Why do we have so many children who struggle in school?
After all, if we cast our minds back to our own childhoods and school experiences, were there this many children struggling to cope? I don’t remember any of my peers at school going through the same problems that children of today seem to have. If I look at my old school photos the same people were there every year, we didn’t have children dropping out and having to attend other schools.
I’ve been wondering why this is and I’m fairly sure it’s due to the way the school environment has changed over the years. After all, the number of people who were silently living with Autism or ADHD was no fewer – as evidenced by the number of adult diagnoses currently being sought.
When I was at school, there was no phonics test, no SATS, in fact, the first time I did any kind of assessment was the Richmond Tests just before I moved from Middle School to Secondary School at the end of Year 7 – yes Year 7. These were used to help stream in secondary school, and for those who didn’t do them, we had multiple choice questions and had to fill in little sausage shapes on a computer-readable sheet. The HB pencils were very important so that the computer could read your answer!
And if you look at this class shot of me in my final year of primary school, aged nearly 9 you’ll see that although there was a school uniform – of yellow, green and grey, it was so flexible that almost every child is wearing something different. They all complied with the uniform, and I presume everyone felt comfortable with what they were wearing. As for me, I seem to recall my mother made most of my clothes back then, I’ve no idea why I needed braces!
Class photo final year of primary school
Our schools are rigid and unforgiving establishments, for the most part, these days. The curriculum is packed with so much content there is no time for teachers to relax and make the journey enjoyable for everyone. Everything is tested and assessed and the pressure increases anxiety which is a self-perpetuating downwards spiral, as increased anxiety reduces a person’s ability to cope with a less-than-ideal environment, which in turn raises anxiety.
Last week Izzy Garbutt, a youth MP from Wigan and Leigh spoke eloquently in the Youth Parliament on how she feels the education system is letting young people down.
The challenge we have is this is a systemic issue. There is little an individual school can do to alter the environment. Yes, it can abandon its school uniform, and yes it can find ways to make reasonable adjustments, and adopt a more flexible approach to the joy of learning, however the curriculum is the curriculum and until we overhaul what is taught and how it is assessed, the challenges for neurodiverse children will continue.