09 September 2007
Any absence is a lost learning
opportunity.
10/09/07 11:18 | Permalink
What can I say. The title speaks for
itself. My daughter bought home her first note of the new school
year on Friday, from the nice new Head Teacher, no doubt trying to
stamp her mark of authority on the school. It is on the subject of
holiday absence requests, which she says, in no uncertain terms,
will not be granted. It just serves as a reminder to us all how
completely lacking in imagination the school system really is. They
cannot conceive of a learning experience happening outside the
school building, real life cannot possibly offer any meaningful
learning, the only thing of any value is what happens to a child at
school. I find myself somewhat resigned to the attitude and we have
a joke about how ignorant and narrow minded the system is when we
get letters like this, but part of me wants to write a sarcastic
reply and point out to the woman the error of her ways.
So here it is:
Dear Ms A F,
Thank you for your letter of the 4th September entitled “Requests for holiday absence during term time”. I was a little concerned to find that as someone in charge of a large school you show a somewhat simplistic attitude towards the nature of human learning.
Contrary to your statement that “Any absence is a lost learning opportunity” it is in fact the case that people learn from any and all experiences that they have, significantly including those that happen outside school. To claim that only experiences that happen inside school are ‘learning opportunities’ is clearly misleading. I think that it is important for teachers to recognize the validity and importance of all the learning that children do in the course of their life, whether at school or otherwise. In the current political climate where there is an increased focus on the notion of ‘life-long’ learning I think that we should be encouraging a more positive attitude towards the value of all of our life experiences, not just those that happen in formal institutional environments.
While I appreciate you are aiming to emphasise the special importance of the learning that happens in school, though that is of course also a debatable point, I think it is crucial that school offers support and encouragement to parents in their efforts to contribute to their children’s learning, rather than the implication that time spent out of school is wasted.
I trust that you might bear these thoughts in mind in your future communication with parents.
Yours sincerely,
So here it is:
Dear Ms A F,
Thank you for your letter of the 4th September entitled “Requests for holiday absence during term time”. I was a little concerned to find that as someone in charge of a large school you show a somewhat simplistic attitude towards the nature of human learning.
Contrary to your statement that “Any absence is a lost learning opportunity” it is in fact the case that people learn from any and all experiences that they have, significantly including those that happen outside school. To claim that only experiences that happen inside school are ‘learning opportunities’ is clearly misleading. I think that it is important for teachers to recognize the validity and importance of all the learning that children do in the course of their life, whether at school or otherwise. In the current political climate where there is an increased focus on the notion of ‘life-long’ learning I think that we should be encouraging a more positive attitude towards the value of all of our life experiences, not just those that happen in formal institutional environments.
While I appreciate you are aiming to emphasise the special importance of the learning that happens in school, though that is of course also a debatable point, I think it is crucial that school offers support and encouragement to parents in their efforts to contribute to their children’s learning, rather than the implication that time spent out of school is wasted.
I trust that you might bear these thoughts in mind in your future communication with parents.
Yours sincerely,