At the chalkface: Happy?

A recent poll done by the education charity TLG informs us that parents would rather your pupils were unhappy with much exam success than happy with much exam failure.

There is, apparently, a corollary here. You could have fooled me. But, no, this is how it seems to work. We should err on the side of misery. I thought it was quite the reverse. Still, you can’t argue with a poll. Depression breeds Excellence. Melancholy is beneficial. Thus parents seem keen that their offspring work like drones, that they are “stretched” – on the rack of anxiety.

So how do we make the classroom experience even more wretched? How do we ensure even more exam success? Well, basically, more of the same – and then some. More mindless endeavour, more teaching ferociously to the Test. Crank up the misery. Crank up the anxiety. This shouldn’t be too difficult.