Towards more humane schooling

Summer is a good time to reflect upon certain aspects of Maltese schooling that need to be radically changed for the benefit of Malta's citizens of the future, our beloved schoolchildren. Those educators who, like me, believe that the school experience should be an enjoyable one for our students cannot but be disappointed at the reality of the situation in many of our schools.

The first thing that springs to mind is the substantial number of violent attacks on educators over the last few years. Let me make it clear from the start: such attacks can never be justified and should always be condemned. However, I am afraid that sometimes we are treating the symptoms and not the causes of what provokes such attacks on educators year after year.

After every violent attack on educators we usually have several public condemnations of the act, many calls for greater security in schools and legal action against the aggressor. However, amid all this indignation, do we examine in depth the causes of the aggression? Or do we take for granted certain school practices that today are considered to be an infringement of schoolchildren's basic human rights but which have never been eradicated from our schools?

Why do the education authorities as well as some heads of school still allow the humiliation of schoolchildren? By humiliation I understand senseless rules that make schools seem like prisons, shouting at students not as an exception but as the rule of everyday school life, giving so much homework that one cannot pursue leisure activities such as sports.

Let me start with the question of school rules. It makes sense to have rules such as no running in the school corridor but it does not make sense to impose upon students how they should set their hair or punish them because their socks are of a lighter shade of colour than they should actually be! I personally know several heads and assistant heads who daily "hunt" for students whose uniform does not conform to the rules in some minor detail. Have they nothing better to do with their time?

I remember a case where an assistant head shouted and shrieked at a very young student because her socks were lighter than what they should have been. The poor child was reduced to tears but the assistant head was not impressed and continued shouting and screaming as the sobs of the poor child increased. I was amazed to hear, some time ago, that this particular assistant head, renowned for terrifying schoolchildren, had been promoted to head of school. Incredible but true!

Why do some teachers still think they have the right to shout at students even for the slightest infringement of rules, an everyday occurrence in some schools? Why are they backed by the head when a parent complains? Why do some assistant heads and heads themselves use this condemnable method of correcting students? A good educator never shouts at students, never humiliates them. It is the incompetent pseudo-educators who do so.

And what about the question of homework? Why do we still allow some teachers to pile loads of homework onto their students? Are students expected to work late hours every day of their lives? Students usually look forward to holidays but we still have school practices that make a farce of the word "holiday" such as giving students double or triple the usual amount of homework on a Friday because Monday happens to be a public holiday.

I appeal to all educators worthy of the name to stand up and do something for the sake of our schoolchildren. Let's make our country's schooling more humane.