Dear ones, we recently posted a report about two pupils who were expelled from their school for showing the white power salute during a study trip to the former Auschwitz concentration camp. The parents of the school took legal action against the expulsion – and we asked what the young people would learn from the incident…
Johanna then contacted us, she is a teacher and said: „These days, many parents are quick to call in a lawyer. We asked her about it.
Dear Johanna, you’ve been a teacher for 20 years. Which school do you work at and why did you choose this profession?
I work at a secondary school and teach German and maths in years 5 to 10. Like most people, I chose this profession because I wanted to work with children and young people, accompany them a little on their journey into adulthood and do it better than some of my own teachers.
You responded to the post about parents who took legal action against their children being expelled from school. You wrote to us: Today, parents defend themselves legally against almost everything. Can you give us a few examples?
Of course, a classic example is the issue of grades, which is a constant source of discussion. There are now often letters sent directly to the school management or even to the education authority before the teacher is spoken to directly and legal action is threatened or announced.
However, there are also consequences for misbehaviour that parents contest, e.g. a father threatened to take legal action because his son was asked to pick up rubbish in the school playground with others. A couple of parents objected when their child was called in for detention.
Many things are not permitted from the outset by the school management for fear of legal action. For example, we are no longer allowed to take mobile phones and keep them until the end of the school day if they have been used in class.
In addition, everything must be documented, preferably in writing and as precisely as possible, so that you are always in a position to justify yourself legally in the event of a complaint or objection. In all of this, the top priority for the school management is to be on the safe side legally„“. This is incredibly stressful.
Do you sometimes get the feeling that parents and teachers are no longer pulling in the same direction?
Unfortunately, this is increasingly the case. On the one hand, we often have parents at our school who don’t even turn up to parents‘ evenings, agreed meetings or hearings and have no interest in working together.
For example, I called a pupil because she hadn’t done her homework several times and was disrupting the lessons massively. The mum was of the opinion that it was my job to solve this problem as it was happening during school hours and had no interest in looking for causes or solutions together. This is not a dramatic example, but of course it has an impact on the co-operation between teachers and parents. It also shows the pupil concerned that my statements as a teacher and the behaviour at school have no relevance for her parents. This in turn weakens my position.
On the other hand, there are unfortunately always parents who blindly „fight“ for their children, even if the child has obviously misbehaved (e.g. hurt another child or behaved disrespectfully). Instead of acknowledging that their own child has not behaved correctly and making it clear to the child that this rightly has consequences, they try to ward off or mitigate these consequences or generally excuse the child’s behaviour and look for the fault in others.
How would you like to see communication and liaison between school and parents?
Really quite simple: open, honest and trusting. We are not opponents, but partners, and yet in principle we want the same thing: for the pupils to learn something in an atmosphere that makes this possible. Fear-free, trusting, non-violent, respectful and in fair co-operation. Fortunately, there are of course also many parents with whom this works wonderfully.
Do you generally have the feeling that pupils are more self-confident today and also test their limits more?Absolutely. Pupils often no longer simply accept clear instructions and rules, but want to discuss, negotiate and test them. That’s not generally a bad thing, as long as it happens to an appropriate extent.
What causes me much more problems in my everyday life is the increasing disrespect with which we are treated as teachers.What do you do personally when there is a conflict at school, e.g. a fight?
Of course, I talk to the pupils involved, the parents, the class teacher and the school management to clarify the conflict. This happens during breaks, free periods, in the afternoon. I also talk to colleagues to get their opinion on the incident or to find out about any previous history. We also have the option of involving the school social work team. Depending on the situation or how serious the conflict was, there is then a class conference, a hearing, a round table etc. to resolve the conflict on the one hand and to decide on consequences on the other.
I personally talk a lot with colleagues to process such situations and get encouragement or ideas.
Do you think that the demands placed on teachers today are higher than they were a few years ago?That’s definitely the case The reality of pupils‘ lives is also very different to a few years ago. This brings with it new challenges, especially because not much has really changed in the school system.
Many pupils are no longer able to concentrate on one thing or sit still for long periods of time. Some also lack language skills. Behavioural problems and violence have also increased.As teachers, we have to do a lot of educational work and are actually supposed to pick up on everything that goes wrong at home and/or in society.
New things are constantly being added (e.g. digital media and AI) without anything else being omitted, the equipment being available or us as teachers being sufficiently trained for this.
We have to document more, are expected to teach in a differentiated and individualised way, but have between 25 and 30 pupils in the classroom.
What would you wish for in your teaching profession?
First of all, smaller classes to be able to do justice to the heterogeneity of the pupils and to be able to provide sensible lessons. Quiet children in particular often get too little attention, which is unfair.
Of course, my favourite thing would be a complete reform of this broken school system. There are many well-known representatives, such as Bob Blume, who never tire of denouncing the shortcomings and also making concrete suggestions for improvement.
The problems are well known, everyone is dissatisfied, but nothing happens. Most teachers are committed, better than their reputation and, despite the circumstances, still really enjoy doing their job and put their heart and soul into it. Something has to change to ensure that this remains the case and that young people continue to choose this great profession.
