Schools are complex.

The very nature of providing education to young people who don’t always make great decisions builds in a layer of complexity that can’t simply be explained.

For the most part, schools operate smoothly with the hum of learning evident across classes of students focussed on the task at hand. You can gauge the climate of a school soon after the first bell. Often, you won’t hear a peep when entering the administration block, a tell-tale sign of a focused and well-functioning school.

One of the challenges that schools continue to face eventuates simply because many people believe they are educational experts since they went to school.

In truth, teaching is far more scientific than the general public gives it credit. When civil engineers speak of the intricacies of structural design in bridge building, we listen. When doctors, specialists, and surgeons speak of the advantages of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, innovative cancer treatments, and keyhole surgery, we listen. When pilots speak of turbulence and the simplicity of the take-off manoeuvre, we listen. When tradies speak of straightforward solutions to problems which appear complicated, we listen. Yet when teachers use the term pedagogy, “the science of teaching”, they are ridiculed. By example, infamously but correctly, I once boldly pronounced to an assembled school association committee, “you can tell me what to teach, but don’t’ tell me how to teach it…”.

Some members of the public even suggest that we should return to the “good ole days” of corporal punishment. They weren’t good days. My late father was forever tormented by the cruelty, fear, and meanness of teachers and headmasters who would cane children, on freezing cold Belfast days, for the most insignificant misdemeanours.

That doesn’t mean socially inappropriate or violent behaviour should be dismissed. Not at all – significant consequences must and are put in place to ensure that inappropriate actions cease or the likelihood of them reoccurring are reduced. 

It is a decade since I last sat in the principal’s chair, but I stay involved. Education remains a passion. As a young assistant principal and principal, I made mistakes. Decisions I made or chose not to make in support of children still bounce around my brain. They don’t leave, they just assist to develop wisdom. Children make mistakes. Learning from these mistakes is core business because of the complexities that young people arrive with at school prior to even considering formal learning. And 10 years on, schools are even more complex. The banning of mobile phones will hopefully reduce bullying, harassment and conflicts, which become the responsibility of educators to referee and solve even though the negative interactions occurred on the weekend or well before lessons began.

Schools now install security cameras to monitor behaviour and solve problems. This is an extremely challenging development because it should not be required. However, in the day to day interactions of schools with parents and guardians and families, navigating complex situations is made easier when you don’t have to mediate a disagreement where “he said, she said” is the only available evidence. Schools act as judge and jury, and they write the sentencing notes after contemplating all the evidence. And rarely is anybody happy with the consequences or outcomes.

Parents and guardians are their child’s fiercest advocates and, importantly, their most influential teachers! Responsibility does not stop at the school gate. It “takes a village” is the best advice I can provide.

It essential for families to hang in there, even when children make mistakes. School leaders and teachers are there to educate, not to make lives more difficult. Schools are, at times, dealing with challenging and volatile situations that take significant time to resolve, while simultaneously continuing to meet the needs of the whole learning community. Predicting parental responses to difficult situations makes matters even more complex and stressful. However, it remains essential to reach conclusions because you just never know when individuals will be ready to learn and motivated by feelings of pride in their academic achievements.  

When things inevitably go wrong in public schools, we are flooded with blame, explanation, and justification. Individual schools are, quite rightly, not permitted to comment because they represent a department; a system, for which maintaining confidence is of paramount importance. However, when a media vacuum is created, the department must close the loop with strategic communication in support of schools.

Teaching is the most gratifying job I have ever experienced. It comes with great responsibility and offers great reward. Youngsters continue to thank you for your contribution even when they are adults and have children of their own. But schools will always remain complex. Therefore, gathering information from a variety of credible sources regarding progress or decision-making processes remains the responsibility of all who care about the education of our young people. Further, step-up and join a school association where you can shape the future of our most important community asset – our schools.