If your mind has not been boggled recently, you can always count on the education industry. Here's a pathetic milestone: no more student hands in the air, at least in one school near London, where the experts tremble on behalf of the little tykes' self-esteem.
Pupils have been stopped from putting their hands up to answer questions because their school believes it leads to feelings of victimisation."No hands up" notices have been posted in every room at the Jo Richardson comprehensive in Dagenham, east London, as a reminder that the teachers will decide who should answer.
The head, Andrew Buck, says it is always the same children who wave their arms in the air, while the rest of the class sits back. When teachers try to involve less adventurous pupils by choosing them instead, that leads to feelings of victimisation.
Mr Buck believes that it can also cause panic in children who are picked but do not know the answer while others around them are straining to give it. To spare the embarrassment of those who do not know the answer, the school uses a "phone a friend" system, allowing one child to nominate another to take the question instead.
Surely such inanity will be hooted down? Not so...
Mick Brookes, the general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said it was the first time he had heard of such a policy.Posted by Alan at January 30, 2006 12:23 AM"The habit will be hard to break but when you listen to what the head says there may be method in what at first appears to be madness."