Too much at one go.

Most people are aware of the clumsiness of large numbers for the human brain. Some people with practice become human calculators, but the demand for the skill is not high. Because hay! I’ve got a calculator for the once a year large calculation I need to do. Some languages have the numbers 1, 2 and many and do not get confused even with many kids. A balance needs to be struck between enough and too many. The human brain starts struggling before double figures picturing amounts by dividing into smaller numbers. The balance also is related to focus. How many things can you focus on at any one time. 3s appear in many cultures and so on up to 10 but the larger, the rarer without writing them down. When you try to think or do too many things the variety is too much to focus on. They then interfere with each other and lower attainment overall.

In physical development endurance training interferes with power development, with the different twitch muscle cells. Sprinting is the opposite to endurance and are mutually exclusive to get both to high levels (so don’t try it). Some tasks require a balance of these and some one or the other extreme. To safely develop balances, a training programme needs to be designed and followed. The big trap when this is not done well is over-training. Trying to develop both at the same time intensely can lead to breakdown and underachievement. Many promising sports people have fallen late on as their bodies pack in just before the goal line. Too much training also eats into rest, where the body recovers and develops. The brain also uses sleep to develop. Some skills also interfere with each other where they are very similar so the body does the wrong skill sometimes. Trying to get the body to do too many different things

To get to higher goals there needs to be times where each element is prioritised at any one time with others in consolidation. Schools need to have this pattern too. Eight subjects at once all needing to peak at the same exam time is too wide for many. Underachievement will occur in students strengths with energy going into the weaker areas. Some subjects are opposite too each other requiring different approaches and others are close together and can interfere with each other. I have noticed whenever I try to learn a new language I can suddenly remember a previous language surprisingly clearly. Focus is important and having to refocus eight different ways every week is another skill, but a challenge to focus only. The long hours cut into sleep along with school times leading to lower brain and body functioning. As the subjects are separate they are disjointed and unconnected. At University we did 4 modules at once and they all had the assignment hand in dates in the same week each time, requiring management of work on assignments. Often the class on the day the assignment was handed in was on the topic of the assignment. If schools do not plan the courses to work together then students will suffer especially for the lesser prepared. These dates are artificial not really important in themselves. When I teach first aid I get to connect the whole syllabus and flow through the topics in a followable order.

The actual achievements in education do reflect work situations where you have to please your superiors when there has been poor preparation and lots of distractions. That is not though how to learn or perform best or highly. It is coping under difficult circumstances. In school if you come from a more stable, focused and supportive home and school environment that is more common with more wealth, then you have advantages of more practice of school required skills and less distractions. In work if you have prepared excuses, someone else to blame, kissed the arse of the boss and flogged a junior to death you also have the advantage. Again this is not high performance it is to learn the lesson of survival in the work environment. Different actual achievements.

In sport it is a different task to get to the top than to stay at the top. Getting through school is different to after school. After school is the real world and preparation for this is a goal of education. Some people are much better prepared than others. This is for school and then real life such as work and financial, but also health and socially. Steadily building foundations for those without home support and private schooling. Where they actually achieve some things well rather than a little bit across the board.

It is again a case of two different classes treated as the same when they are different. Trying to put the different shaped blocks into one hole. Some shapes fit better. Forcing one shape into the wrong shaped hole will damage the shape and the hole. Of course the shape or class of object are the children from poorer disadvantaged lives who are not helped to achieve or to adapt to the unfair advantage of the lucky ones. They do though learn, it’s what they learn is not always what the advantaged want them to learn they learn to survive. This creates problems later with lack or under achievement. The learners are labelled and pigeon holed for the rest of their life. It is a negative experience and interferes with development later limiting possibilities

Fewer but focused, supported and maybe deeper areas would be fairer to the learners and easier to teach and organise. Rugby has a large team of 15 or 13 depending on code, but most coaches and teachers will divide them up into forwards and backs and then again into specific roles. Teaching the whole team is done but most of the time the specific needs of players (and children) require breaking into smaller groups even to pairs and individuals. Schools often have 30+ in a class. Simply the teacher and children are all trying to do the same thing ignoring actual needs and possibilities.