I received the following message by email today:

Our high school is great but we have discipline problems; a couple of very disruptive children that not all teachers are good at dealing with can disrupt a whole class. Our son no longer asks questions of one teacher in particular because he feels she has enough to cope with dealing with the naughty children all the time. The school is addressing the issue, but my concern is that these are year7 children and they should have learnt by now that there is a place for certain behaviours, and that is generally not in the school classroom. Teachers need to be able to access more help with disciplinary problems, and some parents need to be more accountable for their children.

I have just this minute returned from running a Focus Group of parents in Devonport (Tasmania) where this issue (among others) was discussed at some length. It has also animated a number of the other Focus Groups that we’ve been holding.

In short, many parents are concerned about the impact of a few disruptive children on the rest of the class – and on the teacher’s ability to manage the class. Even good and experienced teachers often struggle with this issue, and parents are overwhelmingly sympathetic to the teacher – but not to the system, that in the opinion of parents should be doing much more by way of extra classroom support for teachers, and more support in the way of counsellors, behavioural specialists and so on.

The parents I’m talking to also highlight the role of parents themselves in taking joint responsibility, with the school/teacher, to try and resolve matters.

It is certainly something that I will be highlighting in my report on discussions that have been happening in the Focus Groups.

It may also influence the questions that the Commonwealth government will be asking in a forthcoming national survey of parents that is being conducted later this year.

Please don’t hesitate to send me your comments and questions.