Schooling Starts before School Starts

Agamedes realises that education starts at home -- but it may need help.

Do you need new -- lateral -- thinking for your own problems? email nick leth at gmail dot com. Need solutions? No worries. Now.

A few weeks ago there was a short snippet on TV -- possibly on the ABC's Landline -- describing efforts to help indigenous people get work. Essentially, it showed efforts to teach them to dress neatly to match current fashions, to walk without slouching, to keep their hair neat and tidy... The sorts of things which are traditionally taught at a posh girls finishing school.

The sorts of things which are taught by family life -- if your family is part of mainstream Australia.

And I thought, Oh, that is a problem. We can tell people to dress neatly, sit up straight, speak politely... but what does all that mean? How can you know what all that means if you have no-one to actually show you?

Now a school teacher in Tambellup has seen the same problem. And taken steps to solve it.

Susan Sheridan has just won an award for her work with indigenous families (The West, 7 Dec 2010). In essence, Sheridan has brought children and their parents into contact with the school, several years before the children are ready for formal schooling.

Have the parents had a successful schooling? Probably not. Have the parents learnt the essentials of sitting still when required, of listening to the teacher, of following simple school rules? Probably not. So how can they prepare their own children for school!

All I have read is the one brief article. Here is my extended understanding:

Sheridan brings parents and children to the school. She helps them -- both parents and children -- to become familiar with the school. To learn the "simple" things which will allow the children to benefit from, later, going to the school as students.

It's all very well to say, the parents should teach them to behave. What if the parents themselves do not know the rules?

The parents may be able to see the benefits of schooling for their children. They have no knowledge of how to prepare their children to gain those benefits.

People like Sheridan are able to step out of their classrooms -- possibly out of their comfort zones -- to help solve the actual problems.

Education allows choices. Children need both teachers and parents, to allow the children to gain an education. To help the children we may need to also help the parents.

A good lesson.

Thank you, Susan Sheridan.

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