Minor Horror Stories

Usually, the way our children are being harmed is not dramatic.  It's the little things.  And the damage is often done by good people with good intentions.  Here are a few real-life examples:

For school, a pupil had to do some research about storks.  She posed a few questions for herself about the stork:  What it eats, how it sounds, how far it flies, how long it can stand on one leg...  Stuff that's interesting to a small child.  She found most of the answers, but couldn't answer the last questions - the one about standing on one leg. The teacher said the child didn't need to find the last answer.  She tried hard enough.  The message:  If something is hard to do - never mind.  Just give up.

A pupil hurt a finger on her right-hand in gym class.  Nothing serious - just poor ball-catching.  The next gym class, the pupil goes up to the teacher - unsolicited - and asks for something to do with the left hand instead of just sitting there.  The teacher's response (as prescribed by the ministry of education): "Just sit down for the duration of the lesson."  The message: What you do here is not important, but a show of doing what we are told.  Just be a good and quiet, and don't be noticed.

A pupil, who was ahead of the class, asked the English teacher for more advanced work.  The teacher gladly agreed.  It took over a month and an intervention by the parents for the kid to receive some advanced materials.  The message:  There is no point in trying to do something meaningful.  No sticking out.

Tests and homework are commonly administered.  Usually checked.  Often graded.  Seldom does the pupil get to correct the work and have it be reviewed and approved.  The message:  Error and failure are unremovable stains, not a necessary part of learning and creativity.

In Israel, teachers are not allowed to attend get-togethers after school, for fear they may be considered responsible for any accident, and the ministry of education may be liable.  Insurance/legal stuff.  The message:  The teacher-pupil connection is not a human-to-human connection.  It's limited to the prescribed interactions

On the classroom wall there are words, with spelling or diacritics errors.  They stay there for the kids to learn from in spite of parents informing the teachers. Goes nicely with the tendency to avoid correction of spelling mistakes in pupils' writing.  The message:  Don't sweat the details.  It's good enough for government work.

A second-grader already says "math is hard" and "I am bad at math."  From then on, this internal message keeps being reiterated.  Who knows how to reverse this damage?

A second-grader says science is uninteresting, even though outside of school she is very curious about how things work.  In third grade she is less curious, even outside school.  In fourth grade she avoids science-related activity altogether.  Our work here is done.

No ill will.

No major atrocities.

Just your everyday, garden-variety horrors.