The Metaphor Of Babysitting In Schools

One of the most common metaphors for school is that of a babysitting service where teachers are babysitters and students are small children or babies. This outlook is incredibly harmful for the teaching profession; it removes our college educations and our certifications, replacing them instead with the image of a whiney, inept, teenager. It is also harmful for high school students. These students are on the cusp of adulthood and should be treated accordingly; instead the metaphor draws up images of needy children who can do little on their own thus potentially stunting the maturation of students. Parents who view school as a babysitting service do not respect the importance of school in their children’s lives. School becomes a place where they send their children when they can’t be there; it is not a place their children need to go to be
It is a place where the construction workers (students) are guided by their foremen (teachers) into following the blueprints (curriculum) for their education. Each year they add more bricks and mortar to their building (their education in general) until that year’s floor is complete and they move on to the floor plan of the next year. Along the way they pick up windows and doors (diversity, open-mindedness, opportunities, etc.) that help create their building. This positive outlook is much more conducive to the learning environment as it implies that both students and teachers are held responsible in addition to making education seem much more pleasant. In this metaphor students and teachers want to be there and the curriculum is vital to success unlike in the negative metaphors. This being said, no one metaphor can completely describe school environment, at times it does seem like prison or a babysitting service. Our perspective, positive or negative, is what can make education enjoyable and worthwhile, influencing out experiences and behaviors while