The mathematics based disciplines tend to highlight the inherent cognitive power of pupils. There is a limit on how highly a child can perform, on the basis of hard work and committment, without that inherent reasoning power we refer to as intelligence. No teacher faced with a random class of youngsters, can level them all up to the top grade. And they know that. It rankles. Introducing to the syllabus activities which have nothing to do with mathematics, does two things. It gives the teacher a way of awarding compensating upgrades. And it can be used to depress the scores of those pupils who are naturally bright at maths. It is, of course, disreputable, dishonest, unethical, and rather seedy. But it is also rather revealing of their real opinions.
The mathematics based disciplines tend to highlight the inherent cognitive power of pupils. There is a limit on how highly a child can perform, on the basis of hard work and committment, without that inherent reasoning power we refer to as intelligence. No teacher faced with a random class of youngsters, can level them all up to the top grade. And they know that. It rankles.
Introducing to the syllabus activities which have nothing to do with mathematics, does two things. It gives the teacher a way of awarding compensating upgrades. And it can be used to depress the scores of those pupils who are naturally bright at maths.
It is, of course, disreputable, dishonest, unethical, and rather seedy. But it is also rather revealing of their real opinions.