Three notes on the Catalan school
The aspects that concern me most about education in Catalonia are the progressive loss of appeal of the teaching profession, the year-over-year increase in the budgets families dedicate to completing their children's schooling, and the transformation of school into a therapeutic institution. All three reinforce each other.
The teachers. Let's admit that it's hard to convince a mathematician that he'd be happier teaching mathematics in secondary schools than working for a private company. Let's also admit that a person with even the slightest sense of the ridiculous would suffer terribly in these teacher training courses that seem designed by enemies of the adult world: "Inhabiting Our Body with Love," "Orienting Sexistences," "Family Constellations," "Elementary Course on mindfulness and self-compassion", "Self-love as the axis in your professional practice...
A few years ago, I asked a Singaporean politician about the key to his country's success in the PISA tests: "It's very simple," he replied, "everyone knows why they do what they do." This isn't our case. Many teachers are bewildered and don't fully understand the meaning of much of what they do. The only thing that's evident is the bureaucratic burden. How can they not be bewildered if they need to be hermeneuts with PhDs to understand, for example, specific competence 10 of the secondary school mathematics subject?: "Develop social skills by recognizing and respecting the emotions and experiences of others, participating actively and reflectively in projects in heterogeneous teams with assigned roles, to build an identity.
It's becoming increasingly difficult to find substitutes, especially in mathematics, but also in Catalan. When filling positions, we can't be too picky when hiring.
Families. Families who can afford it dedicate more and more financial resources each year to completing their children's schooling. They see their grades getting higher and higher, but they are concerned about their knowledge. Demand is evident in foreign languages and mathematics. But if it's necessary to buy the quality educational time that is missing in school in the marketplace, equity is a given.
In bookstores, one of the fastest-growing sections is the one dedicated to parenting. I see it as a monument to the insecurity of parents. As a response to their concerns, they might assume that in the family, like in society, if things are to work, someone must resign themselves to being an adult. But many middle-class families have decided that their children must be happy at any price, and they abusively protect them, preventing them from direct contact with the world as it is. Overprotection has become the most sophisticated form of abuse.
A therapeutic institution. School is becoming a therapeutic institution. That venerable motto of the French Republican School, "Transforming the child into a citizen," has been relegated. What matters today is strengthening self-esteem, although self-esteem is more a consequence than a cause of academic and life success. The same can be said of motivation. Research suggests we are thinking about motivation backward. Its impact on success is very low. The impact of success on motivation is very high.
If the priority is to strengthen students' self-esteem and emotional well-being, it's because students are increasingly viewed as innocent patients rather than responsible agents. But they know very well the difference between well-deserved praise and a consolation prize. To be effective, praise must be sincere, specific, and deserved.
Andreas Schleicher, the PISA factotum, after learning of the collapse of Finland's results, declared in an interview in the Financial Times He observed "a trend in wealthy countries toward the commodification of education": "Students are becoming consumers and teachers are becoming service providers," he said. He later added: "We must achieve student well-being not at the expense of academic success but through academic success."
CodaI propose, as an urgent measure, an expansion of children's rights by adding an article stating that children have the right to frustration, to know the meaning of negative adverbials, and to know that the world cares very little about our self-esteem; what it values is whether we fulfill our commitments and do our jobs well.