Under pressure

 

This week has been SATs week for year 6 pupils across the UK and these unfortunate individuals are under high levels of stress at the mere age of 11. I stumbled across this post by a woman called Abi Elphinstone and feel that she has summed it all up so well.

Enjoy.

For all the kids sitting their SATs this week 😘 (My academic records show that I got A*s in English Literature and English Language at GCSE, an A in English at A level and a 2.1 degree in English from Bristol University. I taught English in secondary schools and I am now a children’s author with multiple book deals. But despite this, I scored 40% on an English SATs test last week.

I am not against exams nor am I against working hard. In every school visit my message is one of resilience, perseverance and grit, both in exams and life. But I am against the pedantic, restrictive and irrelevant testing of children. The SATs papers demand a knowledge of fronted adverbs and subordinating conjunctions and I feel that with this mechanical approach to learning we risk warning a generation of children off writing.

Accurate spelling, grammar and punctuation are important. Precision and confidence in expression empower us. But getting children to parrot back complex grammatical concepts is education at its most futile, and its most depressing. It is reminiscent of the Gradgrindian education system Dickens satirises in Hard Times and a system that champions modal verbs over creativity stifles imagination and individuality.

I am not a writer because I knew what fronted adverbs were at school. I am a writer because the wild landscape of my childhood filled me with wonder. I am a writer because learning made me curious and adventurous. I am a writer because books carried me to new worlds and language filled me with delight. I am a writer because I refused to quit when my books were rejected.

Language is fluid and playful (thank you Roald Dahl for snozzcumbers), and I learnt invaluable lessons about empathy, courage and hope from the stories I read as a child. Lyra Belacqua taught me to be brave and Mildred Hubble taught me that you don’t need to be the brightest or prettiest girl in the room to be the heroine of a story. So, kids, your worth is not quantified by your SATs scores. Learn the power of language but remember the best writing is original and brave. Like Shakespeare’s – who also wouldn’t have passed that test.

The nurture room

An interesting watch about children that struggle in the average classroom setting.

Education or happiness?

I have just finished watching these two documentaries by the BBC. They follow the lives of three Welsh teenagers who go and live with a South Korean family for three days and follow their South Korean counterparts at their day at school.

I have to admit the South Korean education system shocked me. The amount of time these children/teenagers spend studying is mind – blowing. Yes, they do receive some of the best grades in the world and are undoubtedly highly academically intelligent but it is no surprise considering how much effort they put in to be the best they can possibly be.

Pupils sit in the same seat in the same classroom for around 10 hours a day. The style of teaching differs from that here in the UK as students are simply told how to do something, they memorise it and that’s that. There are no questions asked, no discussions in the classroom but rather silence and concentration. There is a real emphasis on getting good grades and going to the top university so much so that students often spend around 5 to 6 hours after school at private evening institutions for further academic tutoring or conduct their own self study. Students often wait to go into the library as it is so busy and children as young as 10 can be seen studying till around 10 in the evening.

Emphasis is placed on being the best rather than on being happy. Although academically South Korea do very well, they rank very low on the “are you happy?” scale. In the documentary a university student was asked about his high school experience. He stated how he had lost a few friends due to suicide due to the high levels of stress their families had put them under. South Korea has some of the highest suicide rates in the world, which seems like no surprise after hearing of their tiresome, long, strenuous days.

They have no time for social activities, no opportunities to be creative, no time to play or listen to music or to attend concerts and enjoy the arts because they study so much. There is often not much time for sleep either, with the headmaster claiming 6 hours was more than sufficient. I personally feel that if my brain was drilled of information for 16 hours a day i would like a little more than 6 hours sleep before cramming in more information the next day.

However, is it really all bad? culturally South Korea is very different to the UK and America. All families see the up most importance in education and do all they can to provide the best educations for their children. This may mean moving across the country in order to attend the best schools or working long hours to earn the money to send their child to the private tutor sessions after school. It is a social norm for families to not see each other due to long working hours yet, in the western world family time is viewed as almost more important than education.

Although some choose to pay to send their child the independent, private institutions in the UK and America. Most send their children to state schools. Yet, in South Korea it is uncommon for a child to not attend some form of private education. It s evident that South Korean parents want what is best for their children and they go to great extends for their children to achieve this.

Something I admired from the documentary was the respect teachers had in South Korea. There was a statue of a man who had said that the king and teachers are equal, something you would never hear in the western world. Instead teachers are paid low wages, are disrespected by students, often frowned upon by society and yet are under enormous amounts of pressure and work hard! It is a real honour to become a teacher in South Korea due to the high status and job security yet ambitions to become teachers in the UK are not quite to the same level.

It seems as though the South Korean education system does have its flaws yet times are changing. They are encouraging students to be more creative from a younger age and have introduced sport into schools. Following by the western example of allowing children to be more free. But, the South Koreans seem to have ambition that puts the rest of the world to shame. Perhaps this is something we need to drill into our children a little more.

The documentary can be found below:

 

A step in the right direction

Once again Finland have made a step in the right direction in terms of the way they educate their children.

They have announced that they are scrapping traditional school subjects and instead focusing on one topic and bringing subjects into the topic. Children will no longer sit row by row in desks but rather will have discussions together in groups.

I have always praised the Scandinavian/Nordic education system and I feel this new move takes it from strength to strength.

Well done Finland!

Have a read of the article below:

https://brightside.me/wonder-curiosities/finland-will-become-the-first-country-in-the-world-to-get-rid-of-all-school-subjects-259910/

Lets make a fish climb a tree

I stumbled across a video that broadcasts the issues of the American/British education system. I couldn’t have put it any better myself. So, let’t not judge a fish on it’s ability to climb a tree. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqTTojTija8

Classroom or dance studio…

The classroom isn’t for all children.

I just finished watching a programme called ‘The Tiny Tots Talent Agency’ and was blown away by the enthusiasm one of the children had for Musical Theatre. The young boy had ADHD and Autism which prevented him from going to mainstream school which resulted in his mother home schooling him. The mother explained how if she made her lessons active her son would be engaged but, as soon as a lesson involved picking up a pen and writing, he had no interest. What fascinated me was how much potential the boy had in dance. Instead of being cooped up in a classroom, the mother followed her sons dream to perform and enrolled him in part time dance lessons. Unlike in school, the boy excelled. He was praised. He was aloud to be loud. He was aloud to dance whenever he wanted. He was happy.

The programme follows him as he attends an audition at the prestigious London dance school – Pineapple Dance Studios. It is evident that he loves what he is doing and is happy to be there so it’s no surprise he is awarded a place. The theatre school focuses purely on Musical Theatre with no formal academic lesson given.

What particularly captured me about this story was that in school the boy was seen as a failure and unwilling to learn but as soon as he was dancing and being active, all the troubles went away. It made me think how many children out there are simply misunderstood. Yes, education is important but, for some children being active holds more importance. I’m not saying that children shouldn’t be taught to read and write but what I am saying is that more children need to be given the chance to excel in non – academic areas. If schools were to place more of an emphasis on sports, physical education, music, drama and dance then I feel that more children would feel as though they are achieving highly in something. Some are good at maths whilst others are good at drama. Too much of an emphasis is placed on academic skills but there is more to life than times tables. Let children be active. Classes don’t need to be restricted to sitting at a desk, take children outside, let them run free and see what they discover in the environment around them.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-tiny-tots-talent-agency/on-demand/61665-004

The childhood race

I’m not sure where this quote is from but, I think the wording is perfect.

It seems all too common nowadays that children are compared against one another from a very young age. The British education system is all about reaching targets, getting good grades and excelling in either Maths, Science or English. Children are made to feel like failures if they do not achieve highly. If they don’t read at the age of 4 then a wave of panic flashes through parents.

We must remember that each child is different. They are unique and special in their own way. Whilst some can count at the age of 2 others have outstanding social skills and good communication abilities. We shouldn’t compare children against each other,  or compare them against targets for that matter. Instead, children should be respected. Childhood after all is only a small window of time.

Princess Awesome

My “Girls can be superheroes too” post inspired me to carry out more research into gender neutral clothing for both girls and boys. I came across a website called “Girls will be” ( http://www.girlswillbehq.com/) which produces typically gender neutral clothing. They print typically boy t- shirt designs, for example, dinosaurs and chemistry, on to female tailored tops. Whilst the majority of female clothes are fitted, this company decided to make them slightly more baggy which allows for more movement, encouraging girls to be just as active as boys. The clothing line further branched out to create longer shorts for girls as typically shorts for girls are skinny and short. The company states that not all girls want to be typically girly which is why this clothing line is a step in the right direction.

Examples of their designs are shown below:

Princess Awesome (http://princess-awesome.com/) is another children’s clothing company which aims to minimise the gap between boys and girls. Their clothing line comprises of mainly dresses (a typically feminine item of clothing) but have cars, trucks, dinosaurs, trains and mathematical symbols printed on them (typically male items/objects). The company does not discourage girls to like typically girly activities such as ballet yet it does allow them to wear dresses AND show their love of aeroplanes and science. Princess Awesome currently have a wide variety of stock available some of which is shown below:

I feel we could learn a lot through allowing children to express themselves through the clothes they decide to wear. These two companies aren’t encouraging girls to be boys yet they allow for girls to show that they can have an interest in typically male pursuits. Children should be encouraged to be whatever they wish to be and clothing should not limit this.