Check It Out: Children make up 100% of our future

By Joan Janzen

Here's a riddle for you. Q: Why did the teacher wear sunglasses in her classroom? A: Because she had such bright students.

An inner-city public school in England is producing some bright students, with 82% of the students achieving what used to be classified as "A level" status, while the remainder of the country's results are 22% nationwide.

Katharine Birbalsingh started the school in 2014, and is known as Britain's strictest headmistress. "I'm not mean," she said. "I just love them enough to keep standards high for them."

She grew up in Canada until the age of 15 and then moved to England. "I chose to go into teaching because I wanted to teach inner-city kids. I always taught deprived kids," she explained. She wanted to find out why kids were underachieving and why they were misbehaving.

"I was obsessed with education and wanted to find out more about schools all over the world. I went to Australia, South Africa, Brazil, Turkey, China, India, America, and New Zealand. I compared the western countries with the poorer countries," she said.

She discovered students in poorer countries had nothing, and arrived at school on time even though they had to walk miles to get there. She discovered poorer kids in those countries were happier, more positive and more hard-working than students in western countries.

She returned to England, and began setting up her own school in an area where the inner-city kids lived. "It took three and a half years because so many people were trying to stop us," she said. "But people wanted another choice for their children."

Michaela Community School is a state-funded inner-city public school with a completely comprehensive mixed ability intake of students. Katharine says the school's secret to success is their shared values.

"I've got kids of all faiths and skin colours. All have different cultures but they understand and accept the values of the school," she explained. "If you don't teach them values, children will think very differently."

Her students are taught to believe in personal responsibility and a sense of duty towards others. "There's a sense amongst the students that I'm responsible for myself and I'm going to make something of my life and jump over the obstacles in front of me instead of blaming everything on the outside for the position I find myself in," she said.

That kind of attitude means all of the children are reaching their potential and are working really hard. They are also taught the importance of kindness and gratitude.

She repeated words spoken to her by an 86-year-old man who said, "Children make up 15% of the population but they make up 100% of the future."

Katharine spends most of her time forming the culture in her school. "The culture that you're going to have tomorrow is the culture that you immerse children in today," she said.

She emphasized the importance of forming good habits. "The things that you do on repeat become your habits and become your destiny. If you're somebody that never does your homework, you're somebody who doesn't deliver every day," she added. That habit will carry on during adult years.

People who disagree with her methods can't refute the results. Out of 4,000 secondary schools in England, her school is getting the best progress results.

"We get a thousand visitors every year. Teachers from all over the world take the ideas to their schools," she said. "I'm like a travelling salesperson trying to persuade people of the kinds of things that work."

The children love giving their visitors tours of the school, and the visitors always comment on how polite, kind and informed the students are.

Parents often ask Katharine how they can boost their children's learning at home. She tells them to read to them every day and have kids read at least 15 minutes every day, because reading is a superpower.

"My number one advice to parents is to take your children off a smartphone. They will get addicted to it and won't be able to read anymore because no book can compete with a smartphone," she advised.

She said kids who begin school and seem really bright are children whose parents taught them how to read and count before they started school.

She also stressed the importance of giving children a schedule and a routine. Children thrive when they know what is expected of them and they can accomplish those daily expectations.

Overall, Katharine noted our society doesn't value children nearly enough. Britain's strictest headmistress has been interviewed hundreds of times, but her message remains consistent.

"Children matter. Schools matter. Families matter. Save our children and we will save the west," she said.