Once again, Ms Maria Caruana (TMID, 31 January) lumbers up the lane to take teachers to task for not coordinating their efforts in giving homework. This is her latest barrage of insults levelled at the teaching profession.

Not only does she claim that “too much is expected, mostly by their teachers”, but also that “teachers do not plan well and do not discuss between themselves” and that the level of stress in children is due to “the lack of planning and coordination of the teachers”. She ends her latest teacher-bashing letter by claiming that “It is the teachers’ lack of planning that the education authorities should reform.”

Well, well! Nothing seems to please Ms Caruana – I sincerely pity the teachers of her offspring, if such is the case.

So, we, teachers, are taken to task for expecting a lot from our students. At least, I am sure that all my colleagues are reasonable in their expectations, with the feet firmly on the ground – quite unlike some parents, who expect the impossible from their children. We, teachers, generally do not do that.

Admittedly, and through no fault of the teachers, the system in Malta is such that a student has to cope with a high number of academic subjects which are not always appreciated by some.

On the other hand, Ms Caruana needs to learn that teachers plan so well and they discuss between themselves so much that most of the schools have class diaries in which either a chosen student or the teacher him/herself puts down the homework that is given in a particular lesson. This is done with the aim that there wouldn’t be more than, say, roughly 3-4 subjects for homework for any given day. Of course, exceptions exist, according, for instance, to how the time-table of the week is made.

Then, again, it depends what level of education we are talking about. Students in Junior schools or Form 1 and 2 are one thing, but higher up, studies take on a different shape altogether. You are either on the boat or you’re not.

At the end of the day, if people of Ms Caruana’s mind do not feel that homework should be given, then, I, as a teacher, would be the first one to be happy and content with such a decision. However, I quite suspect that Ms Caruana won’t exactly find a chorus behind her.

And then, the cherry on the cake – that the reform should focus on the teachers’ planning. Quite the contrary, Ms Caruana: it is we, the teachers, who are striving hard, working hard, and focusing on how to reduce the unhappiness that some students that we interrelate with, are going through. However much is said and planned... at the end of the day, it is the teacher who is at the forefront of the ‘battle’ and it is the teacher that the student relates with, in this giant bubble called the education system! Teachers, as time goes by, are no longer merely doing their work by helping their students in their relative academic subjects. Quite the contrary: teachers have become all sorts of things for our students – counsellors, friends, teachers, guides, helpers. I am sure this is not the case everywhere – but it is fast becoming the general trend.

In conclusion, we are lately all speaking about stress in our children – as if stress has only started appearing these past years. Well, in my teaching experience, the stress that our children suffer from is generally speaking, all home-induced.

Franco Farrugia

Pieta