Book review: What can we do when school’s not working?
My child is one of many for whom school doesn’t work. This isn’t something you choose, and when it happens to you, everything you thought you knew about schools and learning is suddenly thrown into complete disarray. I’ve never felt more validated and seen than I did reading this book.
As a parent of a child who can’t currently attend school, I am used to constantly being gas lit by professionals, especially by school senior leaders.
Here are a few of the damaging and misleading things school senior leadership teams do:
Misquote research to imply that school attendance directly impacts students’ future achievements. The research they’re quoting does show a correlation between attendance and achievement, but it doesn’t show that one causes the other. In other words it shows that kids who attend more school, do better academically but this could arguably be because they are more suited to learning in the school system. The research does not show that improving attendance would have a positive effect on achievement. This has been quoted and requoted by so many leaders that it’s accepted blindly as fact without anyone ever doing their due diligence or challenging it.
Reward high levels of attendance believing such schemes improve overall attendance rates. But rewards can have unintended effects. Some children will become so dependent on rewards they will lose motivation where rewards are not offered, and other children who fail to achieve rewards, can become totally disenfranchised, and lose self confidence believing they are not capable of the things that other kids find easy.
Hold a false and damaging belief that school and teaching skills mastery is the best way to prepare all children for their independence in adulthood. This is one way for children to learn, but children’s brains can develop at different ages, and the ability to learn skills mastery isn’t physiologically possible for some children at the start of their school journeys. Some children will never be suited to this style of learning, but in UK mainstream schools, there isn’t an option to choose different styles.
The school system is becoming more and more rigid, with rules and consequences that can’t, or at least won’t be flexed and teachers who come down with an iron fist against students showing even the slightest mistake or discretion.
This leaves a growing proportion of children feeling unsafe in school, unable to trust adults believing that the system cares more about their rules and saving face than it does their future success (and let’s face it, they’ve got a point!)
My instincts have always told me that trust and relationships are the key to helping my daughter learn; this book confirms that and explains why.
This book has also taught me the facts and theory to explain why traditional schooling methods have broken my child, that it will take time for her to recover, and that school may not ever be the answer, and that would be OK! It’s also shown me what alternatives to school can look like and ways to support my daughter.
They’ve even shared case studies of how different schools are taking innovative approaches to build relationships with students as their primary objective, with learning only following once those relationships are in place.
This book has acknowledged the exact situation we’re in and opened my eyes to the possibilities that exist other than school and refuelled my energy to keep battling the SEND system!
