The Thorndike-Skinner Complex conundrum

Have you ever watched, The Big Bang Theory on TV? If so, you will know the character Sheldon Cooper. Sheldon is a boffin and in today’s terminology, a physics geek. He has a massive intellect but as all teachers know, with such genius comes a particular kind of madness. Sheldon’s madness is his OCD: Star Trek and in particular Mr Spock. His eidetic memory leads to his obsessive attention to detail.

Every time I see Sheldon I think of my headteacher. He’s not a physicist, socially inept and doesn’t have an unhealthy relationship with Mr Spock – but he does appear to have a little OCD. He can recall all of our GCSE results for the last 10 years, (he keeps them all on his phone Mr Ebbinghaus); on our daily morning, “hurry the latecomers” trawl, he can’t walk past a piece of litter without picking it up and he never fails to tell us every day that “the devil’s in the detail” and “we have to sweat the small stuff”.