Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Nothing new here

The advisor for Education for Valencia , Alexander Font de Mora, insisted yesterday on the convenience " of removing from the classroom the most problematic students ".

Font de Mora reiterated his model of " classrooms of coexistence " as the remedy for cases of students with disruptive and precise conducts. The idea is that the professor (having exhausted their pedagogical resources) moves the student to another classroom to guarantee the stability of performance in theirs.

In the Valencian model a second type of classroom would be created to take care of " the minority of students with serious personality problems that cause insurmountable difficulties within the system". According to the socialist deputy, Adolf Sanmartín, this would create ghettos and underlines a philosophy of sanctioning rather than prevention and change in pedagogy.

We used to have a "duty room" at Anfield many years ago where disruptive pupils were sent. Inevitably it was the same faces in the room every day. The same children would miss out on their proper lessons. So in the end we gave it up. However, that meant that the classroom teacher had to find ways of coping with highly disruptive pupils and more to the point so did the rest of the class. Inevitably the worst pupils would end up being suspended.

Sadly, there is no easy solution to the problem of disruptive children in either country.

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