Let's Go Back to High Expectations
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder makes a straightforward case for returning to high academic and behavioral expectations in schools.
Key Takeaways
- High expectations have eroded - Years of reforms focused on lowering standards have left students less prepared
- Students rise to the level expected of them - When we expect more, students deliver more
- This isn't nostalgia - Restoring high expectations is a forward-looking strategy for improving education
Transcript
Is it mean to have high expectations?
See, when I became a teacher something like 22 years ago, it was considered self-evident that we needed to have high expectations for our students.
And having low expectations was seen as like an ethical failure.
Like as an educator, you are failing if you don't have high expectations for your students.
I don't know but I just feel like that has flipped right like it has flipped in recent years maybe in the name of like trauma-informed or if we've just kind of adopted this this kind of idea that students mental health is so fragile that will hurt them if we have high expectations I don't know exactly where this came from but are you seeing that are you seeing this reversal of how we're supposed to feel about high expectations like because to me it doesn't make sense that students would ever rise above low expectations like why why would they that's always been the thing about high expectations is you can set a high expectation and the student may well rise to meet it even if you don't think they can if you act like they can meet high expectation often they surprise us and they can and i'm worried now that we're giving up in advance for many of our students and saying no they can't do it feel sorry for them they've dealt with trauma or they have a disability or they have all these things that we think should keep them from achieving, that should keep them from succeeding.
I think if we go back to that norm that we had for generations in the education profession, that we need to have high expectations.
If we go back to high expectations, I think many, many, many of our students will rise to meet them.
Let me know what you think.