I have been reading Primary School Curriculum: Your Child's Learning - A Guideline for Parents and whilst I was generally pleased with the overall approach, there are some serious issues that are missed in the recommendation to parents.
It was uplifting to read of the emphasis on the uniqueness and individuality of each child and the fact that children learn in different ways. What alarmed me was the statement that "children learn best when they experience success in learning". The report goes on to say that "success in learning gives children a feeling of achievement, raises their confidence and self-esteem and fosters in them an enthusiasm for further learning".
However, I take issue with this assertion on three counts: the emphasis on success; that success fosters an enthusiasm for further learning; and the confusing of confidence with competence.
When the emphasis is put on success it means that children's focus is on the result rather than the wonderful process of learning. Children have a natural curiosity, an eagerness to learn and a love of learning.
There are two main parenting and teaching behaviours that can wipe out that sense of wonder, and these are punishment of failure and emphasis on success. Failure and success are integral to learning; they rotate the engine of learning, and these intrinsic processes should never and must never be used as motivating forces. Ironically, success and failure have no effect on infants, but by age two the signs of learning being a source of emotional threat are visible. The fear of success and addiction to success are just as common as the fear of failure.
A high proportion of children aim for the average, even though they possess a vast potential to attain excellence. However, if your experience has been humiliation around failure and exultation around success you wisely find ways to eliminate the threat of rejection that these trigger.
Those who convince others that they are "only average" have found an effective way of reducing possibilities of failure and expectations of success. After all, with a minimum amount of effort the average is easily attainable!
It may be less obvious that the accolades that follow success pose a great danger to children's emotional and social security. What children intuitively pick up is that "I am only of worth when I am successful". The consequence of this is addiction to success, perfectionism and avoidance of challenges where they are unlikely to be the best. What drives these children's learning is fear of not being successful, not a love of learning.
What provides children with a feeling of achievement is the attainment that is present in each learning effort. The emphasis on success places the focus on the end point of learning and children can become quickly disillusioned because "I can never get it right".
The emphasis on attainment is present-focused and looks for what the child has attained with a particular learning effort. What counts is the effort, the child taking on the challenge, and this is what deserves most recognition; when it does, children will maintain the adventure of learning.
In every effort there is always an attainment. No child or adult can suddenly be successful at something; there is a necessary process of gradual attainments over a series of efforts that eventually lead to success.
At that point success sets the next learning challenge. For example, when a child is asked to spell the word pet and answers bet, there is considerable attainment in this learning effort. There are three well-formed letters and the final two letters are correctly placed.
In showing a child what she or he has attained and how pleased I am with this effort, I set the next challenge: to get the first letter correct. No threat or unrealistic expectations are now present and the child will retain excitement around learning.
The Guideline for Parents also confuses confidence with competence, a very unhealthy alliance. Confidence is knowing and acting on one's vast intellectual and behavioural potential. It is the capability aspect of self-worth, and, when it is affirmed by parents and teachers, children stay in touch with their intellectual power and do not find challenges threatening.
Competence is the development of knowledge and skills. When children or adults believe that it is their level of competence (success) that determines their feelings of confidence, they have a pseudo-confidence which can be quickly lost when they experience failure.
The confusion between confidence and competence arises from the assumption that capability and ability are synonymous. Not so! Capability is a given. Ability or competence refers to the learning of skills and knowledge; and the range and nature of knowledge and skills acquired are determined by one's home, school, community and national cultures - and by motivation, expectations and level of confidence.
Dr Tony Humphreys is a consultant clinical psychologist and author of Work and Worth - take back your life.
