Sitting 'the test': oranges or apples?

Paul has known me for a while and is used to my western ideas of 'shoulds' and 'should nots'. He has given up trying to change me. Being Chinese, Paul is practical. 'Look,' he says, 'coaching isn't about coaching. Nobody who goes to coaching needs coaching.' I believe he is right in this. Out here in the great North-West all schools have above 70% intake of LBOTE students. No LBOTE parent I know would permit their child to under-perform at an Australian school in what is widely regarded as a 'soft' syllabus, especially in maths. 'Kids go to coaching to get practice in taking the test,' Paul explains. 'That is how they get into James Ruse. They get test practice at coaching and they go there every day, seven days a week. You really don't want your children to go to James Ruse,' he finishes.

I am worried about my younger children, at least one of them. My impression as their parent is that he is the cleverest of all; if he is not challenged he becomes bored, angry, resentful and even depressed. 'Gifted underachievers' lose confidence, become disruptive, negative and isolated. They can get into trouble with the law. They have high rates of suicide.

I had the opportunity recently to speak with Magda Pollak, the long time head of the Department's Selective School and Opportunity Class Unit. Unencumbered by educational psychology qualifications, Ms Pollak is confident about what a 'gifted' student really is. According to Ms Pollak, really clever children can do things very quickly. Speed of achievement is her primary criterion; to be able to rattle off 35 answers in 30 minutes. The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) developed test for NSW is entirely multiple choice and favours 'perceptual reasoning', logic and puzzles. And speed. According to Professor Dianna Kenny at the University of Sydney, these skills are developed by test taking practice.

Interestingly, ACER has developed entirely different tests for Victoria and South Australia that use verbal measures. These tests have components that require the writing (and marking) of sentences and short essays. One even includes an interview.

The accepted gold standard WISC tests are noteworthy in how little actual mathematics they use to assess ability. Its primary tools involve reasoning and comprehension tasks that use words, and others that use symbols and other non verbal tools. Victoria and South Australia accept that using both types of measures is sound assessment practice. By contrast NSW undervalues language as a way of measuring intellectual ability. NSW discriminates against types of clever children such as my young son, who hesitates before he answers because he recognizes options and ponders possibilities a less clever child does not.

I mutter at Paul. It's alright for you, I say, your children were exceptional at maths, which aided them in their selective test results. 'You're always saying 'you don't want your child to go to James Ruse', Paul. It's consistently the most successful school in the State. So just why is that, exactly?'

'Look.' Paul eyes me as he does when we are sharing cross-cultural Secret Parents' Business.

'To get into James Ruse, you have to study ALL the time. You train like an elite athlete. Those kids become very well disciplined. Unfortunately, they also become very obedient learners. They learn to stifle their own creativity. Very bad.

'You take the Apple Company. Say 10% of their profit goes to China that makes the hardware. Say 30% goes to Korea where they make the software. That's 40%.

'That leaves 60% of the profits. The majority of the profit goes to the United States, because they invented Apple. So it's the creative intelligence that you want for your children.' He's really got me feeling better about the world and the sharing of our combined West/East parental wisdom. We have talked it through. We have achieved a rare moment of clarity, wisdom and unity.

Until Paul finishes: '.....Because that's where the BIG MONEY IS!'