Reopening schools question.

Nor is it his “job” in a wider context to attend classes for PHSE or learn how to cook etc. just because some parents are poor parents.

This is another disgraceful flippant comment. How can grown ups lack any sort of social understanding or the ability to see wider context! Just because you don’t teach your kid to cook doesn’t make you a poor parent. Up until my early teens I had a single mum parent she didn’t teach me to cook because she was at work trying to run a business and feed two kids. FFS! No wonder our next generation is doomed to fail when people have views like this.

No wonder our next generation is doomed to fail when people have views like this.

Luckily we teachers tend to ignore views like his, and just get on with teaching their kids to be nice, well rounded individuals.

I’ll reiterate what I said earlier in the thread…it would be a sad, joyless, grey world if we only taught what Stevextc wanted.

The use of face coverings in corridors and communal areas of secondary schools is set to be introduced in Scotland.

The government is in the “final stages” of consultations with teachers and councils about having pupils wear face coverings while moving between classes.

I wonder what happens in classrooms that makes them not needed?

I wonder what happens in classrooms that makes them not needed?

Magic. Or alternatively its because those kids will be kept together throughout the day with the masks being when different groups might mix.

Or alternatively its because those kids will be kept together throughout the day with the masks being when different groups might mix.

Unless my school is doing things very differently thats not the case. Year group bubbles that move around at the same time

Unless my school is doing things very differently thats not the case. Year group bubbles that move around at the same time

We’re splitting the school into 2.
Years 7 and 8 will stay put, and teachers will go to them. They will also have an earlier start and finish and an earlier lunch.

Years 9-11 will move around to lessons as normal, later lunch, and will have different breaktime/lunch zones to stop them mixing (haha!)

Unless my school is doing things very differently thats not the case. Year group bubbles that move around at the same time

I’m not sure exactly what that means. But I believe the rationale is either:

(a) you want to be able to identify the people most likely to be at risk from exposure if a pupil is tested positive. The register in a class provides a mechanism to trace and test contacts; but once in a busy corridor etc – the whole school is potentially mixing – so all need tested – face coverings provide the basis for justifying only testing the classmates.

or

(b) an element of the media has (rightly or wrongly) being waiving their arms in the air in protest at social media images of crowds in schools and they have to be seen to do something; but wearing face coverings all day is probably not too effective for either learning or controlling the virus so its more important to look like you do something.

if your school has found a practical way to stop the entire school moving around between subjects and at the start / end of the day – you may have achieved something we have not.

Teaching cookery skills has been part of the curriculum, for probably 100 years! I’m not sure why you don’t think that is an important part of education? Its one skill at school that every student is virtually guaranteed to actually use at some point (not the specific recipe – but the basic how not to get food poisoning, how to make something edible). I’d also suggest is far more than some parents who haven’t taught their kids how to cook; often because they themselves were never taught well in the first place. We are in a nation with an obesity issue where people where queuing in cars for a mile to get to a McD’s when lockdown lifted. I can actually think of few more useful things to both the individual and the country to teach in a school (sadly its often done badly)!

Which is it?
I certainly had no cooking classes in school…
I most certainly didn’t need school to teach me.
Yet despite this “We are in a nation with an obesity issue where people where queuing in cars for a mile to get to a McD’s when lockdown lifted. ”

It’s obviously not working is it? (**=Voltaire letters)

Since you seem obsessed with education purely being about training people for work – I’m not sure how you would expect people for discover careers in the food sector if it wasn’t for a bit of school exposure?

Non of the chefs I know (very well) had any exposure at school.. one just didn’t want to shoot people any more and retrained. This argument is like saying we should teach kids to make cocktails at school or we would have no barstaff.

Many of society’s issues, are exactly the sort of things PHSE is aimed at addressing; the threads on here about relationship issues, employment problems, CV writing, parenting challenges, mental health are all things which seem to be in the general area that is covered in these sort of topics at my children’s school – much broader than the sex and drugs ed that was done at my school. More recently there’s a lot of emphasis on team work, customer service, leadership and personal development.

20% would not be a small minority. I expect that its nothing like 80% who would cover everything this touches on without the school leading the way. Even if it is, do you think that 1/5 children should be left to suffer because their parents are not as good as you at parenting? or do you think that the school can play a role in helping to bring up the life chances of that 1/5 to give them something closer to the excellent chance you think your son will get from you? In doing so does it help your son understand that not everyone in society has parents like you.

I’m not claiming to be “good” at parenting … I’m saying its my/our business and not that of the school. This is the whole problem that teachers think there is their way and a wrong way.
It’s just not working though …

I assure you, that having been looking at potential school leavers recently (as well as being a regular employer of new graduates) that qualifications are not what differentiates them.

Which is probably a large part of the reason the UK isn’t competitive in a global market.

**Voltaire letters…
My OH spent 12 years being forced to learn Russian, she hates it. As Voltaire remarked to Hume on Quakers … trying to force them not to wear buttons simply ends up with many rebelling completely.

Joepud

I don’t understand what you have against DT, food, art classes going on in school?

You obviously did way better than average in English …
Despite this a very large part of the UK population is unable to read and write English anywhere near your level.

A scarily large proportion of the UK seem to have managed to leave school after 13 years without basic arithmetic and English. We need to sort this before we add in optional stuff.
If we have the time and resources I have nothing against this but until the overwhelming majority of the population leave school writing as eloquently as you we are missing the mark.

Jumping back to Poly… it’s all well and good teaching CV writing once people can actually read and write and think critically. I go back to the point it’s simply not working.

Many of the most core skills are highly transferable too – reading detailed instructions; planning your time; understanding basic quantities and costing; being organised and cleaning up afterwards; working with others; knowing when to ask for help.

All fine and dandy, assuming the kids can actually READ and to arithmetic…

Jeez, I had cooking at school in primary on an as hoc basis and every year in secondary until I dropped it when I did my options – which was a mistake as I was top of the year in the exams 🤦‍♂️

This is another disgraceful flippant comment. How can grown ups lack any sort of social understanding or the ability to see wider context! Just because you don’t teach your kid to cook doesn’t make you a poor parent. Up until my early teens I had a single mum parent she didn’t teach me to cook because she was at work trying to run a business and feed two kids. FFS! No wonder our next generation is doomed to fail when people have views like this.

I’m not the one saying how its somehow a valid thing to waste kids time on at school.
Coming from a single parent family where my mum was working to support us two kids I just taught myself.

Do that today and some meddling teacher will find out the kids been cooking alone and have social services round.

I wonder what happens in classrooms that makes them not needed?

I wondered this, and came to the conclusion that it would be difficult to teach and learn if everyone was in masks.

Jeez, I had cooking at school in primary on an as hoc basis and every year in secondary until I dropped it when I did my options – which was a mistake as I was top of the year in the exams

It’s not a mistake if you chose subjects that you wanted to do instead and they enabled you to do something else. Nor is it a requirement to go to culinary school anyway should you wish to.

@stevextc – this is the last time I will respond to your misinformed and shortsighted gibberish, after this post I’m just going to ignore anything you say.

*Edit – deleted, as nothing anyone says is going in, and you’re obviously so impressed by your own towering intelligence that you don’t need to listen to anyone else.

Can I just ask one thing? If you want to continue to bash schools and UK education can you start your own topic. This is meant to be a thread on reopening schools after lockdown, not a platform for you to talk shite.

Can I just ask one thing? If you want to continue to bash schools and UK education can you start your own topic. This is meant to be a thread on reopening schools after lockdown, not a platform for you to talk shite.

If we wish to fully reopen schools which will cost lives it should bone under the full disclosure of WHY.

Non of this bullshit about “vulnerable kids” and the rest of the bullshit because make no mistake this will kill people so little Johhny/Jenni can pretend to learn to cook or some other thing they will never do again after they escape school.

You obviously did way better than average in English …
Despite this a very large part of the UK population is unable to read and write English anywhere near your level.

A scarily large proportion of the UK seem to have managed to leave school after 13 years without basic arithmetic and English. We need to sort this before we add in optional stuff.
If we have the time and resources I have nothing against this but until the overwhelming majority of the population leave school writing as eloquently as you we are missing the mark.

I failed every single GCSE apart from graphic design and thats no word of a lie every other grade was a series of Ds, Es and Us. Im one of the kids who left school after 13 years without basic arithmetic and English. For me (and many others) your “optional stuff” was vital to school life its where I was the most engaged and the only place I got any sort of encouragement from teachers. Your logic of taking that away would destroy so many kids lives and make school a truly awful experience. Imagine going to every single class and being the worst there, and in the lowest set for everything? its not ideal for your mental health.

I just don’t understand how you can’t see the value in investing in kids who will in the future contribute to the creative industry thats worth over 100bn in the uk also 3% of world GDP

Im so grateful for my design tech and multi media teachers who pushed me and told me uni was a possible for someone like me. Thanks to them I have worked for some of the biggest tech companies in the world and worked on campaigns for huge companies. The creative subjects are not optional they are a lifeline for so many kids at school and it makes me sad you don’t realise that.

Im so grateful for my design tech and multi media teachers who pushed me and told me uni was a possible for someone like me

This is why I teach.
Believe me, listening to the crap a lot of parents and politicians spout (every **** an expert aren’t they) makes me doubt my career choice, but then I remember I’m not doing it for them.

Best teaching moments? Most are nothing to do with my subject…

I remember being given a homemade thank you card by a year 9 student.
In one of my PSHE lessons I’d talked about my gay sister, and some of the problems she’d encountered coming out as a professional sports person.
This kid had never met someone who talked about gay relatives before (small Devon town in the noughties), and made it seem normal (!), and they felt able to come out to me in their letter.
I know that they came out publicly when they went up to 6th form, and I’m glad that in a small way I was able to help them be themselves.

I’m saying its my/our business and not that of the school. This is the whole problem that teachers think there is their way and a wrong way.

You do realise its not us who decides what is taught dont you?

Also if you are going to bang on about how disgraceful it is that lots of kids cant read write or do basic maths could youvat least try to stop spelling none incorrectly?

remember being given a homemade thank you card by a year 9 student.
In one of my PSHE lessons I’d talked about my gay sister, and some of the problems she’d encountered coming out as a professional sports person.
This kid had never met someone who talked about gay relatives before (small Devon town in the noughties), and made it seem normal (!), and they felt able to come out to me in their letter.
I know that they came out publicly when they went up to 6th form, and I’m glad that in a small way I was able to help them be themselves.

Useless, you should have been teaching them to pass an English or Maths exam. Non of that PHSCE is needed you should leave it to the parents 😏

We’ve been back two weeks. Up to now the junior years have been pretty much stationary in rooms with staff moving, doesn’t work for practical subjects and staff who’s rooms are being used are struggling so now we’ve split to two week timetables with periods being doubled up (1,3,6 one week, 2,4,7 the other)
Even in a practical lesson with max of 20 social distancing is nigh on impossible. Doing experiments following the protocols is not a long term fix and assignments in exam years is ridiculous but sqa replied to me today saying it’s to go ahead as normal. 3490 days until I can retire.

Even in a practical lesson with max of 20 social distancing is nigh on impossible.

Ooh, you lucky barsteward!
They’ve crammed 29-30 in each of our yr7 & 8 DT lessons.
My yr11 class this coming year has 24 pupils!

We keep bringing up the DATA guidance on numbers in practical lessons, and their response is always ‘oh, that’s just advisory.’

We’ve decided on zero practical work in the DT dept until at least October half-term, then we’ll review it

Lots of drawing skills! They’ll be isometric wizards by November.
Not even sure if we’ll have access to computers for CAD lessons 😟

I’ve not read most of this thread, from what I have seen its the usual fairly sensible discussion punctuated by people being rude and offensive to each other.
For whatever reason I’ve felt the need to just say I’m so glad my 13 year old daughter will be going back to school next week. She’s coped fine with lockdown but it’s a dull life for a young person.
I accept there’s an increased risk to me, magnified by the fact my wife is a teacher, however I put that to the back of my mind (as does my wife) and focus on what’s best for my child. Isn’t that what parents do?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53884401

Anxiety levels among young teenagers dropped during the coronavirus pandemic, a study has suggested.

Thirteen to 14-year-olds were less anxious during lockdown than they had been last October, according to the University of Bristol survey.

Researchers surveyed 1,000 secondary school children in south west England.

They said the results were a “big surprise” and it raised questions about the impact of the school environment on teenagers’ mental health.

Bit of research that exposes the lies involved in the narrative that all the children need to get back into school for their mental health.

Obviously, it’s not Been the best experience for all of them – but it makes you wonder what’s going wrong when so many kids actually have mental health improvements from lockdown.

focus on what’s best for my child

Who do you think isn’t doing this?

it makes you wonder what’s going wrong when so many kids actually have mental health improvements from lockdown.

Exam stress from a curriculm made too hard and all final exam assesment I reckon. Plus all the other teenage bullshit thatvseems to just getvworse year on year

Bit of research that exposes the lies involved in the narrative that all the children need to get back into school for their mental health.

Obviously, it’s not Been the best experience for all of them – but it makes you wonder what’s going wrong when so many kids actually have mental health improvements from lockdown.

I saw that news item and emailed the authors at Bristol univ and got a quick reply. The most surprising thing for me was that the researchers were surprised that overall anxiety decreased during lockdown. School, with associated massive peer, social media and exam pressures is a massive struggle for lots of young people. Covid is a threat but at least they have some control by staying at home.

They acknowledged they might have over-emphasised the ‘surprised’ bit and I am hoping to have further discussions with them about what support young people need.

joepud

I failed every single GCSE apart from graphic design and thats no word of a lie every other grade was a series of Ds, Es and Us. Im one of the kids who left school after 13 years without basic arithmetic and English.

You’re written English is way above an average (as defined by wot peeple writes on Facebook) and that on one hand is a credit to you … on the other hand it begs the question how did you end up with Ds, Es and Us?

Had I gone with what my school told me at 15 I would have got the same with Tech Drawing, Woodwork and Metalwork…

For me (and many others) your “optional stuff” was vital to school life its where I was the most engaged and the only place I got any sort of encouragement from teachers.

This is exactly my point… why didn’t you get encouragement from any other teachers? If you didn’t then it hardly seems you were going to be engaged?

Your logic of taking that away would destroy so many kids lives and make school a truly awful experience. Imagine going to every single class and being the worst there, and in the lowest set for everything? its not ideal for your mental health.

I don’t need to imagine… I was there.
The relentless beating down by teachers … and the “he’s from a single parent family..” crap.
I only took history because that was the combined history/PE teacher and the one who took those of us who couldn’t afford school trips on cycling holidays and borrowed a touring bike for me.
Ironically it was the only subject I didn’t get an A.

Im so grateful for my design tech and multi media teachers who pushed me and told me uni was a possible for someone like me. Thanks to them I have worked for some of the biggest tech companies in the world and worked on campaigns for huge companies. The creative subjects are not optional they are a lifeline for so many kids at school and it makes me sad you don’t realise that.

Nothing wrong with that… what pains me is you (or me for that matter) didn’t get encouraged elsewhere.
I don’t know if you worked on your English after you left school or you simply performed to the level you were expected when still at school?

The hypocrisy of this is after I passed my O levels the school had the cheek to ask if I wanted to stay on to do A levels… the same teachers who had told me I might scrape a few CSE’s and tried to prevent me entering myself for O levels were falling over each other. That was the first time any of them ever mentioned University. The deputy head was also a Chemistry teacher, I wasn’t even allowed to take separate sciences as subjects because I was in the lowest stream (9 streams with top 3 taking O level, mid 3 taking CSE and bottom 3 told to take combined science along with practical subjects) so I completely taught myself but he “invited” me to take my Chemistry and Physics A levels in their 6th form after 5 years of pretending I didn’t exist.

Maybe you are more of a the glass is 1/10th full kind of guy… I find it disgraceful you only had one teacher gave you any encouragement at all.

I just don’t understand how you can’t see the value in investing in kids who will in the future contribute to the creative industry thats worth over 100bn in the uk also 3% of world GDP

When those tech companies start offshoring your job you might think differently.

focus on what’s best for my child

Who do you think isn’t doing this?

Is that a trick question?
Perhaps that’s how to explain it?

Is it someone who will be their teacher for a year in a class of 30 others then have a new class next year or is it the parent(s)?

I acknowledge that may include free childcare … but the rest is just a narrative based on a fvew extreme cases.

A scarily large proportion of the UK seem to have managed to leave school after 13 years without basic arithmetic and English.

What proportion? How does that proportion compare to the past? Whilst I accept there is some sampling bias, in that the applicants who come to me have seen a job advert, been interested in it, and gone to the effort of applying – but today’s typical school leavers aren’t thick. Clearly school does fail some pupils – but that’s not because they didn’t try to teach them. Trying to drum the 3Rs into people, and forcing those who struggle to do more of it isn’t the only way to educate.

Those that go to university and graduate are also clearly not thick – but they are often missing basic life skills. That might be the parents’ fault but actually some of them never had those skills either so surely it’s society’s job to correct that? When I compare them to the foreign students we see they are usually much better in those non-accademic skills – but of course I am only seeing a small, highly selective sample of the foreigners who are wealthy, motivated, and supported enough to travel. I’m sure their are people at the opposite end of the spectrum the world over.

I get that you had a disappointing experience at school 20+ yrs ago and assume all schools are the same and all teachers are to blame (so much for critical thinking). I’m always amazed that my children seem to understand how they are learning (and the techniques for learning), and exactly what’s expected of them. Modern schools are nothing like they were in the 80s. Some of that is for the worse – but some of it is definitely for the better. I’m fairly certain that the kids who struggle with basic arithmetic or English when they leave are not doing so because they were being taught other things – they struggle because they weren’t at school; they had some underlying learning issues (dyslexia etc); they had problems at home; some serious attitude issues or indeed all of those.

Do that today and some meddling teacher will find out the kids been cooking alone and have social services round.

Bullshit! Social services don’t have capacity to help every family where the kids are left to fend for themselves. Are you applying the logic of “I didn’t need any help, so why would anyone else”?

stevextc, if you did O levels you must have been at school longer ago than me. Pretty much 30years since I did GCSE’s. It might be time to accept those teachers are likely long gone and focus on the here and now. Bitter and twisted is not good for you. I remember having to do maths all day at primary school because the other kids were making Fathers Day cards and mine had died a few years before. I dont blame all teachers, I blame that teacher.

AA and Poly, I think we can assume that Stevextc hadn’t got what we’d call a growth mindset?

Stevextc – try reading about Carol Dweck’s research. It might help you understand some of what we’re trying to say, and what a lot of modern education is trying to achieve.

Quite a good summary here…

Fixed vs. Growth: The Two Basic Mindsets That Shape Our Lives

You’re written English is way above an average (as defined by wot peeple writes on Facebook) and that on one hand is a credit to you … on the other hand it begs the question how did you end up with Ds, Es and Us?

because im dyslexic and re-read stuff countless times.  I would do really well in coursework but when it came to tests i couldn’t spell well enough or recite facts to pass tests. I can design you a website or app in a few days but ask me to put together a powerpoint and its gonna take me twice as long. Im simply a practical learner who is better suited to solve problems than trying to come up with a theory as to why Hitler lost WW2 or predict data trends in the economy.

This is exactly my point… why didn’t you get encouragement from any other teachers? If you didn’t then it hardly seems you were going to be engaged?

that I can’t answer really, maybe I didn’t do well so didn’t bother to try and teachers have a mental amount of work to do in their day plus deal with their own issues. But the answer isn’t stop the “optional subjects” and make those teachers teach “core” subjects just so they can have more classes to get some level you decided they need – some kids will never get there. That kid that can’t get there maybe an awesome developer, designer, artists, or what ever else and if you dont let them do “optional” subjects we would starve the world of their future talents.

When those tech companies start offshoring your job you might think differently.

As for this… well you didn’t even answer my question. I gave you UK and global value of creative industries but you still seem unable to see the value of “optional” subjects. If my job was to suddenly go offshore I could move. Its happened to developers to a degree all ready but there is still a need for in house dev the same will be for design. We are lucky here in the UK our creative industry is one of the highest regarded in the world.

A very interesting talk on the importance of fostering creativity in schools from Sir Ken Robinson (RIP)…

stevextc, if you did O levels you must have been at school longer ago than me. Pretty much 30years since I did GCSE’s. It might be time to accept those teachers are likely long gone and focus on the here and now.

I bought into that before my son went to school. (honestly)
Now all I see is a rerun but with added bull on top.

In non stevextc-related news, despite firmly announcing earlier today that they would not be following Scotland’s line on masks in schools, the TES is suggesting that an announcement is imminent from the DfE about masks in social areas of english schools being compulsory.

France flipped to that policy for kids 11 and over last week, ready for September. I hope we make the change before the end of the week, rather than 11pm the night before (most) secondary schools in England go back.

So what happens in Scotland we seem to follow…. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2020/aug/25/uk-coronavirus-live-face-covering-rules-for-students-should-be-kept-under-review-says-union

It seems in the absence of strong leadership schools are beginning to set up their own policies, and Govt. are flexing to align to them, similar to Council’s setting up their own Track & Trace systems.

So is this just downright incompetence, or the Govt. deliberately trying to undermine central rule?

I hope we make the change before the end of the week, rather than 11pm the night before (most) secondary schools in England go back.

Despite being in England, our summer holiday is 2 weeks earlier than the usual school holiday so we’ve been back for just over a week now. Normally we have our second years in lessons and then enrol our new first years students to start in September but we’ve delayed the start four our second years (they’re working from home and we’re providing online lessons). Partly this was so that we could enrol ~1000 new students over more days to enable social distancing, but mainly it was so that we’d start up on-side teaching after all the inevitable last minute policy changes.

Meanwhile our Tory MP is dog whistling about the Proms on Facebook…

Not unusual for sixth form colleges to start in August, hence the “most”.

Good job our PM has finally appeared again… to prattle on about the Proms on TV news items.

Gavin Williamson nominated for MP of the year.

ajantom

In one seminal study, Dweck and her colleagues offered four-year-olds a choice: They could either redo an easy jigsaw puzzle, or try a harder one. Even these young children conformed to the characteristics of one of the two mindsets — those with “fixed” mentality stayed on the safe side, choosing the easier puzzles that would affirm their existing ability, articulating to the researchers their belief that smart kids don’t make mistakes; those with the “growth” mindset thought it an odd choice to begin with, perplexed why anyone would want to do the same puzzle over and over if they aren’t learning anything new. In other words, the fixed-mindset kids wanted to make sure they succeeded in order to seem smart, whereas the growth-mindset ones wanted to stretch themselves, for their definition of success was about becoming smarter.

That is a bizarre conclusion to me.
Not to say which is correct or not but my first thought is a bunch of 4 yr olds being asked to do something they boring when they could be playing then choosing the quickest option the second time is just a sign it seems pointless to them and they want to do something else.
On reflection perhaps it’s both … or perhaps its a whole host of reasons.

My kid gets set “optional” homework… he’s 10 and very articulate and can say exactly why he is not going to do any homework that is optional when he can do the non optional in 5 mins and go and do something he likes. It’s boring and he doesn’t have to do it, why would he? OH told him to do it one day and then she was in the staffroom and his teacher told her not to interfere [I mention this because although I half get it after reading that it’s a one way street… it’s fine for the teacher to interfere in parenting but should another teacher interfere with the homework set for their own child that’s cause to threaten her with having a word with her HoY if this happened again?

Even more disturbing and frankly sinister is that my son thought it acceptable to report his own mother!!!

I rather fear this is “shades of Jennet Device” who testified against her own family over 400 years ago .. assuming the witch catcher actually believed in witchcraft and the narrative of the time.

Things got even more interesting when Dweck brought people into Columbia’s brain-wave lab to study how their brains behaved as they answered difficult questions and received feedback. What she found was that those with a fixed mindset were only interested in hearing feedback that reflected directly on their present ability, but tuned out information that could help them learn and improve. They even showed no interest in hearing the right answer when they had gotten a question wrong, because they had already filed it away in the failure category. Those with a growth mindset, on the other hand, were keenly attentive to information that could help them expand their existing knowledge and skill, regardless of whether they’d gotten the question right or wrong — in other words, their priority was learning, not the binary trap of success and failure.

Again my first guess is those who found these questions relevant vs those who didn’t?
I’m interested in a whole load of stuff but there is a much much longer list of stuff I have no interest whatsoever in knowing or improving.

One of my mates at Uni could tell you every league score, who scored and when over 20+ years…… I wouldn’t even know what league these teams were in.
More to the point I wouldn’t want to know. At 18-20 I would have memorised the phone book for a tenner … or the football results but without a reason WHY the two are and still are equally uninteresting to me.

“What she found was that those with a fixed mindset were only interested in hearing feedback that reflected directly on their present ability, but tuned out information that could help them learn and improve. They even showed no interest in hearing the right answer when they had gotten a question wrong, because they had already filed it away in the failure category.”

What I read … “Dweck had already decided on the losers in the group, everyone is a winner or loser in life and only two mindsets are possible …So she wrote a narrative and set out to prove it. When the subject showed no interest in learning what they didn’t know about pre-raphaelite paint compositions this confirmed her narrative.”

Again, that’s just my first impression … presumably these volunteers were paid the same amount to attend .. I can’t imagine none of them thought “just get it over with and give me my $10…”

What is a “difficult question” anyway? How do you determine a question is equally easy or difficult to the whole group?

“what is the difference between the total amount of oil recommended in a 2016 A1 Pike and 2016 A1 Lyrik set of lowers?”

That’s a ridiculously easy question for me…. as is what’s the maximum number of tokens for both at 160mm. I would be surprised if more than 1% of the UK population can answer it … but why should they? Firstly it’s no no interest to them at all and secondly they would need to learn they are models of Rockshox forks (something they have no interest in) and they use oil to lubricate the bottom part and the bottom part is referred to as the “lowers”

I’m not going to do this for real but imagine I go next door and ask the neighbour… and when he doesn’t know I try and explain but he isn’t interested and makes a polite excuse. I give him or her constructive criticism etc. but what’s the point when they are closed minded?

So… this makes me feel distinctly uncomfortable. Some narrative saying we all fit in one of two mindsets and Dweck decides what’s good and bad?

wonder what happens in classrooms that makes them not needed?

I wondered this, and came to the conclusion that it would be difficult to teach and learn if everyone was in masks.

Mrs Dubs school has a rule – if all the kids are sat facing the same direction, no mask.
If that’s not possible, masks on in class too.