Imagine you are watching your son's soccer team. You see that only two boys are running around, passing the ball, and actively engaged in the game. Five youngsters stand on the sidelines laughing at them. Four others are sitting well away from the field under a tree goofing off, smoking and playing cards. Quite rightly, you would be horrified, and yet this is just the sort of scenario that presents itself daily in classrooms around the world.

We seem content that in each group of 25 children, 10 of them score 70% or more on average, 10 muddle along with scores of somewhere between 40% and 70%, and five of them fail.

Fail indeed!

We are the failures. Education is not rocket science. It is a simple equation which dictates that if a teacher delivers material well (ie in an interesting and understandable manner), and if a child does that which is expected by completing homework, assignments, or projects, and by revising for tests and examinations, then all children should be capable of demonstrating that they have understood that which was taught them to a level of at least 70% - in fact preferably more!

But we have lost the plot. No decent teaching or learning can take place in classrooms that are not quiet, orderly, disciplined places I can hear teachers around the world laughing already, so let me say it again - teaching or learning cannot take place in classrooms that are not quiet, orderly, disciplined places.
Further, teaching and learning cannot proceed unless and until children do that which is required of them by their teachers, and do it on time, and to the best of their abilities once again I can hear teachers around the world laughing - actually many of them are guffawing now.

And, while we are providing so many teachers with a good giggle, let us now give them something that will have them rolling around on staff room floors: children who do that which is expected of them, and consequently demonstrate excellent understanding of the material presented, ought to be rewarded for their efforts. Those who do not should be punished. That's right. Punished. Even to the extent of excluding them from the schools where they daily disrupt the classrooms of the western world and make teachers' lives living hells, not to mention destroying the learning experiences of their peers.

How difficult is that?

Ensure that schools are quiet, orderly, and well-disciplined paces; require children to do the work that is expected of them, and compel

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