Tag Archives: professional development

“In a study done in London, epileptic children were given an IQ test. Their teachers, not knowing the result of the test, were then asked to give their assessment of the children’s intelligence by stating whether the child was ‘average’, ‘above average’, ‘well above average’, etcetera, from their knowledge of each child. It is important to mention at this state that epileptic children suffer a lot of prejudice directed against them by the general society, similar to that Black children face—but obviously not as great. Teachers also tend to think of them as being less intelligent than ordinary children—again similar to what the Black child faces.

In 28 cases, the teachers seriously underestimated the child’s true ability. That means that a quarter of the children were wrongly assessed! In one case, a thirteen-year-old girl with an IQ of 120 (which is university level!) had failed her 11+ examination and was in the ‘D’ stream of a secondary modern school. Her teacher considered that she was of ‘below average’ intelligence! (Average intelligence= 100.) Another child with family problems and very low income got an IQ score of 132 (which is exceedingly high). Her teachers, however, all rated her as ‘low-stream’ material.”

Excerpted from: Coard, Bernard. How the West Indian Child Is Made Educationally Sub-Normal in the British School System: 50^th Anniversary Expanded Fifth Edition. Kingston, Jamaica: McDermott Publishing, 2021.