Prisons We Choose to Live Inside

by Doris Lessing

Another range of experiments is concerned with how children learn best in school. Some results go flat against some of most cherished current assumptions such as, for instance, that they learn best not when “interested” or “stimulated” but when they are bored. But putting that aside—it is known that children learn best from teachers who expect them to learn well. And most will do badly if not much is expected of them. Now, we know that in classes of mixed boys and girls, most teachers will—quite unconsciously—spend more time on the boys than on the girls, expect much more in scope from the boys, will consistently underestimate the girls. In mixed classes, white teachers will—again quite unconsciously—denigrate the non-white children, expect less from them, spend less time on them. These facts are known—but where are they incorporated, where are they used in schools? In what town is it said to teachers something like this, “As teachers you must become aware of this, that attention is one of your most powerful teaching aids. Attention—the word we give to a certain quality of respect, an alert and heedful interest in a person—is what will feed and nourish your pupils.” (To which of course I can already hear the response: “But what would you do if you had thirty children in your class, how much attention could you give to each?”) Yes I know, but if these are the facts, if attention is so important, then at some point the people who allot the money for schools and for training ...