We all can find it difficult to concentrate on work if there is something troubling us, even when we can do the work.
How much more difficult must it be for a young person to concentrate on school work when their personal lives are in disarray. This may be due to home and family troubles, friendship, bullying relationship or esteem issues perhaps related to on-line activity or to developmental issues related to maturation and sexuality.
School subjects must seem unimportant when viewed through the eyes of a troubled young person. The relevance of schoolwork must seem obscure.
Schools have wide ranging support mechanisms, a full pastoral system and caring committed teachers.
But the core purpose of a school is to educate pupils in formal subjects, to get as many of them through 5 GCSEs as possible, after all the system judges schools on this data. The core purpose and training of a teacher is to teach.
So is the formal school- based structure the only or even the most appropriate way to help young people?
It seems to me that self- esteem is at the core to mental contentment- a hard thing then to value an institution and a system that tells you over and over again that you are failing and which is not fundamentally at the place you are at.
If this is so, then it is crucial that we find ways of enhancing the esteem of young people and find an environment more empathetic to them. Schools have a “go to” person, teacher or teachers to whom a young person can go to discuss their troubles. The point though is that they have to “go to” -it does not happen naturally-and the person they are going to is a teacher-and the issues that may be troubling them do not arise in the course of everyday classroom work.
Such environments of course exist outside the formal structures of schools and many schools have established close links with youth and community agencies. The full service school model-the subject of a decade long pilot at the two Belfast Models-is an example of the involvement of external statutory agencies such as the Health service, the Social services and the police and non statutory community and youth groups to address issues of North Belfast. Abbey Community school in Newtownabbey has built a productive partnership with Monkstown boxing club, my former school, Killicomaine still engages non statutory community groups for mornings at a time to address issues such as antisocial behaviour, bereavement, home life, religion, maturation, sexuality and so on. I was always amazed at the insight and outpouring of heartfelt inner selves resulting from the relationships developed by the community/youth workers in school and in the evenings. All three provide examples of a creative way to deliver aspects of education traditionally difficult for teachers in a way which is more empathetic to the young people and in doing so provide a way to engage the young people, especially boys, who have found formal education challenging.
The boys in the Controlled sector have underachieved for years., especially those categorised as from working class background, alarmingly so. Dawn Purvis highlighted this in the report “A Call to Action” Sir Ian Hall ,in his introduction , phrased it thus
“there seemed to be a heavy complacent trend amongst the white working class population of sons following their fathers into trade union protected jobs. This often produced a perception of a lack of need to gain qualifications. I predicted that these jobs would disappear as technology improved and that youth unemployment in the Protestant white working class boys sector would rise as a result of these changes”
He wrote that as part of the “Making Belfast Work” programme around 1990 and reiterated it “sadly” in 2010 that nothing has changed.
I have to ask what has changed?
The Government’s statistics contained in the Programme for Government 2016-2021 includes the following stark evidence for 5 GCSE grades A-C
FSME Protestant Boys 26.7%
FSME Catholic Girls 49.6%
Non FSME Girls 77.9%
(FSME—entitlement to free school meals-the usual measure of disadvantage)
Sir Ian Hall attributes some of the variation to
“the current selection process by the grammar schools was depressing achievement amongst those who were not selected and lowering aspirations”
He also pointed out that Catholic families “knew and accepted that their children had to have higher qualifications if they were to enter what had been a historically protestant based workforce and hence the greater value they placed on education. “
The effect on self esteem of the perceived loss of a male role and apparent powerlessness continues to be seen in today’s statistics and on our streets.
In this context successive generations of the Protestant community have been slow to understand the profound effects of John Hume’s Equal Opportunities legislation of the early 70s
This is why the recently announced action research partnership between CSSC, CCMS and the UU is very welcome and appropriate. Called “Taking Boys Seriously” the research aims, amongst other aims, to identify best practice with regard to “Community -based interventions” with a view to
-increasing attainment
-raising aspiration
-Promoting positive attitudes
Initially the project will address HE participation among young males from disadvantaged backgrounds. Research has identified what they term “lost boys” and seeks to address why this is so.
Further information can be found at
https;//takingboysseriously.org/
Actually we know and have known for years about this issue, we also have many examples of good practice to address it, yet a new generation of Heads, community groups and children is addressing the same issue and its outworking on our society, what is and has been missing is a genuine will to change and address it.
Published by