Biscuit's Box

Question: Are schools child centric or adult centric? In the majority of primary schools I've visited I would agree that they are child centric, unfortunately most secondary schools are adult centric. What does this mean? Let's start with Maslow's hierarchy of needs and let's forget the triangle immediately.  Maslow's ideas are not new, in fact they are lifted directly from the tenets of the native American tribes he worked with. Is it appropriation? Quite definitely, but credit where it's due, espousing a progressive social stance in the midst of communist persecution in America was a pretty ballsy move. Tier 1 I am secure Access to food, clean water, clothing and shelter are basic physical needs. A stranger to a native American camp would be offered these simple necessities as a courtesy for simply being human, the same applies in Moari culture.  For the kids in our classroom our observations are their safeguarding and why we do the training every year.  For t...

Over the next few posts I am going to break down the three stakeholders in a little more detail. The Child is the easiest label to define as it depends entirely on the child's capability and development. From birth through to adolescence the child will progress from wanting their concerns addressing to achieving autonomy and being the primary decision maker. Over the same period, the Parent (same labelling caveats apply as before) should transition from being the primary decision maker to wanting their concerns addressed.  So who is the Parent?  I've heard an annoyance, a waste of time, over protective, demanding... The School is the most complex, comprising of Teachers, pastoral staff, support staff... I'm ditching these openers.  I ran out of patience too quickly with this one and could not even complete the thought as it riled me up so much. The Parent I am starting here because from experience this has been the hardest position to be in. Years of experience with other...

 Let's forget the automatic responses and actually consider the question logically. We have three invested interests involved in a child's education; the school, the parents and the child.  For ease, the label of "parent" here encompasses all primary caregivers and when discussing "school" it is as an entity not it's component parts so appropriate phrases would be: it is school policy to, the decisions we are making are, the school feels, we feel...   You as an individual be may be opposed to actions taken by the school but the expectation will always be to back the decisions of your management.   With the idea that the School entity is the stakeholder not you, answer this quick question:  Which of these Venn diagrams best illustrates the power dynamic within the school, parent and child relationship? Which did you choose?  If it was either of the first two options you might as well stop reading now.  To be clear, any relationship dynamic whe...