Writing from a sleepy nest in Bavaria, this story takes my breath away, as have many similar information bites from the UK and USA. Bavaria is considered by many to be the most conservative and educationally backward federal state in Germany (while others consider it to be at the cutting edge, of course). It's also the state that stamped out a beautiful little school for self-directed learning before its (already visible) success stories became too numerous and challenging – and yet I think even here the education minister would instantly be sacked if he or she tolerated something like having kids walk around with ATL scores for all to see. (In Germany there is still a healthy degree of abhorrence to brand marks of that kind, I'm glad to say.)
What on earth do those responsible think they're doing?? Do they ever read ANYTHING evidence-based about psychological, socialogical, educational science?
I don't think this is helpful to neurodivergent kids. As there behaviour isn't dependant on being offered the chance to access an iced bun at break. If you can't meet their needs educationally your the cause of them being not given equality when it comes to break access to treats indoors. Just another way to highlight NT favorability in the education system. And don't get me started on the small % of PDA kids who's nervous system will be activated because to them this is considered a demand they cannot meet. All in all school will contribute more to damage of mental health to send pupils.
Interesting....did they tell them beforehand the rewards; I very much doubt it. Any cunning teenager might have given the answers required without really believing them to be true. Our society values cunning sadly.
At Baker/Training days when I used to teach, the Senior Management Team always got first to the head of the queue at lunchtime.
So much needs changing in Education for kids to really enjoy school.
A very insightful commentary on an appalling idea. Demonstrates how wedded the educational system is to 'behaviouralist' interventions and punitive systems rather than having any understanding of child development and neurodivergence.
I am appalled by this concept! At school, on this scale, I would have achieved a 1 by dint of isolating myself from my peers who I didn’t understand and being terrified of getting anything wrong. At secondary school, I doubt if I said more than a few sentences to anyone during my 7 years of education but this would have translated into having a good attitude. My son who is neurodiverse with EF difficulties would be a 3 and despite all his attempts to get better, he would never be able to achieve a higher level though his attitude and commitment to learning is far greater than mine ever was. I can’t believe that, in this day and age, with all we know about child development, learning, EF and ‘behaviour’, we could be so stupid as to think this would be a good idea! I’m increasingly glad we took our kids out of school to learn at home.
This makes me want to weep with the ignorance and cruelty of it. I echo the closing statement from Charles Warcup in the comments. We have so much work to do.
I found this schools ‘intervention’ extremely disturbing. Not a good way to bring our the individual potential of each child and instead a recipe for pride or low self esteem, competitiveness and jealousy and many other negative traits I won’t bother to list, none of which will help any of them to become effective communicators in the future, whether in the workplace, or elsewhere.
Wow this is straight up discrimination to the creative kids. To the kids who will be entrepreneurs and don't like to be under the thumb of others. This is exclusion of the smartest kids.
I guess they want the mindless at this school. The ones who do as they say and pretend to like it. Why are these people so stupid.
They are only going to produce kids who do nothing but exist to wait for the next command with this attitude. So much for changing the world for good. This is regression as far as I can see.
What’s your attitude to learning, at school, in this strange construct. How very bloody sad. I am disorganised, have trouble focussing, can’t work well to long administrative tasks without skipping & skimming & yet I would say - hand on heart that I adore learning. This concept of a score is disgusting. So disgusting. Wtaf
Writing from a sleepy nest in Bavaria, this story takes my breath away, as have many similar information bites from the UK and USA. Bavaria is considered by many to be the most conservative and educationally backward federal state in Germany (while others consider it to be at the cutting edge, of course). It's also the state that stamped out a beautiful little school for self-directed learning before its (already visible) success stories became too numerous and challenging – and yet I think even here the education minister would instantly be sacked if he or she tolerated something like having kids walk around with ATL scores for all to see. (In Germany there is still a healthy degree of abhorrence to brand marks of that kind, I'm glad to say.)
What on earth do those responsible think they're doing?? Do they ever read ANYTHING evidence-based about psychological, socialogical, educational science?
Disgusted of Utting
I don't think this is helpful to neurodivergent kids. As there behaviour isn't dependant on being offered the chance to access an iced bun at break. If you can't meet their needs educationally your the cause of them being not given equality when it comes to break access to treats indoors. Just another way to highlight NT favorability in the education system. And don't get me started on the small % of PDA kids who's nervous system will be activated because to them this is considered a demand they cannot meet. All in all school will contribute more to damage of mental health to send pupils.
Interesting....did they tell them beforehand the rewards; I very much doubt it. Any cunning teenager might have given the answers required without really believing them to be true. Our society values cunning sadly.
At Baker/Training days when I used to teach, the Senior Management Team always got first to the head of the queue at lunchtime.
So much needs changing in Education for kids to really enjoy school.
A very insightful commentary on an appalling idea. Demonstrates how wedded the educational system is to 'behaviouralist' interventions and punitive systems rather than having any understanding of child development and neurodivergence.
I am appalled by this concept! At school, on this scale, I would have achieved a 1 by dint of isolating myself from my peers who I didn’t understand and being terrified of getting anything wrong. At secondary school, I doubt if I said more than a few sentences to anyone during my 7 years of education but this would have translated into having a good attitude. My son who is neurodiverse with EF difficulties would be a 3 and despite all his attempts to get better, he would never be able to achieve a higher level though his attitude and commitment to learning is far greater than mine ever was. I can’t believe that, in this day and age, with all we know about child development, learning, EF and ‘behaviour’, we could be so stupid as to think this would be a good idea! I’m increasingly glad we took our kids out of school to learn at home.
This makes me want to weep with the ignorance and cruelty of it. I echo the closing statement from Charles Warcup in the comments. We have so much work to do.
I found this schools ‘intervention’ extremely disturbing. Not a good way to bring our the individual potential of each child and instead a recipe for pride or low self esteem, competitiveness and jealousy and many other negative traits I won’t bother to list, none of which will help any of them to become effective communicators in the future, whether in the workplace, or elsewhere.
Wow this is straight up discrimination to the creative kids. To the kids who will be entrepreneurs and don't like to be under the thumb of others. This is exclusion of the smartest kids.
I guess they want the mindless at this school. The ones who do as they say and pretend to like it. Why are these people so stupid.
They are only going to produce kids who do nothing but exist to wait for the next command with this attitude. So much for changing the world for good. This is regression as far as I can see.
What’s your attitude to learning, at school, in this strange construct. How very bloody sad. I am disorganised, have trouble focussing, can’t work well to long administrative tasks without skipping & skimming & yet I would say - hand on heart that I adore learning. This concept of a score is disgusting. So disgusting. Wtaf