Underachievement - By Mr Chips

Given that my last blog was somewhat critical, I felt that it would be appropriate to write some pieces about criticism. I intend to give some thoughts on the overused phrase ‘underachievement’. I’ll break this into three sections which I believe the press enjoy spreading liberally across their media; schools, bright kids, and less able kids.

Bright Kids

We so regularly perceive underachievement as being a complete lack of achievement. For example we consider Tim Henman and Mark Ramprakash to have underachieved when their talent and potential are considered, and thus judged as failures. This black and white picture is one propagated in academia mainly by an obsession with higher education. If a student doesn’t achieve the grades required for a university place, they have a feeling of failure, and forget that they have achieved anything at all. This is a mentality which has percolated throughout secondary education and one which eats away at student confidence. Most schools now have a ‘Gifted and Talented’ programme which aims to identify and stretch talented students. When run poorly this scheme sets high expectations of students, and when these expectations are not met at each assessment of their learning, they are told they are ‘underachieving’ and not meeting their potential. Why do we do this? As teachers we rarely put this much pressure on C/B grade borderline students, instead we provide support to help them breach the boundary. By behaving like highly competitive fathers on the football sidelines, educators create additional pressures for talented students. We view the unfulfilled sports talents above with a warm heart when we consider the pressure they came under, both from the public, the establishment, and most importantly themselves. Pundits talk of ‘big game players’ and how so many sports are played mostly in the mind. It is important for us to consider this when dealing with students who are underachieving. They may have peripheral issues which are affecting their performance, and most students have more than enough pressure without us adding to it, so instead of criticising students in this situation, it is important that we give them the support and guidance they need to fulfil their potential and for both you and the student to enjoy this achievement.