Pygmalion* in the Classroom
Twenty per cent of the children in a certain elementary school were reported to their teachers as showing unusual potential for intellectual growth. The names of these twenty per cent of the children were drawn by means of a table of random numbers, which is to say that the names were drawn out of a hat. Eight months later these unusual or ‘magic’ children showed significantly greater gains in IQ than did the remaining children who had not been singled out for the teachers’ attention. The change in teachers’ expectations regarding the intellectual performance of these allegedly ‘special’ children had led to an actual change in the intellectual performance of these randomly selected children… who were also described as more interesting, as showing greater intellectual curiosity and as happier.
- R. Rosenthal & L. Jacobsen, Pygmalion in the Classroom
*If you haven’t heard of Pygmalion, think instead of Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn’s My Fair Lady and that will get you there! If you can’t stand musical’s, try Educating Rita!
So, there you have it.
Your son or daughter’s life chances hinge not upon their innate intelligence, or how hard they work in class but actually on the amount of attention they are given by and the expectations of ‘the teacher.’
Ever wondered why private schools have six in a class?
Ever wondered why Private Schools (fee-paying schools in the UK) often have as few as six children in a classroom? Whilst there are schools in Africa where 50 to 100 pupils are crammed in and ‘taught,’ then there is the UK state school average class size of around 31.
The government’s own statistics say that the average UK class size is 22 - this is technically correct, but which average did they use? Mean, Median, Mode or Range? Did they include mainstream classes full of only SEN Children? Special Education Needs Children are often taught in very small class sizes and this would dramatically reduce the average… but not for the average child - see what your government did there? Just like the Rona stats!
The National Education Union (NEU) said that nearly a million schoolchildren were being taught in crowded classes with 31 or more pupils, which it described as “shocking”.
Class sizes in English secondaries at largest in nearly 20 years
In my experience ‘31’ sounds about right - it is certainly not unusual. It is, however, very unusual to teach in a primary or secondary school with a class of 22 children or less, that’s for sure!
How much attention is your child getting in school?
The average primary school teacher actually teaches for about 1 hour and 50 minutes per day. That’s right. For the rest of the time they are getting students to “line up,” “get changed for PE”, “go to the toilet and wash your hands,” etc., and it isn’t very much different in secondary schools. If a secondary teacher is averaging 3 hours of ACTUAL TEACHING TIME per day, then it has gone well!
Now, do not think that your child is receiving all of that 1hr 50’ or 3h… that’s not how it works! Those hours are divided by ALL of the children in your son/daughter’s class.
Can you see the problem now?
Your son/daughter will likely NEVER achieve their full academic potential in a state school - there are simply not enough teachers (and that’s before we get onto what constitutes a good teacher!)
Academic outcomes are about the “teachers’” expectations and the amount of attention that they pay to the child.
That’s it.
I didn’t say I wanted it this way, or that it was fair but this is the reality.
If you genuinely want your child to achieve their academic potential then it is 1-2-1 attention that is KING. Nothing, absolutely nothing can top the sole focus of an adult upon a child when it comes to teaching and learning - it’s why maths tutors are always shockingly over-subscribed when it comes to GCSE season! £££
It wasn’t the SKILL of the teacher…
Notice that the skill of the teacher was not a factor in Rosenthal and Jacobsen’s study. All of the children in the classes had the same teachers and yet it was the ones who were labelled as ‘special’ (the gifted and talented kind) who made remarkable progress and not the rest of the class who had the exact same teachers and lessons.
This is wonderful news for would-be home educators.
It doesn’t matter that you’re not a fully qualified teacher, what matters most is the focussed attention - or otherwise - that you shower onto your children.
Time to recreate a private school-standard education at home
If you cannot afford to spend £30,000 - £45,000 per academic year on your child’s education (and even if you can, be very careful where you choose to send them; Trendy Hendy has turned even the once great Eton College ‘woke’)…
Check out the bottom button of his waistcoat! I was taught that a proper gentlemen always left the bottom button of his waistcoat undone. It’s called etiquette… at an eye-watering £15,000 per term, I would have expected the headmaster of Eton College to know this!
Dr. Jordan Peterson, by contrast, cuts a far more sophisticated figure…
Frankly, I would rather stay at home and watch Peterson’s lectures than go to Eton College.
Why would you allow Mr. or Mrs. Average to teach your children at the local school when some of the finest minds are putting their lecture series’ online… often free of charge?
For the first time in history, you really can provide a high-quality, rigorous, academic education for your children which is properly tailored to their individual interests, needs, and talents. Thanks to the internet you have the greatest teachers teaching subjects that your children might actually want to learn and if you don’t like something, you can change the channel - no more putting up with Mrs. Steggle’s appalling double maths lessons for an entire year… or five!
Online you can now get the best teachers in what you WANT to be taught in
“The education system we have now is a joke… it was invented by the Prussians at the beginning of the Industrial Age to get people to read, write, do math, AND FOLLOW ORDERS. The public school education in America was invented for the poor people, the people that had any kind of means were doing it themselves.”
~ Gerald Celente
The super-rich have long home educated. Look at the educational history of the Kings and Queens of England… they didn’t go to school and there’s good reason for that.
The greatest historians, linguists, and poets in the land were hired to school the young princes and princesses of our history.
Princes William and Harry, however, both went to school and their GCSE and ‘A’ Level grades were both worse than mine - even when their best ones are put together!
The truth about classrooms
In a mainstream school I recall that more than 50% of a teacher’s attention in the classroom is consumed by those children with a statement of special educational needs (SEN) even - nay ESPECIALLY - if that student is accompanied by a Teaching Assistant (TA).
This isn’t because it’s effective; the outcomes for children with “statements” at GCSE level are almost universally dire and as for ‘A’ Levels almost no SEN children even take them.
It is because teachers get into lots of trouble if they don’t tick all of the SEN boxes and be seen to be doing the very best for the children with extra challenges (even if those challenges are sometimes merely poor behaviour and/or poor parenting). Disgraceful behaviour has certainly been re-branded as a range of ‘conditions’ over the last 20 years - ask any teacher worth their salt, in private, and they will all have a story to tell you.
The next 30% of a teacher’s attention in the classroom is reserved for the gifted and talented children, typically the top 5% in a cohort. It is vital that these children are stimulated, challenged, and continually monitored to maximise their potential.
This leaves just 20% of a teacher’s attention for all of the rest of the children in a class - in other words the MAJORITY of the children in a class share around 20% of a teacher’s full attention during lessons.
If your child is not in the top 5% academically and/or does not have a statement of SEN, then they are simply never going to achieve their true potential in a school.
Even the Department for Education concedes that 1-2-1 attention is infinitely superior
In their own documents, the DfE have to admit to the fact that home educated children benefit disproportionately from 1-2-1 educational attention at home.
2.7 There is no legal definition of “full-time” in terms of education at home, or at school. Children attending school normally have about five hours tuition a day for 190 days a year, spread over about 38 weeks. However, home education does not have to mirror this. In any case, in elective home education there is often almost continuous one-to-one contact and education may sometimes take place outside normal “school hours”.
5 hours tuition a day for 190 days per year? Yeah, right!
We’ve known the truth since 1965
“The Pygmalion Study” was written in 1965, so we’ve known for the best part of 60 years that focussed attention and a positive attitude towards students is what produces the best outcomes.
So, why are teachers not taught about this?
Why is this study not required reading at teacher-training school?
Why are class sizes far too large for 1-2-1 attention?
Because ‘school’ is not about educating the masses, school is about indoctrinating the masses to not think, not question, and to comply.
“Education” for poor people
The UK “education” system was designed in 1870 to get women back to work, not because it was beneficial to children to be sent to school from the age of 5! They don’t tell you that in GCSE history now, do they?
Here’s more of the same kind of attitude from the other side of the pond:
Given that academia is pretty much the definition of the pursuit of thinking, JD. Rockefeller oughtn’t have been allowed anywhere near the establishment of the general education board in 1903!
As you can see, state school is “education” (indoctrination) for “poor people,” but thanks to the internet this needn’t continue.
We now have the tools to transcend the tyranny and genuinely provide a unique educational experience that is just right for your son/daughter.
One size fits no-one
Like those free t-shirts that no-one looks good in, education has been designed by committee as a blanket cover-all or ‘the average of the average’ as I like to put it.
It is high time we rejected this abomination and took proper responsibility for the education of our own children.
After all, IN LAW, it is the parent that is responsible for a child’s education, not the state. The state is merely required to find a school placement if one is requested by the parents.
Interesting, hey?
Education not indoctrination
Sarah Plumley
Thinker-Teacher-Truther