Technolandy

Day 107 (of 2024/25) getting students ready for the world of … work…? A different look at dress codes & attendance

WFH parents ‘make children think school is optional’ — The Times and The Sunday Times

Interesting perspective as we consider what ‘world’ our schools are preparing students for… one of the past? One we wish for? The current reality? Getting ready for the 22nd century? 

I have been ranting for awhile about the increased necessity it is for ‘us’ to do a better job modelling, rather than wishing, for what we want to see in a bunch of school related issues:

Reading. Rates are down – and who are the adults modelling that reading is important -both for knowledge/work AND for recreation. Take the time and get caught reading by students… every day.

Writing. Do as we say, not as we read? 5 paragraph essays are easy to assess from a systemic point of view, but I sure don’t ready (m)any in my relatively voracious reading tradition. I read a lot and I hate the ‘hamburger writing’ when there are so many other formats of prose and poetry that are much more appealing.

Math. Recreational mathematics is a thing. Math is beautiful. Not always does it have to be for real life – sometimes it is just a way of thinking. 

Personal Devices. If ‘banning’ is the answer that ‘some’ think it ought to be – do not focus on schools, but on the parents instead – make it a $500 fine for families anytime a child under age X has a device. Or we could leverage schools as a place where we teach good use of the most powerful tool to impact education.

Get ready for the real world… at a time where AI and Robotics are making more and more ‘jobs’ automated and fewer and fewer occupations ‘human exclusive’. And movies like OfficeSpace are starting to look a little dated as more and more jobs are done from home… and as some companies push back to try to get/force workers back to the office… more workers are trying to set up stronger domains 

But is it parents fault? https://apple.news/ALfEAb5IWRiKSb-e4dRmW_g

Well, parents (and society) are modelling the benefits of working from home… that ‘attendance’ may not be as relevant and meaningful as previous generations once viewed it… or (equity scan glasses on) a particular segment of socioeconomic communities wanted it to be… I don’t mind sharing that I am doing a bit of a rethink about ‘time’ and the stress and issues that it so often causes.. even today, had an educator come to me apologizing for being late… I explained that we value everybody’s time and know that there are always reasons why our meeting may end up being missed, and no apologies are needed – we trust our people. 

Also interesting though that absences in the UK can be fined… this is not the case across North America, and it was my second year of teaching where the superintendent noted ‘attendance is like the weather – interesting to keep record of but not much that can really be done about it… (I have my own thoughts about engagement… but that’s more about relationships and community, less about curriculum – though it can add fuel to the metaphorical fire of awesomeness when used ‘correctly’.

Also interesting to see the ‘grading of schools’ in the UK are now going to include attendance rates (horribly connected to the suicide of head teacher Ruth Perry). 

But nice to see a ‘blame’ being put onto the pandemic.. whereas I see this as more of people ‘finally paying attention’ to the shift from ‘needing to go to an office/school/etc’ to being able to stay in the comforts of home (for good and ill)

And when it comes to dress code – there are so many workers (as portrayed by content creators) showing very casual ‘work wear’ – pajamas becoming more common and casual… after all, children do as they see (which is partly why I am regularly wearing a tie) and as the clothing trend becomes more … relaxed… is that such a bad thing? We used to tease at university how nice everyone dressed for the first week or two and then everyone would start rolling in without makeup and with sweats… and that was three decades ago… nothing new! So let’s relax on what kids are dressed up… even complimented a student on the blanket they were wrapped up in today!

The school I am at is a Provincial Online Learning School. While we do have in-person opportunities, kids ‘get’ to come to us, they don’t ‘have’ to come to us.  There is a desire for us to ‘offer more days in-person’, but that is the role of the brick & mortar schools while we focus on partnerships to work at home… yes, we are part of the problem as we establish ways for students to be successful learning at home. 

Back to attendance… what I have noted over the decades is that school attendance matters for some for a place for children to be, but not important when there is a family trip being planned – my support for vacation goers has long been ‘enjoy the trip!’ And when asked for work… I admit it is hard to plan what we may be up to based on our assessment feedback… so go and enjoy the trip! “But they’ll be behind when they get back!” Yep – enjoy the trip!! The kids are watching – and it is not new that family time is modelled as being more important than in-school time. – so, as the article prompts: “So are the children copying adult working patterns? Yes” <— always have, and this will continue!

Now, when health gets talked about… we had a number of years of ‘if even a little bit sick, stay home’ – and some would, while others would (and will) add an extra dose of medicine to start the day okay and then allow the fever to hit around lunch time… minor illness may be okay (according to the article) but still the ‘minor cough/runny nose/sore throat’ still leads to a bunch of people getting sick at different times of the week – even at an online school, I have staff getting sick and .. in Canada there are no school nurses… cough cough

And grading schools (burying a bit of the focus of this story) using attendance and inclusion as an indicator from ‘exemplary’ to ‘causing concern’ isn’t going to help unless there is some feedback and money to show how the government will be targeting supports to schools and families – the ‘nutrition label’ approach of communicating information about schools in areas needs to come with an explanation of what extra is being done to support schools to reach exemplary levels (smaller class size/composition ratios? Collaborative team teachings? More outdoor connections and outings? More sports and fine arts opportunities blended into the day? Elements of the ‘Finnish schedule’ (45 mins work, 15 min break)? Using screens more mindfully to also reflect the workings of the ‘real world’ and show a closer connection of this experiment called school as opposed to banning them and making classrooms feel even more artificial? Oops, my biases are showing and likewise burying the lead of my point (modelling what we want to see) towards the end of my write-up as well!