Room for Improvement
It's September and today my kids went back to school. They go to a school officially rated in the last Ofted inspection as good. We as parents, have been and are, very pleased with the provision that the school has provided for our children and they are developing well.
This made me think a bit about what the word satisfactory actually means. Defined in the dictionary as, 'Fulfilling expectations or needs; acceptable, though not outstanding or perfect.'.
This doesn't sound too bad at all. In life if things are fulfilling expectations I would be quite happy, obviously depending on what those expectations are. Some of the synonyms are also quite satisfactory themselves: A-ok, Ample, Competent, Decent, Pleasing, Solid
Given the words listed above the term satisfactory suggests that the teaching is good enough. It's true that we would like outstanding teaching for our children all of the time, they only have one chance, but to expect someone, the teacher, to perform at the peak of perfection at all times is expecting a lot in anyone's world. Even Mary Poppins was only practically perfect and was noticeably pleased when announcing the medicine, "to be quite satisfactory."
http://mybrellie.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/poppins4-715158.jpg%3Fw%3D450
Ofsted inspectors have grading criteria for lessons. They describe what the various grades 'look like'. The new Room for Improvement grade now reads, 'not good enough.'. I bet it took a long time to think that up.
Tomorrow in your conversations and other social interactions have a go at replacing words like, pleasing, satisfactory, ok with room for improvement. If you do I bet your conversations will be affected by your negative tone. Your friends might feel deflated, a little worn down, simply not feeling good enough.
Now imagine that is happening to the teachers of your children day in and day out...I wonder how the teachers would feel and how that feeling would affect their teaching ability?
As many of you might have noticed from the news reports Ofsted has had a bit of a makeover. The powers that be have changed the rules. The grade satisfactory has now been made redundant. No longer can a school be satisfactory, no longer can a lesson be satisfactory. This term has now been renamed as 'Room for Improvement'; otherwise referred to as Not Good Enough!http://www.thelearningloftltd.com/_images/Ofsted-strip.jpg
This made me think a bit about what the word satisfactory actually means. Defined in the dictionary as, 'Fulfilling expectations or needs; acceptable, though not outstanding or perfect.'.
This doesn't sound too bad at all. In life if things are fulfilling expectations I would be quite happy, obviously depending on what those expectations are. Some of the synonyms are also quite satisfactory themselves: A-ok, Ample, Competent, Decent, Pleasing, Solid
Given the words listed above the term satisfactory suggests that the teaching is good enough. It's true that we would like outstanding teaching for our children all of the time, they only have one chance, but to expect someone, the teacher, to perform at the peak of perfection at all times is expecting a lot in anyone's world. Even Mary Poppins was only practically perfect and was noticeably pleased when announcing the medicine, "to be quite satisfactory."
Ofsted inspectors have grading criteria for lessons. They describe what the various grades 'look like'. The new Room for Improvement grade now reads, 'not good enough.'. I bet it took a long time to think that up.
Tomorrow in your conversations and other social interactions have a go at replacing words like, pleasing, satisfactory, ok with room for improvement. If you do I bet your conversations will be affected by your negative tone. Your friends might feel deflated, a little worn down, simply not feeling good enough.
Now imagine that is happening to the teachers of your children day in and day out...I wonder how the teachers would feel and how that feeling would affect their teaching ability?
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I totally agree, your best blog yet.
ReplyDeleteHowever I would like to say that settling for satisfactory is not something we should live by.
I don't think Ed Vogue is saying we should only aim for satisfactory, but that people cannot be outstanding day in day out. That satisfactory, as the definition states, is acceptable in the fact that you are adequately meeting expectations and therefor should be accepted; not made to feel that you are 'Not Good' at what you are doing.
DeleteI agree that satisfactory is good enough. But I don't want to describe my ambition, work, beliefs, education or life as only ever being satisfactory.
DeleteDear Anonymous's
ReplyDeleteI agree that we should strive to be better than satisfactory most definitely. However, on the flipside it can be ok to be satisfactory if that means that the job you are doing is good enough and what you are doing is effective. The point I am making is that satisfactory should not be made out to be poor or unacceptable.