A New York Times article describes a secondary school in England:
The teacher starts to count down, and students uncross their arms and bow their heads, completing the exercise in a flash.
“Three. Two. One,” the teacher says. Pens across the room are put down and all eyes are on the teacher. Under a policy called “Slant” (Sit up, Lean forward, Ask and answer questions, Nod your head and Track the speaker), the students, aged 11 and 12, are barred from looking away.
When a digital bell beeps (traditional clocks are “not precise enough,” the principal says) students walk quickly and silently to the cafeteria in a single line. There they shout a poem — “Ozymandias,” by Percy Bysshe Shelley — in unison, then eat for 13 minutes as they discuss the day’s mandatory lunch topic: how to survive a superintelligent killer snail.
In “‘You Can Hear a Pin Drop’: The Rise of Super Strict Schools in England,” Emma Bubola writes about the spread of schools like these across England:
In the decade since the Michaela Community School opened in northwest London, the publicly funded but independently run secondary school has emerged as a leader of a movement convinced that children from disadvantaged backgrounds need strict discipline, rote learning and controlled environments to succeed.
“How do those who come from poor backgrounds make a success of their lives? Well, they have to work harder,” says the principal, Katharine Birbalsingh, who has a cardboard cutout of Russell Crowe in “Gladiator” in her office with the quote, “Hold the Line.” In her social media profiles, she proclaims herself “Britain’s Strictest Headmistress.”
“What you need to do is pull the fence tight,” she adds. “Children crave discipline.”
Some critics call Ms. Birbalsingh’s model oppressive, but her school has the highest rate of academic progress in England, according to a government measure of the improvement pupils make between age 11 and 16, and the model is becoming increasingly popular.
In a growing number of schools, days are marked by strict routines and detentions for minor infractions, like forgetting a pencil case or having an untidy uniform. Corridors are silent as students are forbidden to speak with their peers.
Some educators express concern about the broader zero-tolerance approach, saying that controlling students’ behavior so minutely might produce excellent academic results, but does not foster autonomy or critical thinking. Punishments for minor infractions can also come at a psychological cost, they say.
“It’s like they’ve taken 1984 and read it as a how-to manual as opposed to a satire,” said Phil Beadle, an award-winning British secondary school teacher and author.
To him, free time and discussion are as important to child development as good academic results. He worries that a “cultlike environment that requires total compliance” can deprive children of their childhood.
The New York Times
