The Level Playing Field

In her book, 'Mindset', Carol Dweck describes how Alfred Binet, a French psychologist and the man who invented the IQ test, did it as a means to assess children - not to know who was the cleverest, but as a means of identifying children who were not reaching the standards required. His intention was then to change the system and the teaching to enable each and every children to succeed.

I have been teaching for over 20 years now and I didn't know this, I suspect a great deal of my colleagues aren't aware of it either. Just knowing this has made me look at the data on Ed. Psych. Reports with a completely different mindset; it now feels like a key to unlocking a child's potential, rather than a demonstration of all the impediments and barriers in their way. It's a real challenge though to be able to do this in the way I know so many of my colleagues want to, workload and class sizes are just two of many things which prevent teachers from being able to work in the best interest of each and every child.  I still will keep on trying to though.

Thank you Alfred Binet… you have inspired me.