Dear Poirot,

What counts in education is attitudes expressed in
skills. The attitudes that count are known. In fact,
teachers are tired of hearing about them again and
again at every conference and convention.

In theory, most of us know what a good education is.
Most thinking parents have all the concepts.
Unfortunately, one cannot educate children on
conception alone. You need the necessary skills
that as I stated earlier - very few parents possess.
Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals
with inadequate tools. The miracle is that at
times they accomplish this impossible task due to
their skills and on the basis of techniques developed
in child therapy and tested in the classroom.

Children present problems
which do not disappear, even when the teacher believes
in democracy, love, respect, acceptance,
individual differences, and personal uniqueness. Though
magnificent, these concepts are too abstract, and too
large. They're like a thousand-dollar bill - good
currency, but useless in meeting mundane needs such as
buying a cup of coffee, taking a cab, or making a
phone call. For daily life, one needs coins.

For classroom commerce, teachers need psychological small
change. They need specific skills for dealing effectively
and humanely with minute-to-minute happenings - the
small irritations, the daily conflicts, the sudden
crises. All these situations call for helpful and
realistic reactions. A teacher's response has crucial
consequences. It creates a climate of compliance or
defiance, a mood of contentment or contention. It
affects the child's conduct and character for better or for
worse.

These are the facts of emotional life which make teaching and
learning possible or impossible. At their best, teachers
recognize this core truth. Learning is always in the
present tense, and it is always personal.

Many teaching problems will be solved in the next few
decades. There will be new learning environments and
new means of instruction. One function, however, will
always remain with the teacher - to create the emotional
climate for learning. I wish you every success in the
teaching of your children.

Antiseptic,

Just a correction. I do not find this topic
difficult. What I find difficult is
communicating with you. I'll leave you to your
corrosive sarcasm. I'm slowly becoming deaf to it.

Cheers.

Thank you, Lexi.

I'll just add that second-time round I'm little more relaxed and comfortable about "education". I know from my daughter's experience that she feels most of her learning came from her reading and the pursuance of her own interests.
Both my kids read early and, yeah, I agree on an emotional climate for learning. My son came up to me recently and began talking about a correlation in the time line of events between Pope John Paul and another Pope a couple of centuries ago - he'd looked it up himself because he was curious about something else and one thing lead to another - he's ten.

He loves Lego and playing with his friends too, but he knows he's free to explore the world : )

Dear Poirot,

This is for you:

Haiku

Child, give me your hand
That I may walk in the light
Of your faith in me.

Hannah Kahn

What are parental rights - something you think you have but legally don't - and have little hope of getting after the proposed family law (family violence) amendments.

This feminist pork for the election of the first women PM - the "Hate Men" laws - which remove "he said" from "he said/she said" and remove all penalties for lying will likely be passed in the Senate next week.

The Greens actually go so far as to demand the repeal of shared parental responsibility and that any parenting time be discretionary.

Lexi:"What I find difficult is
communicating with you"

Yes, that's obvious. Perhaps it's best you confine yourself to topics that aren't too challenging. We could have a lovely chat about the weather.