Maths is a social construct

Maths textbooks should be banned because they intimidate pupils, a leading girls’ school headmistress has said.
Jane Prescott, head of Portsmouth High School said that students risk becoming anxious if they can see that their classmates are “galloping ahead” of them.
The move has been a “confidence booster” for girls, and allows them to “feel encouraged, and feel they are good at Maths”, Ms Prescott said.

Now I always thought that maths is something you can do or can't do, not something you are good at simply because you 'feel' good at it. If there is some area where you are struggling, you need to be taught by a good teacher in order to get a grasp on it. Being made to feel you are doing well, even when you are not, is a load of bollocks

Maths is science, not art

Instead of using textbooks in classes, teachers write questions on the board which cater to different abilities

Eh? Sounds like that would keep everyone at the same level of ability. If some students are anxious "that their classmates are galloping ahead of them", keeping their classmates down at their own level is no good solution in my book. Maybe assisting the anxious pupil and helping them understand the areas they're having trouble with, might be a better idea?

It is the latest school to have taken steps to ensure that pupils’ self-esteem is not dented by the classroom environment.

By reducing everyone to the lowest common denominator

Earlier this year, Putney High School in south-west London banned teachers from writing negative comments on pupils’ end-of-year exams.
The £19,000-a-year school had already stopped grading pieces of work for pupils aged 11 to 14 in order to stop girls getting overly “fixated” on their mark.

Erm...

So if your work isn't graded, how do you know how you have done? It's all very well to not have your work graded if you're rubbish at it anyway. You can just 'feel' you're doing good, and all's well

But what if you actually are doing good? Where's the incentive to keep pushing and keep learning, if you're no different from the bottom rung and your work doesn't get graded anyway?

When marking the Year Nine girls’ end-of-year exams, teachers were banned from making any comments “other than a brief line of genuine praise”.

I remember one particular lesson at my secondary school very well. The usual teacher was off sick, so the PE teacher took over. He had cause to bollock one of the pupils for something or other, but after he was done, he came out with the biggest rubbish I have ever heard. He said that if anyone says something to put someone down, they should follow it with something that brings them back up again. He then praised the lad for his football skills

I pointed out there and then, that he was a PE teacher and knows none of us in any other setting. As I was rubbish at all sports, what could he possibly say to me to 'bring me up again'?

That shit stopped right there

Thinking about it, this being 1990, that teacher was far ahead of his time

Gary Schlick, the head of Bedminster Down School in Bristol, said that issuing pupils with grades, scores and comments on their work may come across as negative, and does little to encourage children to improve.

Showing complete indifference to their performance is probably going to harm them a lot more, particularly the good pupils.

And children need negativity. If they are not doing so well, they need to be told that. They need to be told why and they need to be told what has to be done to improve.

Totally avoiding imparting any negativity at all on children, in case their delicate feelings are hurt, only serves to make sure they are never able to deal with negativity. When they become adults, they will find very quickly how few people care about their feelings in the real world, and because of teachers like these idiots, they will have no way of dealing with that

That's how we get snowflakes

Under the new regime, teachers are encouraged to replace traditional marking with a series of techniques which Mr Schlick believes will boost attainment.

What a twat!