar, with her skin scrubbed till it shone and her hair tied up with a wide blue bow, Marion Doe from primer 1 stood up and sang, sweetly and in tune, “Away in a Manger.” The new teacher played the accompaniment. This is remembered because I was both astonished and ashamed: astonished at the angelic prettiness of Marion Doe and ashamed that none of us had noticed it before. We could not help wondering what the other children should really have been like. But soon afterwards the family left the district; encouraged, perhaps, to make a fresh start in new surroundings. At all events we did not read about them in the usual place for tracing the fortunes of problem families—the court news. In modem phraseology, the Does would have been known as “disturbed children” and, in school, as “reluctant learners.” The teacher who ventured into social work was the forerunner of a kind of service now more widely recognised. We appreciate that mental, physical and emotional health are closely intertwined and that the process of being educated en-

gages not only the eyes and ears and brain and hands, but the whole personality of the child. Consequently schools have to be institutions of health promotion in a field that stretches beyond free milk, dental service, medical examinations and physical training. If a child with ample natural ability is found to be a ‘reluctant learner'—either turned in on himself and doing poor work, or aggressively rebelling and disturbing the whole class—then some part of his development is being blocked or bent in the wrong direction. To learn is one of mankind’s joys. Every infant reminds us of this-truth by the glow of achievement on his face when, after months of unforced effort, he takes his first few steps alone. Unhappy at school, rejecting not only knowledge but the pleasures that knowledge can bring, the reluctant learner is the victim of conditions which he did not make. It may be that his home is unsatisfactory; or that he has suffered some devastating or frightening experience: or that in the school itself there has been some continuing clash of personalities with a teacher or some injustice or failure to understand him. Society's responsibility Has our society a responsibility towards a child whose emotional and mental balance has been thrown out of gear? And can the school be expected to conduct the rescue operation? We have only to add a third question Where else? to recognise that logically the answer is ‘‘Yes.” We already take responsibility for keep, ing his teeth in order, for providing hospital treatment if he needs it, and even for traffic patrols to see that he doesn't get run over. Where his home has failed him, there is nowhere else but the school which occupies a large enough part of his life. Important beginnings have been made. Visiting teachers are a link between school and home. We need more of

them. The parent-teacher associations have opened the gates for friendly and easy discussion. Speech clinics help those children whose poor speech is a symptom of deeper trouble. From schools and from the community in general, children may be ref err. d to the Psychological Service of the Education Department which, though it has no facilities for treatment, can seek out the cause of the trouble and often find the way to a remedy. Sometimes this is quite simple. For example, to go to a new school under a particularly sympathetic teacher or headmaster may remove a source of Irritation and give new hope of success. Sometimes the causes are very complex and other agencies have to be called into play. Yet even when such services as these are more adequately expanded, the first adult to meet the problems will be the teacher. Without security Where a child comes from a home without security or without love, the school may provide an adult to admire, to rely upon, to turn to for confidences. It may be the class teacher who will give him a cuddle if he is small, or listen to him seriously if he is older. It may perhaps be the headmaster or headmistress. Such a helpmate may soothe the sores where he has been kicking his toes at bricks, and give him warmth, comfort and hope. Conversely, if the teacher is unable to see into the child’s difficulty and to help him patiently, if the nuisance is resented, and the staffroom entertained with tales of misdemeanours which add (to his other handicaps) a bad name to live down, then the situation is aggravated, and anti-social behaviour is more likely to be firmly established. Not that any one could blame a hard-pressed teacher for finding relief, as we all do, in an occasional grouch session. With a class of 40 to 50, she can find very little time for any one child. And she is seldom fortified by special training. Poet-primary college work in particular is concerned with the teaching

of subjects and not with the handling of people. Moreover such an extension would hardly be possible without adding a third year to the training course. , Here we come up against the shortage of teachers. If it seems pointless to talk about reducing classes when there are not enough teachers to go round, we might still ask ourselves: do keen young people shy away, because they fear they would not be able to deal with the children as they would like to do? Certainly cases are known of gifted teachers who have left the profession because they felt that their human vocation was being pushed down into a dailv grind. Extended training Many teachers, in their own time and at their own expense, do set about extending their training. From inside the profession has come another proposal. Teachers working in the teaching of music have been relieved of classroom duties for a time to attend special courses and this scheme is being followed for other subjects. In a similar way. with practical experience behind them, selected teachers could be given tune off to study the child personality and how to med its problems. "What can we do?" Recognising the difficulties facing the teacher as w-ell as the pupil, the rest of us may ask what we can do. Casual contact is not of much help to a child in distress; but at least we can promote a more understanding community attitude, and extend this to our children who form the average school population. Young adults at secondary school will take exception to a lonewolf classmate or a small gang who may be giving the school a bad name. School pride is a potent force and it can be concerned with something much more than keeping up respectable appearances. The risk of criticism could be more readily accepted where there is a chance of bringing an outcast into harmony with a healthy group. After all. man—or child—is by nature a social being. It is lack of that harmony which makes him an outcast.