To Miss with Love

[jackstarb]

Did anyone else listen to Radio 4's Book of the Week "To Miss With Love - The remarkable diary of inner-city school teacher Katharine Birbalsingh?

I found is very moving. It's read by the excellent Adjoa Andoh.

Thanks, just listened to the last episode which moved me to tears.

I've heard some this week. I know she's a complete pariah to Guardianistas, but I really think she knows what she's talking about and how some schools fail children. Sad that nothing much will change.

cortina I had a couple of teary moments.

Many of the issues she raises will be familiar to MN education thread regulars: such as the focus on GCSE league tables and Ofsted inspections.

Inky - what she has to say may now be ignored by many Guardian types because of her speech at the Tory conference. Pity.

In episode 3 or 4 she talks about a boy who is bright enough & has the potential for Oxbridge but won't make the grade because his ability/intelligence was stunted after 5 years within a disruptive class who didn't want to learn.

The teachers say they can't make up for 5 years of 'stunted thinking skills' in Oxbridge prep lessons after school. I believe in the concept of learnable intelligence so it piqued my interest. The boy also might not believe he had the potential to do well after these difficult years.

Other comments that were interesting were the Oxbridge admission tutors who said that some essays a potential candidate had written 'were the best they'd ever seen by a state school pupil'.

Cortina - That boy's story was one of my teary moments. Five years in a distruptive environment stunted his ambition to learn and made him lazy. When he makes it to year 12 and A-levels he's too far behind to really catch up. Yes, he'll do ok and get into a 'lower' university and get an ok job - but he could have been so much more. Imo that is one of the 'hidden costs' of our education system.

I think you can "learn to be less intelligent" but whether you can ever fully recover I don't know. As Birbalsingh says those teenage years are vital for brain development. Plus there's the matter of 'work ethic' which was discussed on your thread a few days ago (I lurked).

The 'Oxbridge near miss boy' a black boy who believes he has to make the choice between doing well academically or having friends. He chooses the former.