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 musicals, 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.’
THIS, in a nutshell, is why Guerrilla Ed works - the 1-2-1 focussed attention on the individual child is the single biggest factor in positive educational outcomes for children. This is why many private schools limit class sizes to just six children.
In other words, it isn't teachers that are 'magic' - it's the children themselves!
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 3-hours… that’s not how it works!
Those hours are divided by ALL of the children in your son/daughter’s class.
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 'pretend' gifted and talented children, whose names had actually been pulled out of a hat) 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.
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.
The BEST decision we've ever made
What have we got to lose? The state is mandated by law to find your child a place in a school - if requested by you, the parents - so, if your Home Education experiment goes horribly, horribly wrong, you can always click your fingers and the state is required, by law, to find a suitable school place for your child/children.
It's very unlikely, by the way... almost 100% of the parents I've worked with have not only continued to Home Educate but have insisted:
"It's the best decision we've ever made."
"I cannot believe the closer connection I now have with my daughter."
"School was driving a wedge between me and my son, I hadn't realised..."
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Keep it guerrilla!
Sarah Plumley
Thinker-Teacher-Truther