First impressions are lasting impressions”, “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, “It’s what’s on the inside that counts”.
How often do we hear those expressions and how often do we think about what they really mean?
The truth is that we are all biased towards and against certain types of people in various degrees and we are all guilty of stereotyping.
Of course, this matters hugely when it comes to important decisions such as job and university interviews. And, happily, progress is being made - albeit slowly - on making people aware of their unconscious biases, and on removing names and details from applications that can skew or even skewer chances of success.
One area that gets less attention but is just as important is when teachers meet their new class for the first time. Children will appraise teachers, teachers will appraise children and bang, a snap judgement is made based on what is in front of them. This may be nothing more than a facial expression, the person’s clothes, their name or their general demeanour.
This process is automatic and fast. “Research shows that this happens in milliseconds,” says Irmak Olcaysoy Okten, post-doctoral researcher of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Delaware.
We’ve all done it. I once knew a Miss Swan. She lived up to her name, being tall, graceful and with a long neck (or so I liked to think). I decided within a couple of minutes of meeting her that she was calm, serene and unflappable. It would have taken her having a massive meltdown in the middle of the playground for me to shift my view of her.
And who hasn’t jumped to conclusions when confronted with a pupil whose name comes with a load of baggage - a Wayne, a LeRoy, a Britney or a boring old Ann. I met a student called Chardonnay once and any preconceptions I may have had were immediately blown out of the water by this fiercely intelligent, wise and charming young woman on her way to Harvard.
Unfortunately, teachers and children are not application forms; we cannot just remove the items that might bias us. Instead, we have to somehow overcome them. For teachers, relationship-building from the very start has to be at the heart of this.
Erin Ott, a middle-school teacher in the US, has tried to set the tone for her classroom by asking her students to compile a “Take Care of Me List” that outlines what she could do as their teacher to support them as learners. The point of the list, however, “is not about asking for and responding to a list of demands. The point is asking at all,” she writes on the website Edutopia.
And that really is the nub of it: showing that you care about your pupils from the very beginning.
Making pupils aware that these biases exist is arguably one of the most important things a teacher can do for them. If we want to get away from some of the lazy stereotypes advanced by Donald Trump - which are based on sweeping generalisations about certain groups and fuelled by cherrypicking information - we need to equip young people with the skills to engage critically and unpick them.
We are all capable of making snap judgements about people but we are all also capable of doing something to check them. First impressions can be lasting impressions. But try to remember when you meet your new class or colleagues that you’re seeing only the cover. There’s a whole book beyond that just waiting to be discovered - and it might not be the narrative you were expecting.
@AnnMroz
This article originally appeared in the 23 August 2019 issue under the headline “Sticking to snap judgements? That don’t impress me much”
