Thread by @naomicfisher

When a rigid school system meets highly variable children, problems arise. Our current system locates these in the children, with possible lifelong consequences. Here's how it happens. 1/

Today a psychologist told me she'd been asked to go into a class to observe a child who was 'behind'. In that classroom, the children were learning about subordinate clauses and struggling with fountain pens. They are aged 7 and 8. 2/

The child who is 'behind' has already experienced failure several times. Phonics screening test in Year 1, taken again in Y2 because that's what you do if you fail. Extra phonics lessons, even though it hadn't worked the first time. 3/

He's of an age where self-directed children are still playing, almost all the time. Where children who can choose what they do will bounce, spin, whirl and run. Where reading may not even be on their agenda yet and few of them are writing anything. 4/

For this child, it's getting to the point of assessments and reports, because he can't spell and doesn't have a clue what a subordinate clause is. There's no option to play all day for a bit longer, or to take things more slowly. 5/

This child will know there is concern. He will know he is thought to be 'behind'. His parents will be worried. He's already forming an opinion of himself as someone who isn't doing well at school. Perhaps he thinks he is stupid. 6/

But the school expectations are arbitrary. There's no reason why 7-year-olds should be able to do subordinate clauses, or spelling, or even reading. It's possible to live a fulfilling 7-year-old life without any these things. If he could choose, he wouldn't be doing them. 7/

Adults have decided, for reasons of their own, that he should learn this. Because he can't do so, he's being assessed and evaluated. But what if there's nothing wrong with him? What if he's just living his 7-year-old life, and it doesn't really require grammar? 8/

It isn't the fault of teachers. They are also subject to arbitrary expectations. There's no feedback loop to those who write the national curriculum to say, this is making 7-year-olds anxious and unhappy, maybe we should leave the subordinate clauses for a few more years? 9/

Knowledge isn't hard to acquire when you're interested. I could look up subordinate clauses right now in seconds. But self esteem, love of learning and a sense of yourself as a competent learner - those things are much harder to find on Google. 10/

That child is likely to grow up feeling that everyone thought he should have done better and that he was lacking in some way. I meet many adults who felt this way. He won't know, from his 7-year-old standpoint, that it was the expectations, not him, which were in error. 11/

It's distress for him and his family. It's the cost of reports from professionals and extra help from the SENCo. It's a legacy of feeling 'behind' which he may carry with him through school. And all for what? Subordinate clauses at seven. 12/

When we set arbitrary goals for children and then find them lacking when they fail to meet them, we create problems which can last a life time. We can't fix the children because there's nothing wrong with them. We have to change the system. 13/