Theos-Talk Archives (October 1995 Message tl00009)

> "Rosenthal & Jacobson noted 'If animal subjects, believed to be
> brighter by their trainers, actually became brighter because of
> their trainer's belief, then it might also be true that school
> children believed by their teachers to be brighter would become
> brighter because of their teacher's beliefs'.
> "A study was designed to test this hypothesis at the Oak
> School, ... in San Francisco. Children were randomly selected,
> & identified as students who would show dramatic intellectual
> growth in the academic year ahead. ... The belief or
> expectation of the teacher that these students were brighter
> became a self-fulifilling prophecy...."

Studies have also shown that teachers expect more from
boys than girls, especially in math. This too becomes a
self-fulfilling prophecy. This is exactly why being labeled
as a slow learner in the early grades is such a shame,
because future teachers will not expect as much, and
those labeled as "slow" will tend to stay that way. The
same with "trouble makers." Once a student is labeled,
they tend to stay that way. In my senior year at U of Md.
my dean had a list of each student and their grade to
date. No matter what anyone did in his class, every
student received the grade that was on his list when
his class began. I am sure that this goes on all the time.

Jerry S.