Photo Essays: Classroom Teachers
Figure 1.--The key to the success or failure of any school is assemblying a competent and dedicated staff. One advantage the prep schools have is the higher discipline standards. This creates a much more pleasant and rewarding teaching and learning environment. There are many important aspects of a school cvlassroom. Design, arrangement, facilities, furniture, and other aspects are all important. Nothing is, however, as important as the treacher and the student's access to that teacher.
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The key to the success or failure of any school is assemblying a competent and dedicated staff. One advantage the prep schools have is the higher discipline standards. This creates a much more pleasant and rewarding teaching and learning environment. There are many important aspects of a school cvlassroom. Design, arrangement, facilities, furniture, and other aspects are all important. Nothing is, however, as important as the treacher and the student's access to that teacher. Many prep schools do not rate very high as the state schools in terms of design, facilities, and equipment, although this was chabging. But where the prep schools do rank very highly is the teachers, called masters. This is not because the teachers are necesarily more competent or skilled. Nor are they always better paid. The key factor here is that the teacher/student ratio at a prep school is commonly much lower than at a comparable state school. Classes of about 15 children were common, sometimes a little more. This varied from school to school. This meant the teacher had thge abikity to give every child in that classroom the attentiion thst he or she deserves and requires. State schools might have teacher/student ratios of 25 or higher. No matter how competent a teacher, there is only so much thgat can be dine with aarge classroom. And it is often tge chilkd who most needs attentiin tht dioes not get it. This also varied. There was also often more administrative overhead in the state schools which can complicate the calcultion. The key statistic is the classroom teacher/student ratio. Not only is this ratio lower in the prep schools, but because of better discipline standards, there is much less wasted time in the prep schools. The teachers abd children get right down to the business of learning. And this does affect te quality of teachers. Many teachers who are intersted in teaching and not a just as a job, gravitate to the prep schools because of the better teaching environment. Few teachers enjoy having to deal with an unruly,poorly disciplined child. The more diusciplined prep school enviroment attracts many teachers. It is not only a more comfortable teaching environment, but the results achieved are gratifying and professionally rewarding.
