DianaTraining to be a High Achiever????
April 1st 2008 09:26
Yesterday I took my daughter to undertake an academic assessment to see if it was worth her applying for a select entry school for next year.
It was quite a gruelling day all up. The assessments took 3 hours. Then they were corrected and I was granted an interview with my daughter and told the outcome.
Then my daughter was sent out of the room while I was given further information.
At 3.40pm we wobbled our way down the triple-storey Victorian terrace stairs and out into the afternoon sun. Noticing her palidity and myself feeling a little shaky we despatched ourselves to the nearest coffee shop for restorative sustenance.
We discussed the outcomes.
She scored very, very high for literacy (top 3%) Only moderately high for numerical. (top 30%) To gain entry into the school she is aiming for she needs to be in the top 10 or 15% of the State. Her maths was not in that bracket. Her literature results might pull up her overall mark, but still.
I want her to forget the idea, I think it is too high an aim. I am worried she will be hurt in the process, or lose some of her lovely confidence. I don’t think I even want her to go to this academically elite school cos I think it will be too serious or narrow for her.
Probably I am wrong. Do I support her in her aim, pay lots of money and watch her work hard for 10 weeks? Or do I tell her to forget it?
But get this: some of the ‘courses’ this coaching establishment offers includes preparation for high achievement classes! Now, how do you ‘prepare’ a student (usually a 10 or 11 year old) to be a high achiever????
That goes totally against the whole grain of what high achiever classes are all about! If a student if prepared for the test but is not really a ‘high achiever’ they won’t fit in for a start, they will find the concept of the class beyond them. Of course, many, many schools have got onto the ‘high-achiever class’ band-wagon in an effort to attract students to their school. It has become educationally political, fashionable.
Last year I taught a so-called high-achiever class at one of my schools and the children were of very average material. But it massages the parents’ egos to have their offspring selected and it looks good on the school brochure.
Cynical? Sure am.
It was quite a gruelling day all up. The assessments took 3 hours. Then they were corrected and I was granted an interview with my daughter and told the outcome.
Then my daughter was sent out of the room while I was given further information.
At 3.40pm we wobbled our way down the triple-storey Victorian terrace stairs and out into the afternoon sun. Noticing her palidity and myself feeling a little shaky we despatched ourselves to the nearest coffee shop for restorative sustenance.
We discussed the outcomes.
She scored very, very high for literacy (top 3%) Only moderately high for numerical. (top 30%) To gain entry into the school she is aiming for she needs to be in the top 10 or 15% of the State. Her maths was not in that bracket. Her literature results might pull up her overall mark, but still.
I want her to forget the idea, I think it is too high an aim. I am worried she will be hurt in the process, or lose some of her lovely confidence. I don’t think I even want her to go to this academically elite school cos I think it will be too serious or narrow for her.
Probably I am wrong. Do I support her in her aim, pay lots of money and watch her work hard for 10 weeks? Or do I tell her to forget it?
But get this: some of the ‘courses’ this coaching establishment offers includes preparation for high achievement classes! Now, how do you ‘prepare’ a student (usually a 10 or 11 year old) to be a high achiever????
That goes totally against the whole grain of what high achiever classes are all about! If a student if prepared for the test but is not really a ‘high achiever’ they won’t fit in for a start, they will find the concept of the class beyond them. Of course, many, many schools have got onto the ‘high-achiever class’ band-wagon in an effort to attract students to their school. It has become educationally political, fashionable.
Last year I taught a so-called high-achiever class at one of my schools and the children were of very average material. But it massages the parents’ egos to have their offspring selected and it looks good on the school brochure.
Cynical? Sure am.
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Comment by St-Christopher
At a time when "underperforming" seems to be the sorry watchword of education, it's unsettling to come across someone bemoaning the plight of the overachievers. Forget the impoverished teenagers stuck in anarchic schools that would shame the worst Third World potentate; it's the kids with a shot at DreamLarge Melbourne who've really got problems. They have too much homework in too many classes, extracurriculars that require their leadership and parents who feel entitled to a sticker from a name-brand college on their car. And then there are VCE prep classes to attend, etc
Their are kid struggling to cope:hair is falling out; panic attacks before physics tests; so afraid of falling behind that kids go to school even when she's terribly sick. And what's it all for? Admission to a top-ranked uni. Parents screaming "You want to spend time with friends?" The agonizing over romances gone awry and test scores that don't measure up reads truer than any yearbook ever could.
There is a nationwide crisis of "overachieverism," in which high school has become a competitive frenzy . . . a hotbed for Machiavellian strategy. While that is undoubtedly true for a subset of students from a subset of high schools gunning for a subset of very exclusive colleges, most students graduate blissfully unscathed. Teachers and parents in schools across the land, beg for such a plague of competitive frenzy. Indeed, according to the Department of Education, the vast majority of students attend colleges that accept more than half of those applying.
But is there an overachievement crisis? Sleep deprivation, suicide, eating disorders, cheating, college admissions and Asian educational systems. Wealth and privilege (and their opposites) play into this thesis. It's bizarre that the schools in some American cities observe toddlers at play to decide which ones will make the cut.
Be kind to our kids! Tomorrow's problems are found in today's "solutions".