There is a lot of talk about teaching for the future and the jobs and lifestyles that generation.com will live. My concern is about the learning and teaching of the children and young adults in our schools now today and tomorrow. We are seeing an ever changing school child that not only brings many skills in terms of technology etc that were not even thought of when I was a child. These same children also bring with them complex social emotional states of minds. Mostly these reasons relate to the child’s ability to interact with others, or in the worst case like themselves enough to believe that they have something to offer others.
Schools today not only are seen as educational settings, they are also providing counselling for families, referral programs for emergency housing, food, clothing etc. Schools today offer breakfast programs, before and after school care, resulting in a high number of children spending the major part of their day in formal institutions.
This makes it very difficult to teach, children to read and write – even with modern technology. It is difficult for a child to concentrate on anything if they ’ know who is going to be home when they get home from school, when they will get their next meal, or if they are freezing cold and have pj’s on under their second hand school uniform because they don’t have any other clothes.
How can we help these children? And how can we help our teachers?
