Refreshing honesty - 'Reach for stars posters mislead pupils': Teaching expert attacks

[Surya Gayatri]

'tidal wave of guff' in classrooms.

Cheesy slogans such as ‘reach for the stars’ could be detrimental to pupils, it has been claimed.

Carl Hendrick, head of learning and research at Wellington College, Berkshire, has attacked the ‘tidal wave of guff’ in classrooms.

These ‘missives in mediocrity’ often tell pupils to ‘live your dream’ and ‘you can do it’ and ‘be all that you can be’.



But the glossy notices are ‘often reductively misinterpreted as “you can achieve anything if you believe”’.

Mr Hendrick argues that schools should concentrate on boosting pupils’ confidence by teaching them well and providing ‘clear and achievable paths to academic success’.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3034492/Reach-stars-posters-mislead-pupils-Teaching-expert-attacks-tidal-wave-guff-classrooms.html

[Hoppy]

1. Is the alternative, "You are a useless shit. Why don't you just go home and toss one off

in the bathroom?"

[Trillo]

2. "You are a useless shit" was a common lesson in private schools.

It's becoming more popular in public schools now, i.e., the school-to-prison pipeline, but it wasn't that way 4 decades ago.

[Igel]

4. No, the alternative is fact and evidence-based.

"Here. You've worked hard on this. As a result, you've achieved this success. If you continue to work hard, you'll achieve other successes."

"You need to work on your math. But you write really convincingly."

"Look, John, I know want to be a doctor and if you work at it maybe you can make a career with it. But you're great at physics and math, so maybe becoming an engineer and helping design medical equipment is a better choice."

What we get now is, "You're great. You're special. You're a star!" Why? "Because you breathe." Or at least don't drool too much.

And not just are you "great," but you're great at music, math, science, languages, English, sports, history. Every kid makes da Vinci look like a loser, so prolix is the praise heaped upon them. But they're not stupid.

Most kids figure out that "you're special" is meaningless. Over-the-top, unmerited praise only works on the feeble-minded and narcissistic, and they're the ones who it applies to only in a kind of sardonic way (there's sort of a huge uptick in narcissism going on ... Thanks, public education establishment). Limited, realistic praise that's based on evidence is much more convincing.

"You're great" is pointless. No guidance. And ultimately most kids come away from it with bloated egos or seeing through the lie.

[Trillo]

6. Nope, not if you were LGBT in private schools, which some years ago were all christian.

They expelled for something they imagined, and they continue to do so today if news reports are accurate. "You are a useless shit."

Additionally, if someone is going to do something that someone else demands, including children in schools, they should be paid. How well the kids do is not the point, what is the point is working for free. If you work at the fast food joint making minimum wage or near it, you get paid for your time whether you do what you're supposed to do or not. If you don't do well, you'll be fired, but you'll still be paid for your time.

Working for free can only be justified if there is thriving on the other side after graduation. There hasn't been that, only a mass of minimum wage jobs which in no way can be considered thriving. This is basically the billionaires system. "You are a worthless shit" unless you have a few million.

The public schools have adopted these measures with the school-to-prison pipeline. Put the kids under the control of what the public is now learning are little more than paid assassins, the Fraternal Order.

[XemaSab]

3. I've heard similar arguments made for praising kids for being talented

Either you have talent or you don't, but anyone can work hard, and the value of hard work is always a good lesson to instill.

[rock]

5. Out 'critical thinking' skills are so low that any guff that is sold,

is bought.