Education, education, education

Another quickie blog while I put the finishing touches to the one on Reparations, which has been anything but a quickie!

Apparently even the most able students have been traumatised by the Year 6 SATS tests. Teachers are claiming they were stumped by some of the questions. The Daily Mail reproduced a sample few and asked their readers how many they could answer. I love a challenge! Except it wasn’t a challenge. I aced each and every one of them, English and Maths, while making a Béchamel sauce for a fish pie. Anyone who’s ever made such a sauce knows that it’s easy to mess up throughout, from burning the butter to not stirring vigorously or for long enough.

If I can ace the SATS questions under those circumstances, then teachers who were stumped shouldn’t be teaching.

Of course, answering those questions in Year 6 is very different from answering them at my time of life, but I reckon I could have answered them when I was 10, or even younger. I remember when I was five and we moved down south (from Cumbria to Yorkshire). The teacher had to find out what she’d been landed with. She asked me to read from a book for five-year-olds, then for six-year-olds, then seven, eight …. I eventually struggled with the book for 12-year-olds. I’m pretty sure she said, “Shit”. I can’t tell you what she said when she assessed my numeracy.

Despite me showing off, I’m pretty sure the much-maligned SATS questions reflect the standard my own Year-6 class was at; therefore, if today’s brightest kids struggled with the questions, they haven’t been taught properly.

As for the kids breaking down in tears because they found the questions too difficult, listen up! Life is difficult. Not all problems are solved without a struggle. Not all problems are solved correctly. We have to deal with such hurdles and disappointments without having a meltdown. Learning resilience in childhood is crucial. That’s why expecting kids never to fail, and brainwashing them that they will always succeed, is storing up problems for their adult life. Teachers with that sort of attitude shouldn’t be teachers. I could say something similar about the parents, but I won’t because I don’t want to be controversial.

I assume (I admit I don’t know) that some questions were easier than others so most kids should get some questions right. I remember my Maths O-level. (Yup, O-level. I’m that old.) We had to answer three questions from part 2 of the paper. Each question was composed of four problems, a-to-d, that got progressively more difficult. The less-mathematically minded kids were still expected to answer the a-questions (or two of them?) in order to pass. The d-questions were designed to be answered by A-grade kids (we didn’t have A* back then).

If we don’t test kids’ abilities throughout their school career, we won’t know what progress they’re making, what they’re good or not-so-good at, and where the teaching focus should be. The pressure of a test, rather than the more comfortable continuous assessment, is an excellent life experience, but kids have to be taught exam techniques and stress-management. Not every child is good at maths or grammar or abstract thinking. Maybe they’re being held back because of emotional issues, or a learning challenge such as dyslexia. Maybe they’re just not academic, but they’ll be good at something: vocational skills, singing, painting, sport, being naturally caring and supportive, etc. It’s up to teachers to find out where their talents lie, using testing as one of many tools.

If teachers don’t know that or how to do that, they shouldn’t be teaching. My guess is that these teachers and the ones going on strike are, in Venn-diagram parlance, identical sets.

By the way, the fish pie was delicious.