328 THE PROB LEMS OF EDUCATION ARE NOT GE NE TICTh e view is reinforced by a letter from a Head of Year in a U.K. state
school, who says that “real prob lems lie in the nationwide drive to train
our young people to pass examinations and the demotion of their hu-
manity below the data they generate. A proper, relevant, curriculum is
de cades away because of po liti cal dogma and the need for schools to fi nd
all means to maintain their pass rates. I would argue that our children
are not being ‘educated’ at all” (letter to the Observer, July 5, 2015).
Th e kind of “attainments” fostered by the new regimes are illustrated
in the U.S. Success Charter schools— publicly funded in de pen dent
schools that have continued to expand across the United States, with
supporters seeing them as a way of boosting standards in state education.
Th e schools put great eff ort into teaching and motivating students to take
tests. Discipline and sanctions for students are strict. Parents are quickly
called in when there are prob lems.
Th e burden on teachers is enormous. Th ey work long hours, which is
diffi cult for those with children of their own. So many of the teachers
are young recent gradu ates. And per for mance is closely monitored for
student success. It means rapid promotion for teachers when students
perform well. Other wise, the teacher may be demoted to teaching assis-
tant, or even removed if their per for mance does not improve. One con-
sequence is that many teachers quit, complaining about the harsh at-
mosphere. By following a similar path, the United Kingdom is now
experiencing rec ord numbers of teachers leaving the profession.^11
Th is illustrates where the intensifi cation of the ideology of potential,
as something “within” pupils, to be drawn out by pressure and “stretch-
ing,” has already taken us in schools. I predict that it will only increase
the inequalities that pupils already enter schools with. Indeed, research
commissioned by the National Union of Teachers in the United Kingdom
has already found that accountability mea sures such as league tables fail
to reduce social class gaps in attainment and instead result in higher lev-
els of stress. “Despite the government focus on reducing gaps, including
pupil premium payments, the attainment gap at GCSE level [i.e., sixteen
year olds] between pupils eligible for free school meals and those who are
not has remained at about 27 percentage points throughout the last de cade,”
the researchers found.^12
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