Why are some kids thick?

Education standards of some school leavers are falling and we are busy blaming the secondary schools who blame the primary schools who blame the parents who blame the…

But where might the real problem lie and more importantly, what can we do about it?

To be clear though that we are only talking about a proportion of our school output. Most of those in selective education seem to be able to achieve high standards at GCSE and A level and move on to university. There are also a number from our secondary schools who move into the sixth form and also make similar progress.

But what of this seemingly growing portion of leavers who lack even basic educational skills? What is going wrong where?

Let’s break down the problem into it’s possible causes.
    •    The children themselves
    •    Their influences
    •    Their education

Are more children thicker than they used to be?
 
Yes, I know it’s not a PC term but I can’t be bothered to reel out the growing number of acronyms explaining why Johnny can’t read, write, or even behave “normally”.
 
Maybe it’s been there all of the time but we seem to be seeing more children with this growing list of problems which can’t be cured, only contained.
 
But if this is the case, why isn’t it affecting children worldwide? 

Why are our education systems failing and others succeeding?
 
Are they curing these alphabet diseases or do they have better ways of coping?
 
This link suggests the latter
 
http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/programmes/support-for-children-special-needs/
 
It’s amazing what you can do when you invest at the coalface rather than in the buildings or in central control.
 
Dyslexia doesn’t mean that you’re thick. It means that you have trouble reading and writing. In a pre-literate society it wouldn’t matter, but when everything we do is tied to these wiggly letter things, including exams, then dyslexics are set up to fail unless they are taught by dyslexic specialists who know how to help.
 
Attention deficit problems can be reduced but again it needs time money and attention. Otherwise it becomes a wider issue and problem.
 
But maybe we’re bringing up our children differently and the base material which the schools have to work with is already damaged by the time it gets there. This moves us on to influences.
 
A child is influenced by it’s genetic build up, it’s diet, and it’s environment, including parents, peers, and the wider society.
 
As the Guernsey saying has it, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”. We tend to be like our parents and it is rare for bright parents to produce thick kids. Many schools have their problem families. It doesn’t mean that the product of these families is automatically tarred with the same brush but it is strange that some family names keep cropping up when discussing problem children.
 
How do you teach a child to read?
 
You start reading to the child from as young an age as possible on a daily basis. The child sees you reading yourself for pleasure and grows up understanding that books are enjoyable things. You encourage the child to examine books with you and talk about the pictures and nursery rhymes etc. By the time these kids get to school, they already have an eagerness to learn how to explore books for themselves.
 
What you don’t do is actively decry reading, have no books in the house, and ignore your child even when they do bring books home from school. You don’t leave it all to the teachers and then blame them when your kid can’t read.
 
But what’s the point in blaming parents who aren’t equipped to do any better? If we want to get a better raw product into our schools then we need to act sooner. How we do that is beyond the scope of this blog but it’s a problem worth solving.
 
Let’s move outside of the home and into our wider society. How much do we value our teachers?
 
Well, if you are reading this blog then you need to thank your teachers whether you liked them or not.
 
It is easy to blame the teachers. We throw all of this money at them, entrust them with our children, and we still end up with miserable exam results. It’s the teachers fault!
 
Well, maybe.
 
But when you have had an education system which was rotting from the top down, it might be difficult to even criticise let alone get remedial action and support from central control. After all, our secondary system was second to none and far better than the UK. 

Couldn’t have anything upsetting that particular fairy story.
 
There are some poor teachers and there are some who need to leave the profession. But look around your own place of work. Isn’t this the case everywhere?
 
Listen to the Guernsey grapevine.
 
“Oh, I wouldn’t go to that doctor if I were you”
 
Or to the gossip in your office
 
“Avoid her in accounts, she’s useless”
 
We need to accept the fact that most teachers do a good job and that as a whole, the profession needs a bit more respect that it gets from our society and from our press.
 
Children start off by valuing what their parents value and by what their peers and society values. If their minds are already poisoned against education, learning, and teachers then no wonder these kids act up in school.
 
Finally we need to look at our education process. Many argue that the 11+ system is outdated and consigns too many of our children to failure at too early an age.
 
But even before we address this problem, do we have any idea what we are trying to achieve through education?
 
The present emphasis seems to be on achieving set standards which is currently measured by exam results. Is it surprising therefore that our secondary schools trail their selective competitors? After all, their intake has already proved itself at the age of 11 as being not as good at passing exams.
 
Perhaps we need to measure added value.
 
Most Guernsey children sit a standardised test at the age of 11 (the 11 plus) and again at the age of 16 (GCSE’s). Our Education Dept should know the results for both and can compare individual children’s performance in each. Some trends must be visible.
 
The downside however is that we become fixated by data collection. Children end up sitting more and more tests and teachers collecting more and more data, and of course evidencing every child’s progress through every subject.
 
Let’s take say literacy and have a simple 10 point measurement; ten areas of literacy to be tested and judged. That should be enough to gauge progress through the year. Best to make it black and white though; either they have the skill or not.
 
So we get each teacher to measure their class at the start of the year; that’s (say) 25 kids times 10 points which gives 250 marks to work out and of course to evidence.
 
No point in measuring again only at the end of the year though as it’s then too late to do anything about it, so we’d better measure say four times a year. That’s now 1000 marks to assess, plus progress reports plus evidence.
 
Say it takes 5 minutes per child to assess each area and evidence the work, which means taking a copy and recording it somewhere. 

That works out at 5000 minutes a year which is 83 hours, or about 2 hours a week just recording data.
 
Now do the same for Maths and you’re looking at half a day a week recording data. Of course, hardly any of this can be done during school time as teachers are in front of their classes and teaching.
 
Instead we’ll ask already busy teachers to spend extra time recording data to prove what they already know. They already know just what every child in their class can achieve and they already know where extra help is needed.
 
They also know where such help won’t be forthcoming from home and where whatever they try to do, the child is already doomed because of their background and home life. Doesn’t mean they stop trying though.
 
And measuring all of these data still doesn’t answer the question of what we’re looking for from a Guernsey education.
 
Remember though that we’re still talking about the thick kids. The rest are doing all right and moving off to Uni or into good jobs. It is the thick one’s which are becoming unemployable.
 
So let’s teach them to read and to write. To have some basic skill in Maths at an every day practical level. To be able to work in groups and to be able to express themselves.
 
Basically, to be able to become a useful member of society and to be able to get and hold down a job.
 
It’s a low aspiration but it is for those with no aspirations for themselves other than getting on TV or more likely getting on the dole.
 
But why should they bother when they are going into a society which rewards failure. Where we have a support system which gives houses to feckless single mothers of many whilst ignoring the needs of those struggling on low wages to support themselves.
 
But that’s another rant for another day.