Four straight rows facing the

blackboard is the way it was when I was a kitten in school. It was that way when I taught in primary schools too.

By the time my parents left the education system there were all sorts of experiments going on. Children were sitting in circles, in groups, in "formations" and more. Desks were no more. They sat at tables. Much had changed...and the Senior Cat predicted they would go back to more traditional methods when they realised some of these things did not work.

My nephews and niece had a mix of traditional and "new".  The Whirlwind started out with "new" and found herself having to turn around to look at the teacher. She hated it and complained. The first two years of her school life in a state school were not happy years. The school was very much involved with "modern" methods.  Age seven and considered just old enough to board at school from Monday to Friday (and knowing that Daddy had no choice in the matter and therefore neither did she) she went to a much more traditional school - and loved it. "School is so much more fun now. I can learn things!" I remember it because I collected her that first Friday. She did not look back in her learning.

My nephews and niece all preferred the more traditional approach to learning. All of them have been to university and obtained good degrees, indeed more than one degree on the part of two of them. They all learned study skills - admittedly helped in the latter by the Senior Cat who believed such things could be taught. They are now trying to teach those to their children. They have searched for and found schools which are a little more traditional in their approach.

But those schools are hard to found. T.... across the road complained to me over the weekend that "the other kids are too noisy". I have seen and heard his classroom. It is full of visual distractions and it is noisy...at least noisy if you are a serious student who wants to get things done. Perhaps some children can work in that environment but I rather doubt they do their best there.

It seems that there is enough doubt about all this and the discipline issues which go with the more "free" style of learning that the state Education Department has finally come to realise that children do need discipline and a quiet environment in which to work. If the teacher is actually teaching then the children need to be facing the teacher - not twisted around to try and listen and thus learn. All this along with entering a classroom quietly and moving in an orderly way from one place to another is to be taught again. 

Some "educators" are apparently horrified that this is going to be departmental policy. My guess is that most teachers are going to be relieved that they can have different behavioural expectations. Do this in the classroom and between classes and perhaps what happens in the school yard will also change.

And if we change our expectations of children's behaviour at school will it also mean that what happens when they are adults will also change. Will we return to being a bit more thoughtful about those around us and how we react to them?