When I began full time teaching at St. Joseph's High School in Barrie Ontario back in 1986, there were no: 1) I-phones (recently the I-phone 10 was released) I should share the following observation about social media and comment on young people and their attraction or rather distraction to phones: a) the phone is certainly a real distraction in the classroom for students. In fact, I often witness during lessons, and even during performance rehearsals, student eyes “hooked” by their phones, which are located on the music stand. In addition, sometimes, some students even stop playing and immediately move their focus to their respective phones!; b) Over the years, I have observed young people walking (for example, in a mall) in a perfect horizontal line, each of the group of three friends talking on their respective phones and not engaged in conversation with the persons directly next to them! If anything, the phone has both brought people together (from great distances, now, this is fantastic, to be able to video converse with family across the world in real time and at no additional cost), and created a block - a barrier to real life interaction with someone, looking at them in the eye!
2) no video cameras for added security (today, one can control home security using their phone from long distances);
3) personal computers were just starting to gain attention (in fact, at St. Joseph's High School, I used an Apple IIe computer with a purchased MIDI Sound card which offered me 4 tracks to accompany a choir at liturgy celebrations! - keep in mind that MIDI technology had previously been introduced in 1983, and I was inspired!);
4) some of my colleagues were free to smoke cigarettes in the staff room, (today, students must be a prescribed distance from the school building, in fact, I think if students are under age, they are fined a substantial amount, even if they are located away from the school building);
5) all the men wore shirt and a tie, with some wearing a jacket also, (today, it's rare to find, however, I still wear a shirt and tie, everyday. I think it has helped me and continues to help me garner respect. Personally, I am a strong supporter of dressing professionally as a teacher. It's interesting in a Catholic School System, where students are expected to wear the school uniform, do make a strong point when they question a teacher's remarks about following school policy with respect to wearing the school uniform, when the teacher is wearing jeans himself? Are not teachers expected to be good role models?;
6) Fundamentals meant something of value back in the day. I mean, respect for human dignity, using appropriate language, really trying to demonstrate effort to improve, was noticed, (today, I think "laziness" or even perhaps entitlement is the replacement fundamental?);
7) There are way to many identified students - I mean, to me, it appears that these students are using these programs to take advantage of the system. So many students are offered modifications and adjustments to their individualized programs. I think it's ironic that these specialized approaches to learning, which are intended to help students to better cope with learning, in short, meeting their needs, is actually putting them at a disadvantage when they graduate and have to compete for placements or job opportunities; Further, It’s not acceptable to “fail” today! We have established teams of partners in education to help every student to succeed! We need to find ways to help lighten the load on students, to remove pressure situations, to help a student at “risk” better handle the challenges. When I entered this teaching profession way back, I think it was more acceptable to allow a student who was experiencing difficulty time to find his/her way to resolving problems. Yes, we offered suggestions and assistance, but there was space to allow the student to grow and try different strategies, and yes, in some instances, measures of success varied. Today, it’s so different. We remove the responsibility from the student and the adults carry the entire load, I think. The adults, administrators, teachers, parents appear to make the decisions and direct the young person to accept and follow! I think we will all agree that learning takes many forms and shapes, and occurs in most if not all insurances. The potential is there to experience, and sometimes, I wonder if we have taken away some meaningful growing experiences for our students because we expect them to succeed and not fail in any way. We applaud even the most mediocre effort and accomplishment, and give out awards just to encourage young people not to give up. Studies show that we learn the most when we are challenged. I fear that we try to take away challenges today in an effort to make life easier.
8) Way back when I started teaching full time, a student was challenged to develop skills and understanding; challenged to grow stronger after experiencing a failure. Today, parents intervene immediately when the sense a sign of trouble for their son / daughter, and the "soft" approach steps to resolve the problem is taken. The result of this, in my opinion, is that many students are not able to deal with challenges and even failure because they do not know how;
9) Back in the day, when I started teaching, there was more autonomy, more trust granted a teacher to arrange educational activities, experiment with creative ideas, and there was more flexibility. Today, it seems to me that everything is controlled: What you teach, how you are to teach it, how you are to evaluate; too many guidelines to follow;
10) It's too risky today to arrange excursions! Some students simply cannot be trusted and the blame will fall on the supervising teacher! The last excursion I completed was 2013, a great trip to Austria & Czech Republic;
11 Hiring practices and procedures have certainly changed. I remember the school Principal having much more power in hiring a teacher for their particular school. I remember mailing over 100 packages, addressed to the school Principal and school, seeking full time employment. It was challenging back then to retain a teaching job, but I think today, with all the guidelines and policies in place, it’s even more challenging to get a teaching position, even get a position on the supply list! Some would be teachers have to volunteer for years to even get a chance to get their name on a list for consideration, and many simply give up. Getting an interview is so very difficult today.
12) When I started full time teaching career, grade 13 existed and today, the curriculum has experienced so many changes, and continues to be under review, and many students opt to stay another year after grade 12 because they do not feel that they are ready for the next step.
I suppose there are many other comparisons that I can make. We all understand that change is inevitable, that we cannot and perhaps should not stop progress. Indeed, I have experienced a lot of change in education over the years. But, I think the changes have paralyzed us into a paranoia, where we suspect everything, question everything, and trust nothing. Oh yes, I believe that the destruction of the family unit took place when Sunday Shopping became a reality! That's another discussion for another day!
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