Once again the BBC website of which I am so fond (and arguably over-dependent on) has covered an excellent story and raised a proposal that I consider to be an excellent idea.
The Centre for Policy Studies, a British government think tank, has suggested that the UK should model an American scheme called Troops to Teachers, known as T3 [1]. This scheme retrains experienced ex-members of the armed forces to become teachers.
This is expected to bring back respect to the classroom, as the servicemen and women would bring with them self-discipline and act as role models for them. Their experience in maintaining discipline is anticipated to work wonders in inner-city schools, where children look up to physical strength as a key quality.
I must say this would also be mutually beneficial to former servicemen and women, as it is often very hard to reintegrate into "Civvy Street" (i.e. the real world). Some ex-soldiers, sailors and airmen struggle with the lack of a rigid hierarchical structure, absence of strict discipline and no longer having the feeling of serving society, their country and the greater good in general. Some can also lack qualifications that will help them compete in the commercial job market. This scheme would allow them to train for another job and bring a very useful set of skills to our education system in addition to bringing a vast wealth of life experience into the classroom.
The scheme on paper sounds like a fantastic idea and indeed the US scheme has proven to be highly successful (88% retention rate of T3 participants as opposed to the national average of 50% as one example). However, I think that it will need to be handled very carefully and the right candidates will need to be vetted thoroughly. Also, could it be possible that the scheme would further the romantic idealism of violence in modern culture and continue to ingrain the notion of aggression being directly linked to respect, power and authority?
It may be that some of these ex-servicemen/women will also struggle to cope with the lack of respect in the classroom: after all, working in the forces is voluntary but school is compulsory (to paraphrase the comment of "Voice of the Voyager" below the article in question.
A British analogue of the T3 scheme has the potential to have a positive impact on our education system provided it is handled well, with the recruits being correctly selected and given the right training.
Sources
[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7245122.stm
The Centre for Policy Studies, a British government think tank, has suggested that the UK should model an American scheme called Troops to Teachers, known as T3 [1]. This scheme retrains experienced ex-members of the armed forces to become teachers.
This is expected to bring back respect to the classroom, as the servicemen and women would bring with them self-discipline and act as role models for them. Their experience in maintaining discipline is anticipated to work wonders in inner-city schools, where children look up to physical strength as a key quality.
I must say this would also be mutually beneficial to former servicemen and women, as it is often very hard to reintegrate into "Civvy Street" (i.e. the real world). Some ex-soldiers, sailors and airmen struggle with the lack of a rigid hierarchical structure, absence of strict discipline and no longer having the feeling of serving society, their country and the greater good in general. Some can also lack qualifications that will help them compete in the commercial job market. This scheme would allow them to train for another job and bring a very useful set of skills to our education system in addition to bringing a vast wealth of life experience into the classroom.
The scheme on paper sounds like a fantastic idea and indeed the US scheme has proven to be highly successful (88% retention rate of T3 participants as opposed to the national average of 50% as one example). However, I think that it will need to be handled very carefully and the right candidates will need to be vetted thoroughly. Also, could it be possible that the scheme would further the romantic idealism of violence in modern culture and continue to ingrain the notion of aggression being directly linked to respect, power and authority?
It may be that some of these ex-servicemen/women will also struggle to cope with the lack of respect in the classroom: after all, working in the forces is voluntary but school is compulsory (to paraphrase the comment of "Voice of the Voyager" below the article in question.
A British analogue of the T3 scheme has the potential to have a positive impact on our education system provided it is handled well, with the recruits being correctly selected and given the right training.
Sources
[1] http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7245122.stm
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