The Problem with Low Expectations | Katharine Birbalsingh

Katharine Birbalsingh insists that holding low education standards for disadvantaged children is detrimental to their learning. She argues that these students need to be held to the highest standard in order to excel in tertiary education, their career and life.
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Katharine Birbalsingh
/ miss_snuffy

[@philippawesterman8843]

Wish we had a Birbalsingh in our education system! Ben Carson's mother had that belief and instilled it in her son. HE was responsible for what he did with the cards he was dealt with. 😊

[@szkoclaw]

Imagine a kid starts at 10% less 'talented'. Then you give them 10% less work to do, because they are 'disadvantaged' and 'need a break'. Again and again. For years. By the time they finish school, they are 80% behind, not just 10%, because on top of their initial disadvantage they simply did less work than the other kids.

[@taskmasterblaster]

You are dead right. There's a book called Outliers that discusses the opposite of this effect (cumulative advantage) at length. It was noticed by a man called Roger Barnesly, that almost all elite youth hockey players were born in 3 months of the year, the 3 months leading up to the cut off to get into any given team on that year - meaning that these were the oldest kids in their teams while moving through the system. This has proven to have a huge impact on other sports, education and almost everything that's been studied. Those players who had a slight advantage by being older and stronger were moved to better teams, got more chance to practice, had more coaching, got scholarships, were told they were good, beleived they were good. And by the time they were adults, out of 2 kids with a simillar amount of talent, one could amount to nothing as a hocky player and one ends up in the pro leagues.

[@RichardEnglander]

That os exactly what happens. And then we are slow to remove the disruptive kids, and they keep damaging lessons, it's adds up and then the whole class does badly.

[@carbonbasedunit3422]

John, your interviewees are pure gold.

[@marianne8280]

Love this, you both seems to be so very good persons. She is right, children who not have support at home need the way it is in her school or they probably will be lost in life. She truly cares. I admire here. Greetings from Sweden.

[@ejvd62]

Incredible, Mr Sunak please make Katherine Secretary of State for Education!

[@Midlife-Adventures]

Thank you both. Good interview/discussion

[@jerrydemeroto4243]

What a wonderful person

[@nigelcass8972]

My experience is the" Yes we are a high achieving school with high expectations of all our kids na-da-na-da..." and when it comes to the first obstacle ie a kid doesnt want to do it the system gives in lets the kid off and nothing changes. Virtually impossible to turn round the tanker unless youve got a high energy Head ie KB who is driven and can fight apathy and passivity. Most schools just give up because its too bloody hard to change direction .

[@ggc7318]

Thank you for telling this out loud.

[@stevenlightfoot6479]

Yeah this is great. How anyone can oppose this approach is beyond me (and yet there are legions who do).

[@OccamsRazor393]

True confidence only comes from your own achievement. If it's put to them that they can Only achieve when the bar is lowered, they will never believe in themselves.. why would they, no one else does. Sad.

[@abazely2743]

And well on the road to victimhood and dependency.

[@kenyafromcali]

Students ONLY achieve up to the level of your expectations. This reality was the first study in my statistics class as well as organizational psychology

[@chito127]

Kids have to be convinced that Life Is Hard, and they better pick a direction and go. Do your best. What else you got to do?

[@StephenBrew1]

This is why I quit public school teaching. The lowering of expectations in the name of equity is infuriating

[@joehaverlock5385]

George W Bush got much wrong as president but IMO one of his finest moments was this quote . "the soft bigotry ...of low expectations " I do not now if he said it first or if I am quoting him precisely but it does ring so true to me.

[@BellaBella-jw9ef]

Love her!!

[@nterry894100]

Give her a shot and being PM in the UK.

[@Hellsaint1]

I wish this had come sooner. The boulder is already sliding down the hill.

[@gwynjames2077]

Amazing woman where is her Dame hood or Lordship?

[@trevermcdonald2402]

A woman who actually understands that success in not a dirty word. In the UK we have so many left wing apologist's in our education system, media and the left of centre political parties that failure is ok. it is not, we should be praising individuality, praising success and praising winners.

[@robharris5467]

Bring this wman to NZ!

[@ggc7318]

Wow ! Bring her to California USA. Everyone is a victim here.

[@BellaBella-jw9ef]

What school does she teach at?

[@sourcescience]

There is no greater mistake than to nothing just because you can only do a little.

[@GUITARLEGEND956]

Nobody gets to have an opinion on remote indigenous communities in Australia until they have lived on one. Foetal alcohol syndrome can't just be managed away.

[@uselesstube]

Ukraine indicates that there are many in the west that do not wish to make sacrifices for a better world..

[@minhsun5441]

In 1893,The Statue of Liberty in New York was the gift by the French government to the people of Viet Nam . Vietnam was the most valuable colony, the French want to give their daughter to America or other countries? The French force all the emperor and Kings to marry the French Lady. The last emperor was buried along side with top writers, millitary , political leaders in Paris. On many occasion, Vietnam request to bring the body of all former King and emperors back to Vietnam to be buried in Hue Emperial Palace, the French government come up with all kind of excuses and reason to reject it. so hot ( 6 pack Body)So sad for Australian , they got nothing from England. Now the Indian Jones became PM of UK. If I am Aussie I cant accept that, show disrespect to me and my family.

[@rakhimukerji7937]

What is.this indiana Jones business?He is faithful TORY.Like many people I am not his.great admirer but he is a TORY compromise.candidate

[@sarahlaslett3279]

I understand what the lady is saying and there is value in much of it...But in my opinion it is too simplistic. She is to be congratulated that she didn't give up on establishing a school in a difficult area and that she is obviously giving her pupils as rich and as rounded an education as possible and challenging much that needs to be challenged in the present system. Thst being said to treat disadvantages in a child's life as though they are entirely irrelevant is to overlook a significant factor of child's development and why they may be struggling. Children can be traumatised to one degree or another which can very much affect their level of concentration. If that is not understood then assumptions may be made about their level of intelligence and potential. Yes children of whatever background should be challenged and helped to do their best but not every child is going to be a high achiever as the word is commonly understood. Doing their their best is in itself a high achievement. I was at school in the 50's and 60's. Much of it was good and what was good has sadly been lost but it tended to only recognise a particular kind of intelligence and was a rather "one size fits all" system and if you didn't fit you went to a school and had s far lower level of education. Some children are more sensitive and analytical and are better suited to less quantity of subjects otherwise their particular gifting will not develop and be as useful as it might have been. To push a child too hard, in my opinion, is just bad as not encouraging and challenging a child enough To push a child too hard and entirely overlook the effects of their background can actually be damaging. When a child is pushed too hard the abilities they do have may never be realised. They may also have parental pressure which may follow them after school and cause them to apply for jobs they are not suited to and fail. They can be left believing they are essentially failure material and cause them to give up and their potential to achieve may never be realised. The latter can amount to seriously failing a child in their education. This discussion suggests that a person's value is to be measured by their level of achievement. That is a false measure. Doing their best and having a kind and respectful attitude to others and maintaining these attributes also amounts to high achievement and a high level of contribution to society.

[@saltburner2]

"to treat disadvantages in a child's life as though they are entirely irrelevant is to overlook a significant factor of child's development ..." That is precisely what she is not doing. Her philosophy seems to be that disadvantage need not be a barrier to progress. As many others have discovered before, one can succeed in spite of disadvantage. The philosophy of the Left seems to be: because of your disadvantage, you can never succeed. That has been called 'the soft bigotry of low expectations', and she is right to fight against it.

[@BellaBella-jw9ef]

I think you missed her point completely. The pendulum has swung too far left. It needs to be corrected.

[@btiger1281]

Get back to basics, kids in the 1950s and 60s had the same problems if not more then ones today , much larger families , and not much in Government hand outs, and people succeeded in life, I don't know anyone that did not , The old saying goes you are a product of your upbringing.

[@rrickarr]

And non-white men ALSO write beautiful things!!!!!! And Jesus would be one of them!!!!! Are you saying that only white men are in the canon!!!! YOu can read Shakespeare and you can read Benjamin Zephaniah!!!!! And whether you read this or that has NOTHING to do with expectations. Expectation require that students read from a variety of perspectives and can enter a GLOBAL world!

[@stellercorpse]

what are you talking about expectations are white supremacy

[@caliconservative20]

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@tondamarsee1865]

Nordic_Chief, you are insane, seek mental health eval ASAP