As a teacher myself I agree with most of what is said here. However, with few exceptions, I can spot students who are going to succeed in school within a week o

As a teacher myself I agree with most of what is said here. However, with few exceptions, I can spot students who are going to succeed in school within a week of teaching them. These are the students who have supportive parents that are engaged in their children's education. As a profession we strive to get all our students to engage, but we are with them for a few hours a week at best and have nowhere near as much impact on their lives as their parents. Note, however, that I said 'succeed in school'. Many students have passed through my classroom door over the years, who have not achieved academically, but have gone on to achieve in later life. These students are often those for whom the Model Victorian Classroom is simply not appropriate. The very concept that you can take a random sample of thirty teenagers, place them in a socially pressured environment and then expect them all to make academic progress under the tutelage of a single individual is frankly ridiculous. Ken Robinson say's it far more eloquently than me though, and with pretty graphics to hammer home the point. http://www.thersa.org/events/rsaanimate/animate/rsa-animate-changing-paradigms http://www.thersa.org/events/rsaanimate/animate/rsa-animate-...