ABSTRACT
In Chapters 1 and 2, we described Mosiah, an intelligent boy, who was dismayed at his own inability to settle to work. His standard of work was average, so he would not show up on any set of statistics as ‘underachieving’, but actually he was achieving well below his potential, in terms of the academic work that he should be capable of. He was, in our view, achieving well in the area of self-reflection, but not so well in the area of creating social relationships which would help rather than hinder his own ends, which were both being top dog and also being good at school work. Suzie, who we also introduced at the beginning of Chapter 2 would show up as ‘underachieving’ because her academic test scores were well below average for her age group. Her social skills of coping with outsiders and lame dogs do not appear on any standardised tests – and indeed, how could they be measured? We were unable to say whether she really was ‘underachieving’ academically. It seems probable that she could do more: working class white girls – and this describes her – do not, as a group, achieve high scores at school. But maybe Suzie was already doing the best she is capable of? How could we tell? John appeared a little later on in Chapter 1, counting straws with his Special teacher, who was working one-to-one with him containing his frustration, as well as teaching him maths. He is also of a group that is likely, statistically, to ‘underachieve’ – a white working-class boy. We are fairly certain that no matter how hard he tries he will achieve less in relation to other children of his age.
