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[MUSIC]You are welcome to week four, lecture four which focuses on labeling.What is a label?Teachers begin from virtually the firstday of a child's entry to the classroom toclassify the child on the basis ofattitudes, applications, relationships andmany other signs.These may have been passed on by parents,siblings or other children butthey are very difficult to overlook or tryto approach children with an open mind -a clean slate.Rist, 1970, has this to say, "The expectations teachers hold fortheir students can be generated as earlyas the first few days of theschool year and then remain stable overthe months to follow."What labels, as a teacher, do you use todescribe children?What labels do children use to describethemselves?What labels do parents use?

What labels do you find in the literature?And what have you noticed about theeffects of being labeled?Have you considered the power of words onlearners?When words such as clever, brilliant,intelligent, smart, quick,gifted, creative and obedientare used as labels on children,have you considered the power or the extent to whichsuch words which influence the child?Each ofthese have their opposite.

What terms areused in your school, classroom or home?What would be the alternatives of each ofthese words?Clever,intelligent, brilliant,smart, creative, quick,obedient?Think about theseand identify the opposite for each ofthese words, in a moment.Now, have youconsidered the effects that these labels,

or any other form of label,would have on the child's identity?How may the self-identity and behaviour ofindividuals be determinedor influenced by the terms used todescribe or classify them?What are the effects of labeling?As you'll find on this slide,once a person has been labeled, it isextremely difficult to remove that

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label.That person becomes stigmatized, andis likely to be considered and treated,as by others as naughty,stupid, deviant, or whatever label isattached to him or her.It is therefore important that, as ateacher,you becomecareful in using labels to describeyour children, because labels can have a verystrong impact or influence on the child.Everylabel, when you describe a child as slow,or bright,trouble-maker, or difficult, entails a setofexpectations that are associated with it.Expectations that when made known tothe student may become a self-fulfillingprophecy.So, if you tell the students: "You are slow.You are not university material.",this can have an adverse effect on the progress

of the child.There is an excerpt from the bookPygmalion which I want to consider.The extract says, "If you think you areonlya flower girl, you will always be a flowergirl."What does this mean to you, in termsof labeling and how it affects the child'sdevelopment?As I feel through the saying, I remember myown experience, where as a result ofpoverty, as a result of my parents not

being able to send me to a secondaryschool,the impression was created that I wasn'tuniversity material,therefore I should not think about theuniversity.But because of encouragement by myparents,because of counseling that I got fromother adults in the communitywho kept tellingme, "George, you can make it."I took to

a private study, and was able to gothrough a university,after then the University of Cambridge, where Idid my PhD.It is the resilience,it is the impact of counseling, theencouragement, that helped me to gobeyondthat "You cannot do it", seen to thePhD level.

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As a teacher, youneed to encourage your children.To make thebest out of the worst context within whichthey find themselves.So, as a teacher, go beyond labels toencouragechildren to have high expectations ofthemselves.A story from an Australian studentcould be of interest to you.Let's read it on the slideand find out how it relates to the story Itold you.Encourage your children.We need alsoto consider Plato's book, The Republic, inwhich he created what is called themagnificent myth,in which he urged people to believethat there are different types ofchildren.Some can be described as gold, some who havemore silver in their make up, and some who are mainly base metal.

Which implies that there are some childrenwho can, and those who cannot,so that society can be constructed.Now, this is one thing which theteacher in the classroom must try toavoidbecause it does not help childrento progress, to aspire higher in terms ofachievement.And you need to reflect on the story Itold you about myself, in understandingthis magnificent myth - which others havedescribed as the noble lie, because we

know in reality, that is not the case.Then there's also the question oflanguage.As we've already mentioned, language playsa crucialrole in the whole process of learning.A language whichcategorised children asfeeble-minded, imbeciles,and uneducable would today be almostuniversally regarded with dismay.We are moving slowly but progressively toquestion the

Platonic myth of children as gold, silverand base metal.We have come to understand more fully theharmful affects of labeling.And this is whatMacBeath, 2011 says in his book, To Be aTeacher.Now, take time and reflect on the issue oflabeling.How do you describe your students to

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colleagues?In other words, ask yourself, how do Idescribe my students to colleagues?To their parents?And to children themselves?What labels are used by others in myschool and by children?What have I observed as the effect ofchildren being labeled?How might I pay attention to the languageused by myselfand by children in my class, outsideschool, inthe yard, playground, or even the dininghall?These are questions you need to reflecton, rememberingthat every child has the potential toreach their highestlevel, so far as learning is concerned.Thank you.[MUSIC]