Rhetorical questions

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Paco Benítez

The RAE¹ dictionary defines a “rhetorical question” as one posed not to express doubt or elicit a response, but to indirectly convey an assertion or to enhance the impact and effectiveness of what is being said. With that in mind, I present several questions that, for any teacher who has been on the job for a while, would undoubtedly fall into the category of rhetorical:

• Would a professional and demanding teacher, with whom half of the students fail the subject, receive a visit from an inspector before a less professional teacher whose students all pass? Do not all educational reforms aim to conceal the disastrous levels of reading comprehension and written expression (to say nothing of other skills and competencies) by lowering standards? Furthermore, does the infamous regulation that “repetition must be extraordinary,” as stated by Minister Celaá, not aim to mask the failings of the educational system and to disguise the embarrassing dropout rate rather than to safeguard students’ wellbeing?

• Can students understand the concepts (or rather, basic knowledge and competencies) of the next year’s curriculum without having acquired those from the previous year? Moreover, do not students who pass to the next year under such circumstances feel excluded within their classrooms and entirely outside the system the following year due to their inability to keep up, thereby damaging their self-esteem for six hours daily over an entire school year? And for those who advocate for diversity in learning to solve this issue, is it not absurd to suggest that a teacher could deliver five different levels of instruction in the same classroom without the ability to self-clone?

• Is it not utopian to develop students’ critical thinking (as championed by the so-called “new pedagogy” and its legal consequence, the LOMLOE) when objective evidence reveals that students struggle significantly to understand a text and to express themselves in writing? Furthermore, is it not contradictory to seek to foster critical thinking while simultaneously lowering the level of knowledge required from students?

• If evidence supports that reading comprehension improves when a student is familiar with the topic of a text, is it not counterproductive to dilute and undervalue knowledge, as the LOMLOE does, in pursuit of so-called competencies? Does not greater knowledge foster increased interest and motivation in the subject of study? Moreover, can one truly be competent in a subject without mastering and possessing a deep understanding of it?

• Have the cut-off grades for the EBAU suffered hyperinflation due to a reduction in standards, following the unchanged provisions introduced in June 2020? Furthermore, has the excuse of the pandemic not reached its limit in justifying the poor results seen in standardized examinations in Spain (and particularly in Catalonia)? Should not the introduction of so-called “innovative” methodologies be subject to scrutiny regarding their impact on student outcomes?

• Is it possible that if students know they can graduate with two or three failing subjects (not to mention five, which is the maximum I have witnessed in an assessment meeting), they may exert less effort throughout the year, thus seriously undermining their learning? In light of this reality, is it not embarrassing to hear some teachers (myself included at one point) criticise private and privately funded state schools for inflating student grades? However, this does not imply that such practices do not also occur in those school centres.

• Is it not contradictory to criticise the lecture format by caricaturing and oversimplifying it in a presentation about the supposedly wonderful and unparalleled Nova Escola 21 during a staff meeting, where a colleague ultimately fell asleep (and I can hardly blame her)? By the way, Nova Escola 21 does not improve student outcomes; rather, it adversely affects teachers’ working conditions.

• Is not memorisation and memory a faculty that enhances critical thinking, creativity, and complex analysis for seeking and contrasting information, as well as problem-solving? Is it not, therefore, merely an anti-pedagogical trend to insist, as the “new pedagogy” does, on abolishing rote learning?

• If there are increasingly more studies demonstrating the negative consequences for learning posed by so-called “innovative” methodologies such as individualised learning (as seen in the Jospin Law in France), is our educational administration not swimming against the tide of reality? Are our students not victims of the ideological fashions of the moment, irreparably damaging their education?

• Is it not hypocritical to criticise teachers for assigning homework to your children on the grounds that it causes them stress while they are engaged in two or three extracurricular activities each week? Moreover, considering that the average mobile phone usage among adolescents in Spain is four hours and fifteen minutes daily, should homework not be viewed as a positive aspect that, in addition to its educational value and the promotion of individual responsibility, helps our youth to disengage from technology for a period in the afternoons?

• Doesn’t a parenting and educational system that glorifies and overprotects children—elevating their authority to the level of parents or teachers—risk creating young individuals who lack autonomy, feel entitled without effort, and struggle to tolerate frustration?

• The fact that one out of four teachers, according to the Teacher Defender, encounters difficulties in teaching, faces disrespect from students, and receives false accusations from parents, is this not a consequence of teachers losing authority with each successive educational reform? If we do not curtail violence in the classroom, will it not become impossible to provide quality education to our students? If there are cases of bullying, don’t they, in most instances, remain unresolved and inadequately addressed by school administrations and the educational authorities, often leading to the victim changing schools?

• Is it possible that the continual growth of private and privately funded state schools is a result of families concerned about their children’s education seeking environments free from violence and with discipline, as well as escaping the trend to level down to mediocrity inherent in public schools? Is it not futile, in an effort to convince families, to advocate for the abolition of funding without offering quality education in state institutions?

• In light of all this, and with teacher morale at an all-time low, isn’t the effort of educators who still manage to support their students, and the determination of those students who succeed academically and professionally, truly heroic?

And I conclude with a serious, non-rhetorical question: what future awaits our country if these conditions persist for another generation (approximately 25 years)?

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¹ RAE stands for Real academia Española, an institution responsible for regulating the use of the Spanish language and ensuring its correct utilisation.

Source: educational EVIDENCE

Rights: Creative Commons