From the Head of School

Who Gets to Participate?

Last week, squads were announced for the men’s football world cup which starts at the end of this month.  In my home country - England - there was the usual controversy.  Why was Ivan Toney left out?  Look at his stats, he has scored more goals than Marcus Rashford, who is included.  

Such debates about sports teams have two underlying assumptions: selection should be on merit, and that we can measure merit with quantitative statistics.  That makes sense for national sports teams whose purpose is to win.  But we have to take care about extending the logic. 

On Monday afternoon I watched the Grade 2 drama alongside a large audience of parents.  It was a magical experience that you can read more about in Morio Kajiwara’s Thistle Talk post this week.  On the night I went, a child was sick and couldn’t perform.  The only person who could step in was Marcus Pereira, the Grade 2 teacher.  Every other child had their own part: everyone was expected to participate in the joy of creative performance. There was no space for spares, no selection through merit which would have stopped children developing their merits.  Nor was any quantitative data used.

However, like elite sport, ISA is using more and more data to guide decisions.  If you have a child in Grades 3 to 10, you will have received your child’s MAP test results last month.  You may have discussed them at the parent teacher conferences or with your child directly.  Football teams use statistics to demonstrate worthiness to participate, and, at the end of the day (as footballers would say) they are a judgement.  Unless we are careful all quantitative data can do the same; in schools, data is such a great tool for development but should come with a ‘handle with care’ label.  

On Monday and Tuesday, the Grade 2 demonstrated what education should be about: the sheer joy of pushing yourself, of trying something new and of developing new skills and aptitudes.  It should never be about being measured, judged and selected.  It is a testament to the writing talents of Mark Wood, who was responsible for the play, that every child had their moment in the spotlight.  Something Marcus Rashford will have in Qatar, but not Ivan Toney - whatever the statistics say about their relative merits.