Stop telling us the school policies and listen to the experience of the culture
- growingnai
- Feb 5
- 7 min read
Culture Vs Policy – Focusing on School
When bringing up issues with the school about how our children are experiencing the school environment as negative, we are often met with “actually, there are policies that prevent that from happening”.
The culture of an institution, group, religion, family, community, etc., is not the same as the policies or rules in place within that group. There are rules in place that mean bullying, shouting, humiliation, extreme boredom, lack of individualised care and unhealthy pressure do not happen at school. However, the culture is different. Everyone experiences the culture differently, and everyone benefits or loses out from culture differently. Of course, those who benefit most from the culture will do the most to defend the status quo, and those who suffer most from the culture will exhibit the greatest symptoms of distress within the culture and resistance to the institution.
Changing culture takes time, energy, deep reflection and consultation with all involved. Sticking with the status quo avoids all of that.
Why does school culture need to change?
Let’s start with where school culture began:
“Initially, school systems were designed to meet the needs of a rapidly industrialising world, which still affects the schooling system today. Before, formal education wasn't for everyone; it was mostly for the elite, but with the Industrial Revolution, everything changed. Factories needed skilled workers who could read, write and follow instructions. Governments around the world responded by creating public education systems designed for the factory model of Education, introducing standardised classrooms that mimicked factory floors with rows of desks. Bells signalling the next task, focus on academic subjects like math, reading and science, deemed essential for industrial jobs. Meanwhile, creative subjects like art and dance were pushed aside, seen as less practical for the workforce. Universities shaped the system in their own image, placing academic achievement at the top of the hierarchy. Over time, intelligence became narrowly defined by test scores and degrees, but here's the catch: many brilliant, creative thinkers don't fit into this mould. As Sir Ken Robinson points out, we're educating people out of their creative capacities. Think about this: if Albert Einstein had been born into today's education system, would his unique way of thinking have been nurtured? Or what about artists like Picasso? Would they have been told to put down their paintbrushes and pick up a textbook instead? Now that we understand where the system came from, here's the big question: Does it still serve us today in a world driven by creativity, innovation and problem-solving? Is the factory model of Education still relevant, or is it time to rethink what school should be? Education has come a long way, but maybe it's time for the next Revolution. A revolution that values imagination.”
My children communicate with me that their school day is dominated by trying to conform themselves into the expectations of the classroom whilst feeling overwhelmed by those demands. They communicate this in different ways. What are the expectations of their classroom?
- To do what the teacher says, when the teacher says, sit down, be quiet, not talk to friends, place their hands in a specific position, not figit, not turn around, look only at the teacher, don’t touch anything on their desk
- To listen to the teacher tell them the information they must retain and be able to answer questions on and regurgitate, to listen to their teacher without moving around, without talking, without touching anything on their desk, no drawing, no doodling,
- To do the school work, to answer the questions in a way that the teacher can tick correct, to use neat hand writing, to follow grammar rules, to not get distracted with drawing, crafts, talking to their friend, moving around
- To not use the toilet during class times
- To not be rude, loud, or silly, to not laugh loudly, to not shout out
- To not do anything else other than what they are told, to sit in the seat, on the row, that the teacher demands
- If they fail to do this, they may be made to stay in the classroom during break and lunch times, the only time in the day they can play outside, engage with nature and release energy
From school, my children are now hyper aware of whether their work is considered GOOD or BAD, WRONG or RIGHT. They now look at their art, writing and everything they do through that lens. They also look at their behaviour through that lens. They feel ashamed and upset if they have got told off at school, they feel like it is a personal failure that they can’t always “behave well” or “get the work right” which intensifies the pressure on them to conform from a place of fear, rather than an inspired place of curiosity, learning and critical, imaginative thinking. Furthermore, if our children show signs of struggling within the school environment we as parents are spoken to in a way that pressures us to discipline our children or explain to them the importance of being able to conform themselves to the school environment and send them back to school “behaving better” next time. There aren’t conversations about what our children’s learning styles are, what lights them up, where they see our children shining, teachers are obviously highly pressured to get academic and behavioral results out of big classrooms of kids with little to no classroom support.
Despite the classroom policies and check-ins, all that is in place on paper to make the school look like an inclusive, supportive environment, children feel and experience the reality of school culture. In a culture that prioritises grades, being asked “how are you feeling today” becomes another question they need to get right. Do children honestly feel safe to say “I feel bored, I feel like I want to run away from this room and never come back”? That’s what I hear when they're home talking about school, because at home, the culture is: it’s safe to say how you feel.
When my child has been supported, it shows. When my child has had to repress their needs and get on with it, it shows.
There’s a big difference between youth clubs and schools. One of the big differences is parents can’t get fined for not sending their kid to a youth club. Youth clubs rely on being a warm and positive environment for children to WANT to attend. If kids don’t want to go to youth clubs, the clubs wouldn’t be able to keep going. Schools, with their legal power to fine and threaten families who struggle with attendance, do not have the same need to create a genuinely warm environment for children. The school system can blame children and families for children not attending, rather than engaging in serious self-reflection about whether the school culture is actually inclusive and inviting for all children.
In Ken Robinsons talk “How to escape education’s Death Valley” he discusses how governments “decide, they know best and they're going to tell you what to do. The trouble is that education doesn't go on in the committee rooms of our legislative buildings. It happens in classrooms and schools, and the people who do it are the teachers and the students, and if you remove their discretion, it stops working. You have to put it back to the people. Education is a human system. There is wonderful work happening in this country. But I have to say it's happening in spite of the dominant culture of education, not because of it. It's like people are sailing into a headwind all the time. And the reason I think is this: that many of the current policies are based on mechanistic conceptions of education. It's like education is an industrial process that can be improved just by having better data, and somewhere in the back of the mind of some policy makers is this idea that if we fine-tune it well enough, if we just get it right, it will all hum along perfectly into the future. It won't, and it never did. The point is that education is not a mechanical system. It's a human system. It's about people, people who either do want to learn or don't want to learn. Every student who drops out of school has a reason for it which is rooted in their own biography. They may find it boring. They may find it irrelevant. They may find that it's at odds with the life they're living outside of school. There are trends, but the stories are always unique. Now with alternative education programs, programs designed to get kids back into education - they have certain common features. They're very personalized. They have strong support for the teachers, close links with the community and a broad and diverse curriculum, and often programs which involve students outside school as well as inside school. And they work. What's interesting to me is, these are called "alternative education." And all the evidence from around the world is, if we all did that, there'd be no need for the alternative.”
I would love for teachers and head teachers to feel like it’s safe to explore the culture of their school on a real honest level with students and parents. Unfortunately, from conversations with schoolteachers and head teachers, it’s evident that schools are under direct increasing pressure from the government to deliver the national syllabus and get results from the children that keeps the teachers in a job and Ofsted of their back. Most teachers are so stressed their veins are popping as we try and discuss these issues. This state of stress is in no way conducive to the part of the brain responsible for problem-solving. Instead, it’s the fight or flight parts of the brain activated, putting the teachers in a defensive state, saying anything to push parents' and children’s voices out of the room so they can just crack on with getting the outcomes from the children that keep the government/academy/Ofsted happy.
Several parents at my children’s school (myself included) have started to meet up and have formed an independent “parents’ and children’s voices” group so that we can find the common issues our children are experiencing and advocate as a team for them. We have requested meetings with the school to be able to collaborate and be consulted on improving the experience of school for our children.
I will share this blog with the Parents and Children’s Voices Group as well as with the school, with intention to start conversations and discussions centred around creating a school culture that all children want to attend and feel welcomed to and inspired to learn, play and socialise in a way that helps set them up for a healthy adult life.
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