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Perpetuating a 'cult of failure'

February 22, 2010 By

Britain’s school inspectors, known as Ofsted, perpetuate a “hidden cult of failure,” writes Harriet Sergeant in The Times. A policy researcher, Sergeant wrote a book on why working-class white and black Caribbean boys are doing so poorly in school.

One day last summer I found myself sharing a table with three seven-year-olds in an inner-city primary school. It was chaos. The three children were giggling, kicking each other and chatting. . . . Somewhere on the periphery of our vision, the teacher walked about, struggling to keep order. Elsewhere, behind our heads, hung a whiteboard with work on it — gleefully ignored.

. . . When I helped Cedric, the boy next to me, with his comprehension, I got a shock. He could barely read, let alone write an answer to the question. He shrugged, threw a rubber at the girl with the bobbles and was sent out of the class.

It was the last straw. I liked Cedric, who was obviously bright. I forgot I was meant to be an observer and confronted the teacher. Instead of sending children out, I said, why not improve discipline and concentration? We could rearrange the tables to face her and she could stand in front of the board. She looked at me with horror. “The pupils are working together, directing their own learning,” she said, her voice almost drowned by noise. Had I not appreciated what was going on?

Inspected schools fill out a self-evaluation report, a former inspector, “Amy,” tells Sergeant.  Of 48,000 words, 12 deal with promoting, but not necessarily achieving, “basic skills” in literacy and numeracy.

Ofsted orders inspectors to concentrate on social welfare, behaviour and attendance. They have to check if children are “independent learners” in charge of their own education and if a child enjoys “ownership” of its work. Work should not be corrected in red ink by the teacher.

. . .  “I spend more time looking in children’s lunch boxes then testing their literacy,” (Amy says).  In the topsy-turvy world of state education a fizzy drink causes more horror than poor spelling.

Schools must show they’re promoting “community cohesion,” defined by religion, ethnicity, culture and economic class.

If most students are low-income or non-white — or if the school has too many boys — expectations are lowered by the “deprivation factor,” so the school can get a satisfactory rating despite low achievement.

In theory, school inspectors should be able to get beyond test scores to evaluate a school’s effectiveness and suggest ways to improve. But there’s not much point if the inspectors aren’t going to focus on how well children are learning reading, writing, math, history, geography, civics and science.

Via To Miss With Love.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: ,

British school bans Valentine's cards

February 14, 2010 By

Primary students aren’t prepared for the “emotional trauma” of Valentine’s Day cards, a British headmaster has decided. Children may not exchange cards at Ashcombe Primary School in Weston-super-Mare, reports BBC News.

Peter Turner told parents of the 430 pupils that cards would be confiscated.

. . . Mr Turner said in the newsletter that children get upset when they are “dumped” which interrupts their learning.

He said children should wait until they are mature enough emotionally and socially to understand the commitment in having a boyfriend or girlfriend.

Parents say the ban is “ridiculous.”

Via Jonathan Turley.

Famous Zeke, a teaching intern, shares a hand-made Valentine’s Day card from a student.

In my day, we were required to give a card to every classmate. Girls got “friend” cards for other girls and joke cards for boys. It was about candy, not love. I don’t think that’s changed.

Filed Under: Culture Tagged With: , ,

Britain: Poor kids take 'soft subjects'

February 8, 2010 By

Worthless qualifications in “soft subjects” such as media studies are fooling low-income British students into thinking they’re prepared for higher education and good careers, a Harrow headmaster tells The Guardian.

State schools risk producing students like “those girls in the first round of the X Factor” who tell the judges they want to be the next Britney Spears but cannot sing a note, Barnaby Lenon said.

Bright children from poor backgrounds are being short-changed by those who lead them to believe that “high grades in soft subjects” and going to “any old university to read any subject” were the route to prosperity, he told a conference of leading private and state school headteachers.

Michael Gove, the shadow (Tory) education secretary, said state schools encourage students to take media studies because it inflates the pass rate, making the school look better.

“More children who were eligible for free school meals sat GCSEs in media ­studies than in physics, chemistry and biology combined,” Gove said.

“The Tories are planning a return to more academically driven schooling, including setting by ability and traditional subject-based classes, if elected this year,” reports The Guardian.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: ,

British schools see racism everywhere

November 5, 2009 By

British schools are turning playground spats and jokes into racial incidents, complains a report, The Myth of Racist Kids, by Manifesto Club, a civil liberties group. From the Telegraph:

Primary school pupils and toddlers in nurseries are being punished for making racist insults, according to a report, even if they don’t understand the terms they use.

. . . Meanwhile diversity “missionaries” are said to be increasing the divide between white and black children by forcing them to see everything through the prism of race.

“There are a small number of cases of sustained targeted bullying, and schools certainly need to deal with those,” says Adrian Hart, the report’s author.  “But most of these ‘racist incidents’ are just kids falling out. They don’t need re-educating out of their prejudice – they and their teachers need to be left alone.”

In 2002, schools were told to report all racist incidents.  Teachers must fill out a form naming the “the alleged perpetrator and victim, and spell out what they did and how they were punished. ”

Schools that report no incidents are criticised for “under-reporting” and told to put up posters raising awareness, the report says.  Schools that report high numbers of racist incidents are praised for operating a “zero-tolerance” approach.

Filed Under: Children Tagged With: ,

Brits ban parents from playgrounds

October 28, 2009 By

In Watford, England, parents can’t watch their own kids in playgrounds, unless they’ve submitted to a criminal records check. It’s all in the name of protecting children from pedophiles. Parents are guilty till proven innocent.

Mums and dads must stay outside the fence at two adventure playgrounds while “play rangers,” public employees cleared by the police, supervise the children.

Concerns were raised last night that other councils around the country are adopting similar policies amid confusion over Government rules and increasing hysteria over child protection.

Via Mark Steyn on The Corner.

Filed Under: Children, Parenting Tagged With: , , ,

High costs, low benefits

July 21, 2009 By

Sending the unprepared and unmotivated to college has high costs and low benefits, writes George Leef of Phi Beta Cons. In 1997, the newly elected Tony Blair set a target of 50 percent of students earning a college degree. That hasn’t worked out, Max Davidson in The Telegraph. About the same percentage of students go on to higher education; few low-income students get a degree. Furthermore, those who go in hopes of a secure, middle-class job may be disappointed.

They have been told that higher education will be good for them: they have not been told that it will only be good for them if they want to do it.

. . . A university education can be a joy, a privilege, a stepping stone; but it is not a prerequisite for a happy and successful career.

The Obama administration “will press ahead with their goal of processing more young people through college without regard to the high cost and low benefit,” Leef writes. But if marginal students go to community college, they’ll spend less money and time with more hope of improving their life prospects.

Intellectual confidence is the greatest benefit of a college education for many students, writes Ben Casnocha. But do graduates need to be educated or is it just the placebo effect?

Filed Under: College Tagged With: , , ,

Brits ask more of parents

July 1, 2009 By

British Education Secretary Ed Balls is promising parents better schools, but he wants parents to do their bit - or else.

In an interview, Balls told parents:

“If your child starts to fall behind, we should step in straight away and give one-to-one or small group tuition.”

 But there’s a kicker:

In return, parents will be under new obligations to support their child at school. They will have to sign stricter home school agreements and face fines of up to £1,000, enforced by the courts, if they fail to meet the conditions.

Like Core Knowledge Blog, I wonder about enforcement. What happens to the fines when the parents have no money? For that matter, can Britain really afford tutors for all students who fall behind?

Filed Under: Education, Parenting Tagged With: , ,

Brits identify kids as potential terrorists

March 29, 2009 By

British police have identified 200 children, some as young as 13,  as potential terrorists, reports the Independent.

The programme, run by the Association of Chief Police Officers, asks teachers, parents and other community figures to be vigilant for signs that may indicate an attraction to extreme views or susceptibility to being “groomed” by radicalisers. Sir Norman (Bettison), whose force covers the area in which all four 7 July 2005 bombers grew up, said: “What will often manifest itself is what might be regarded as racism and the adoption of bad attitudes towards ‘the West’.

“One of the four bombers of 7 July was, on the face of it, a model student. He had never been in trouble with the police, was the son of a well-established family and was employed and integrated into society.

“But when we went back to his teachers they remarked on the things he used to write. In his exercise books he had written comments praising al-Qa’ida. That was not seen at the time as being substantive. Now we would hope that teachers might intervene, speak to the child’s family or perhaps the local imam who could then speak to the young man.”

Via BoingBoing.

Filed Under: Violence Tagged With: , ,

Sure they know trig, but can they tan?

February 19, 2009 By

British schools are evaluated based on how many students pass their A-level tests in courses such as literature, history, science, math, cake decorating, pottery, flower arranging and tanning, reports The Telegraph.

A certificate of merit in tanning – ”students are taught how to operate sunbeds and applya fake tan without streaking” — is worth 45 points in school evaluations, known as league tables. “This is equal to an A grade in one of the six units that make up an A-level in a subject such as maths,” notes The Telegraph. The school also gets 45 points for students who earn certificates in self-tanning, cake decoration, pottery and flower-arranging. 

The intention of ministers in widening the range of qualifications in league tables was to encourage schools to sign pupils up for courses more suited to their ability, thereby encouraging them to stay in education or training.

That self-tanning course will prepare students for . . . unemployment?

Voc ed gone nuts, says Education Gadfly.

Whenever I think the U.S. education system is nuts, the Brits make me feel like we’re not so bad.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: , , , , ,

‘Place for learning’ days

January 3, 2009 By

British schools are dropping the s-word — “school” — in favor of “place for  learning” or “advanced learning centre,” reports the Times of London. Some secondary schools are renaming themselves “colleges” to sound “upmarket.”

Watercliffe Meadow in Sheffield, formed by merging three schools, is “a place for learning,” says head teacher Linda Kingdon.

. . . many of the parents of the children here had very negative connotations of school. Instead, we want this to a be a place for family learning, where anyone can come. . . . There are no whistles or bells or locked doors. We wanted to deinstitutionalise the place and bring the school closer to real life,” she said.

Under a government plan, all schools have till 2010 to provide year-round, full-day child care on site or nearby.  Schools also are supposed to offer evening and holiday classes for adults.

Here in the U.S., “academy” is the hot word, usually referring to a school for low-income students. I’d like to see more honesty in labeling: Let students choose between a school, a social center and penitentiary prep. I really think most would pick “school” if the choice was clear.

Filed Under: Education Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
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