I was interested to read Judith O’Reilly’s article in The Sunday Times over the weekend about their Rich List and the number of highly successful business people who ‘failed’ at school.
On the one hand, it’s a compelling narrative and most teachers will be able to think of former pupils who ‘made good’ despite all predictions to the contrary.
I remember one boy whose dyslexia meant that when he joined the school aged 13, he couldn’t spell his own name consistently but who is now a journalist working on a daily broadsheet.
Unfortunately for the anecdote, it’s not The Grauniad.
Of course, it may be a narrative with some truth in it. It’s clear to see how a ‘disruptive personality’ might be problematic in a classroom but highly advantageous in ‘the market’.
Equally, there is compelling research to support the idea that grit and resilience are vital factors in long-term success. I’m certain those qualities are only really learnt by confronting challenges.
Maybe some of those undeniably successful entrepreneurs can now look back on miserable, failure-filled schooldays in that favourable light, their later lives ‘strengthened and transfigured’ by the process of dealing with daily difficulty.
Maybe that gets easier with every additional million?
Maybe. But I bet it didn’t feel like that at the time.
I bet Theo Paphitis’ admission that “I didn’t enjoy school at all - it was awful” is nearer the mark.
I know my Arthur Miller. I know that, for every Theo Paphitis with the capacity to cope and even thrive, there are countless Willy Lomans, their lives conditioned by a deep-seated lack of self-worth.
So, let’s not be distracted by the opium-like allure of such stories - or by the sub-plot where only dull conformists do well at school.
Instead, we need to examine what we’re doing to help the children for whom school is awful.
Specifically, how are we using technology to help and, more pertinently, how could we use it better?
I think it’s likely undiagnosed dyslexia lies at the root of much of the discomfort suffered by our students.
Why are we allowing so many to struggle through our school system without help when it’s possible to screen every six year old in a matter of minutes?
Why are we still making children write everything in exercise books when the (free) speech to text software built into every Google Doc would enable them to express themselves with relative ease?
Why are we not using interactive video as a daily tool to help us to deliver instructional content in a personalised, differentiated way?
Why do we make it so difficult for students to sit exams on computers? The rule is that anyone can use a laptop where it is ‘their normal way of working within the centre’ but there’s a conspiracy of silence where schools don’t tell their pupils because they know they couldn’t cope with the invigilation requirements.
There is so much educational technology out there now which is easy to use, reliable and, given the potential benefits, affordable.
We seem happier to buy into a dream than to confront the day-to-day difficulties and actually make a difference.
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