Page 58 - Education Supplement February 2026

EDITORIAL

The things we

don’t measure

in school, but should

hen I was four, I had a little Nobody called that intelligence. Giftedness research
friend in nursery school Nobody measured it. Nobody echoes this pattern.
Wwho didn’t speak English. noticed at all. High reasoning
ability frequently
I didn’t realise it at the time. School still doesn’t. pairs with
lower processing
In my memory, we spoke constantly. We’ve built systems that reward speed and working
We built games, negotiated plans, children who can perform quickly, memory scores.
argued, and made up again. We articulate fluently, and demonstrate Timed assessments
understood each other perfectly. understanding in the narrow ways do not measure capacity.
It was only years later that I we’ve agreed to recognise. Children They measure how a nervous system
discovered she hadn’t spoken a who think differently, communicate performs under pressure.
word of English for her first five years sideways, or need time to process
of school. are often mistaken for being less And pressure is not a neutral
capable. condition.
I remember stopping mid-
conversation and thinking, but we Processing-speed studies show this Children who are anxious,
talked all the time. clearly. The deeper the thinking, overstimulated, or masking expend
the more time it often takes. Yet enormous energy just to stay
Only much later did I understand our classrooms rarely allow for that regulated. The cognitive cost of that
what had actually been happening. pause. The curriculum moves on. effort is invisible. The mark does not
I wasn’t listening to the language. I The assessment clock keeps ticking. show it.
was listening to the meaning. Tone. Children who think deeply after the
Gesture. Pattern. Intention. The things noise settles slip quietly through the There are many abilities we continue
that sit underneath words. cracks. to miss.

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