‘Quiet Prejudice’ in schools
“Children ought to be back at school; they’ve been at home too long, missing out on, not just their education, but also essential social interaction. They should be back amongst their peers again, playing with their friends.”
Such are the exhortations of our extrovert world when it comes to kids returning to school after COVID-quarantine. When I hear stuff like this, from expert educationalists, who emphasise children’s ‘need’ to be social, how it’s oh-so-vital to their social, emotional and mental development…
… I automatically think of the introvert kids; the shy boys and the quiet girls. Are they looking forward to being back in the classroom again, back with their teachers and friends? Or do their stomachs churn at the prospect, and their minds start fretting?
I reckon for a fair few, it’s the latter.
Alex is 10 years old and has loved being at home these past few weeks.
She’s not missed sitting in a noisy classroom with her rowdy classmates.
She hasn’t been going to bed exhausted, from the always being surrounded.
She’s not had teachers telling her she’s “too quiet”; that she should put her hand up more.
And she’s not had to endure the Little Miss Populars taunting her with “Cat got your tongue?” and “Why don’t you play?”
Chipping away at her self-esteem. A little more each day.
Claims that children should be in school because they need to be playing with their friends again exposes our education system’s extrovert bias. And this extrovert bias leads to what I call ‘Quiet Prejudice’.
Introvert/shy kids are misunderstood, humiliated, called out, marked down, ignored, belittled, baby-talked and bullied, all because they were born with brains hardwired for quiet. This is discrimination. This is Quiet Prejudice.
School tells quiet kids their quiet is bad. It’s not enough to be conscientious. If they really want to make the grade, introvert/shy children are told, they must be able to mix comfortably with their peers. To get on in the adult world, you’ll need the ability to get on with people, to put yourself forward, they are told. You won’t do as you are, introvert/shy children are told, you need to fit the extrovert mould.
Quiet Prejudice.
The truth is, for many introverted kids, being at home these past couple of months would have done them a world of good. Away from the tyrannies of group work messy play and sports day; from the cacophony of the canteen, and teacher’s daily demands to partner up! speak up!; quiet kids have been…
… free.
Free to be themselves.
And when you’re free, you flourish.
I’m not saying introvert/shy children shouldn’t be in school; what I am saying is education’s extrovert bias needs to be examined. A school system that operates on the assumption that all children are inherently social, can seriously fuck quiet kids up. The celebration of diversity equality and respect for everybody are all the rage in schools these days. And quite rightly. But all this counts for nought when the shy boys and the quiet girls get penalised and picked on all because they just so happened to be born the introvert way.
We need to end Quiet Prejudice in our schools.
