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The Deficit Mentality In Education Systems
This piece on deficit mentalities in education systems was inspired by a staff meeting run by Dr. Andrew Campbell.
“Matthew is too shy.” “Matthew needs to work faster.” Introversion was my main school “deficit”, and teachers treated it like an intrinsic property of “me”, something about me to be fixed, and sure they were good at labelling me, but did they try to help me? Was I presumed to be “at deficit” compared to my peers? Was I something to be fixed?
I call the 1980s in Ontario’s public education system the “sit down, shut up” era. Be quiet, do the work, don’t speak, “don’t rock the boat”. The paradox of total control inside the classrooms was anarchy outside of it- a kid dropped a rock on my toe and I had to visit the emergency room. Concussions from ice slides they let kids slide on all winter. I remember a girl carted away in an ambulance. Bullies roaming the halls (King George PS, Guelph Ontario, 1988–1990, Hell on Earth).
Persistent deficit mentalities seemed to be the order of the day, and all days before-unless you were comfortable in the current order- unpacking the Eurocentric novels they crammed down our throats, or memorizing lists of historical facts, or doing math with great speed. Social stratification, guidance councillors who pushed university at the expense of all else. Disabled, neuro-atypical, and…
