Rules Actually Lead To Freedom--And Other Ideas The American Education System Has Lost
While American schools deem disciplining kids racist (if those children are another color than white), a British school goes intense on discipline and reaps big benefits.
This Brit school is Katharine Birbalsingh's Michaela school in north London.
Sally Weale writes in The Guardian:
Ever since it opened in a converted office block close to Wembley football stadium in September 2014, Michaela has been the subject of intense scrutiny and debate, particularly over its tough behaviour policy.Pupils are given demerits or detention for forgetting to bring a pencil or pen, or for talking in corridors when moving between lessons. The school hit the headlines again when it was reported that children whose parents had failed to pay for their lunches were made to eat separately from their classmates.
"I think it's hilarious to say we are the strictest school in Britain," laughed Birbalsingh. "It's a joyful and happy place. The children are so happy to be here." Two years ago, the schools' watchdog Ofsted vindicated her approach when it judged Michaela outstanding in all categories. A second school, following the same model, has been approved and will open in Stevenage in Hertfordshire.
Birbalsingh puts Michaela's success down to "conservative values - with a small c". She lists them - belief in personal responsibility, respect for authority and a sense of duty towards others. "I've always known the school is great, because I'm here every day and the children are wonderful. What I'm most proud of is the young adults they've become. They are good people."
Compared with other non-selective state schools, Michaela's results rank among the best in the country. More than half (54%) of all grades were level 7 or above (equivalent to the old-style A and A*), which was more than twice the national average of 22%. Nearly one in five (18%) of all grades were 9s, compared with 4.5% nationally, and in maths, one in four results were level 9.
How has this paid off in less numerical and more human terms?
Birbalsingh's Twitter feed documented her morning - the girl who got straight 9s, the boy who used to be badly behaved but did brilliantly, the disbelief of another pupil as he read, and reread, his results - "Miss, these can't be real" - the staff celebration.In a subsequent interview with the Guardian, Birbalsingh could not disguise her delight. "It's really great. When you think all of our kids are from the inner city, they are from challenging backgrounds, they are deprived kids. I don't have any white, middle-class kids in the school."
More on the school here, from a piece in The Guardian by Richard Adams:
At the school, a group of pupils prepare to end their break and move to their next lesson. They line up quietly under the eye of their teacher - who stops to ask one of them to pick up a grape from the floor."Do you see that?" Birbalsingh tells a group of visiting teachers. "In other schools that would never happen. You'd never see a teacher ask a pupil to pick up a grape, because they'd go mad."
She says one of the things that is different about Michaela, the state secondary school she founded three years ago, is its unwillingness to let even a single pupil - or grape - go astray.
"It's about habit change, and constantly reminding pupils to be respectful," Birbalsingh says. "We have made it unacceptable not to pick that grape up."
The year 7 pupils file out to their next class, illustrating another Michaela principle: silent corridors. The children walk between classrooms without speaking, in single file, moving quickly. Anyone who does not gets a demerit, leading to a detention.
The reason, says Birbalsingh, is that corridors in schools are where bad behaviour often takes place: pushing and fights breaking out as large groups of children mill around. By moving in a straight line, the children stay calm and focused for their next lesson.
I have a strong belief that rules lead to freedom. I'm a highly creative person who is highly productive because I learned and practice discipline.
Discipline, importantly, is a practice. Even if your genes aren't all that helpful in this arena, since a substantial scoop of our ability for "self-regulation" is genetic, you can act with discipline. This is one of the core pieces of advice of my new "science-help" book, "Unf*ckology: A Field Guide to Living with Guts and Confidence."
Accordingly, I write to a timer. There's no "I don't wanna." I'm my clock's bitch.
The same goes for the 10 pushups I do every time I make coffee. "Waah, I feel like I'm dying." Really? If you can still voice that, you are not dead. Do your 10, asshole!
Same with getting on the bike at the end of the day for seven sets of HIIT -- High Intensity Interval Training. If I am not paralyzed, I may not want to get on the bike, but it is not impossible for me to do it. Me to self: "Get on and peddle!"
In time, not giving yourself an out becomes your default habit. In other words, you are disciplined.
This Birbalsingh person is doing a wonderful thing for these kids. American parents should demand that schools here be opened to follow. Parents, especially in poor neighborhoods, should have a shot at giving their kids a shot in life, and this is it.
This will be suppressed, as lowering standards to please the unwilling has become a way of life in the USA, backed by grade inflation abetted by pols eager to show they've done magic.
That said, we've already examples of this in the USA -- just not in public schools. Private schools in DC, for example, educate the same group thought incorrigible by those paid by the public.
Radwaste at August 22, 2019 10:37 PM
And Other Ideas The American Education System Has Lost
That should be "And Other Ideas The American Parental/b> System Has Lost."
None of this costs a fig. It does cost concern from parents who both demand it and defend it, but that's been lost in a generation that even manages to excuse leaving children to broil in a hot car as (cough) "Forgotten Baby Syndrome."
Kevin at August 22, 2019 11:42 PM
Private schools have small class size and can kick out anyone they don't want.
NicoleK at August 23, 2019 12:26 AM
That's really just an excuse, Nicole.
I went to a private Catholic school for three years, NicoleK - middle school years. The class sizes were pretty close to what I had later in public high school. Nowhere near the large lecture classes I had in college.
The biggest difference was the homogeneity of the student body. We were all [mostly] Catholic and a certain amount of obedience and discipline was expected of each of us - from our parents.
Not that we were all saints. We got rowdy and into trouble, raised hell. Well, a much hell as a middle schooler can raise. But, when a teacher said "siddown," we sat or we caught hell at home.
There was no corporal punishment in that school - unlike the local public school in which swats were regularly dispensed to miscreants - yet student behavior was, for the most part, decorous. The teachers were not allowed to hit us or whack us with rulers, so we had to rap our own knuckles on their command.
I don't remember anyone being kicked out for disobedience or discipline problems in my time there. Slower students received extra attention - not expulsion.
Another difference was the grading standard. There was no grading curve. If no one met the criteria for an A, no one got one. Assignments were turned in on the due date or not at all - with a subsequent loss of grade.
Public high school, on the other hand, was a mish-mash of cultures, behaviors, backgrounds, belief systems, etc. Discipline was enforced by a paddle-wielding vice-principal. The student body was divided into near-permanent educational castes - A (Advanced), B (Average), C (Remedial and Disciplinary), and AP.
One environment was designed to foster education while the other was designed to process a large body of students.
Conan the Grammarian at August 23, 2019 5:48 AM
"belief in personal responsibility"
That's good. Everyone's primary responsibility is to NOT violate the life, liberty, or property of anyone else.
"respect for authority"
Hogwash. Respect everyone. "Authority" (political "authority" as opposed to expertise-- one word; two unrelated concepts) is the Most Dangerous Superstition. It's been the root cause of many-- if not most-- of our species' problems with each other.
"and a sense of duty towards others"
Isn't that just a repeat of the first point? Your duty is to not violate others.
Kent McManigal at August 23, 2019 8:05 AM
Private schools have small class size and can kick out anyone they don't want.
NicoleK at August 23, 2019 12:26 AM
Public schools can do that too. They just have an economic incentive to not kick people out.
My daughter went to first grade in a Catholic school. Twenty six kids, one teacher. They took everyone. No one was kicked out. No corporal punishment.
The teacher a nun, had very high expectations.
If you are so destructive in public school that what ever disciplinary measures the state allows aren’t enough, you need to be put in a small room with a computer and a proctor, or you need to be in special ed.
Some kids don’t belong in a group environment like a school. It is foolish to pretend that they do, and that they are getting an education. They are being warehoused at the expense of the taxpayers, and the other students.
Isab at August 23, 2019 8:55 AM
I've explained why Andrew Gillum lost the 2018 Florida governor's race before, but let me thumbnail it again.
He promised to kill the school voucher system that allowed poor people a modicum of school choice[1]. Black mothers who had children using those vouchers, or wanting to use them, peeled away from the African-American candidate to vote for DeSantis.
That was enough to prevent a recount, and likely the margin of victory. Having parents that care to have educated children are a good thing.
[1] These vouchers could be used to transfer to a better public school, but is largely used for charters.
Like Conan, I went to Catholic grade school. Unlike Conan, I met Attila the Nun. She packed quite a wallop with a ruler.
I R A Darth Aggie at August 23, 2019 9:09 AM
"respect for authority"
Hogwash. Respect everyone. "Authority" (political "authority" as opposed to expertise-- one word; two unrelated concepts) is the Most Dangerous Superstition. It's been the root cause of many-- if not most-- of our species' problems with each other.
____________________________________________
I agree that "authority" is a hazardous, ambiguous term.
However, so is "respect."
There are at least four different types of respect, and while they sometimes overlap, they don't always do so. Which is why it's unfair to expect a very young person to figure out which one you mean when you say "treat so-and-so with respect."
Here are the four:
Grudging acceptance of other people's right to exist (such as when a bully stops bullying or pushing strangers aside on the sidewalk)
Common courtesy (such as not using snide tones of voices, whether the other person is younger or older)
Deference (as to an official superior)
Genuine admiration.
Miss Manners understands this well.
From July 2, 2008;
"Dear Miss Manners:
"A group of friends and I are having a discussion regarding good manners and respect. My view is that respect comes from understanding and having good manners, whereas it is being put to me that good manners and respect are two distinctly separate things that can be had one without the other. We would be very interested in learning your thoughts on the matter, and I would consider them to be the final word on the subject."
"Gentle Reader: Promising Miss Manners that her word will be the final one, even before you have heard it -- now, that is respect. She thanks you.
Yet she admits that the term 'respect' is rather loosely used in the manners business. This leads to the sort of argument in which a parent says, 'You have to show more respect for Granny,' and the child replies, 'Why, since she just got out of jail for petty larceny?'
"The sort of respect to which the parent is referring is a part of good manners. It means exhibiting consideration toward everyone and showing special deference to those who are older or in a position of authority.
"But the child hears the word to mean the genuine admiration felt for someone who has proved himself to be worthy of it. That sort of respect is, indeed, a thing apart, which etiquette cannot mandate.
"Manners require only that people show respect, although with the secret hope that the outward form will become internalized. What people feel as they size up individuals is up to them."
(end of column)
So, one might say: "Courtesy is your right; admiration is what you earn."
However, "courtesy towards adults," when you're a child, clearly mandates deference, though not admiration.
Lenona.
lenona at August 23, 2019 9:26 AM
And:
https://www.arcamax.com/homeandleisure/parents/johnrosemond/s-2265236?fs
Short questions I’ve been asked of late (mostly by journalists) and proportionately short answers:
Q: Is there a single most important thing parents should be teaching during their children’s preschool years?
A: The most important thing parents should teach is proper manners. The second and third most important things are proper manners. “Please,” “Thank you,” “You’re welcome,” “Excuse me,” “I’m sorry,” proper mealtime behavior (including eating what everyone else at the table is eating), not interrupting adult conversations, establishing and maintaining eye contact with people who are talking to you, drinking without slurping…those sorts of fundamental courtesies that form the backbone of civilized social behavior.
Q: You didn’t mention anything about academic teaching, like ABCs. Was that a purposeful omission?
A: There is no established correlation between academic learning that takes place prior to first grade and achievement in the third grade. They are certainly well-intentioned, but parents are wasting their time teaching or having some third party – a preschool, for example – teach academic material prior to first grade. Most baby boomers, including yours truly, didn’t even learn their ABCs until first grade, yet when matched demographically, we outperformed today’s kids at every grade level while sitting, mind you, in what today would be considered criminally overcrowded classrooms.
Q: To what do you attribute that?
A: We baby boomers came to school having learned to give our undivided attention to female adults and do what female adults told us to do, which included an arcane thing called daily chores.
Q: Today’s kids aren’t learning to pay attention to women?
A: Relatively speaking, absolutely not, the reason being that since the late 1960s, women have been led to believe by mental health professionals and the media that good mommies pay as much attention to their children as they possibly can. It’s a fact, the more attention a parent pays a child the less attention the child will pay the parent; at the least, the child will only pay attention when he wants something.
Q: What are your thoughts concerning children and smart devices?
A: I know successful adults who do not have smart phones. No parent has ever been able to give me a good reason why a child – by which I mean someone who is not emancipated and paying his or her own bills – should have a smart phone. Let’s face it, parents are buying their children smart phones because they’re (a) afraid of their children and (b) want their children to like them.
Q: What are they afraid of?
A: They’re afraid their children won’t like them.
Q: Why is that?
A: Since the 1960s – when nearly everything about America went topsy-turvy – parents have been led to believe that good parenting is all about having a wonderful relationship with one’s kids. As a result, parental leadership – which eventually produces a good relationship – has gone by the wayside. That’s why the emotional resilience of children has declined dramatically over the last fifty years. Children who think they’re running the show are not well off at all. They’re fundamentally insecure, which is why colleges now have “safe spaces.” If I was sending a child to college today, I would refuse to pay for any college that had a safe space. There’s something fundamentally wrong with adults who cater to children in that sort of way, causing them to remain children for who knows how long.
lenona at August 23, 2019 9:33 AM
Forgot to say: You can scroll down to see the comments on that column.
lenona at August 23, 2019 9:38 AM
The move to prohibit 'exclusionary discipline' isn't coming from the schools or local administrations, or even a significant representation of Ed.theory academics.
It's being driven by government officials and activists. There's actually considerable resistance within the education professions.
This all kicked up during the Obama Administration from his OCR and AG offices who coordinated with their activist networks nationally to agitate for policy changes under the claim that disparate disciplinary actions constitute racism.
What we're seeing repeats similar policies applied in the later 60's into the 70's which destroyed a lot of urban schools. And it's minority-majority schools that suffer most because they lose the ability to discipline most of their student body - guess what happens then.
maura at August 23, 2019 11:19 AM
I bought my kids cheap smart phones because they came with the cell plan, not because I want my kids to like me. Buying them a phone at all was unavoidable, we live out in the country, no one will run a landline there, and they're frequently home without a parent. I also like the convenience of being able to get realtime updates on when they be needing a pickup from practice or a game.
Our little country school has a rigidly enforced dress and behavioral code, complete with a principal with a paddle. They also require all students to be in a school sport. Exercised kids are better behaved, happier kids. And they expect the kids to do their best and improve their performance over time, but they don't expect them to be THE best, so there's not heavy pressure on the kids. They also still have woodworking, shop, and welding offered.
Momof4 at August 23, 2019 12:47 PM
Whoa, I thought those course were axed into oblivion because you can't let inner city kids near buzz saws and/or acetylene torches.
Sixclaws at August 23, 2019 3:31 PM
They were Sixclaws. Suburban ones too. Note "Our little country school ..." Momof4 is lucky to have those opportunities for her kids.
Ben at August 23, 2019 5:16 PM
Format =
> They were Sixclaws.
We have a match!
Crid at August 23, 2019 8:07 PM
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