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Story · Ajahn Brahm

The 'hopeless at maths' boy who came top

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Changing our attitudes to who we think we are | Ajahn Brahm | 17 Jul 2015

1 min read

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

another case this was from this time I was a school teacher I love doing experiments some of them were maybe not fair but they were worth it because there was a kid in my maths class and the teachers told me he's hopeless at Mass he came bottom the year before of those about three or four classes in this school now is his math teacher for one year so I decided to find out whether it was because he can't do maths or there was some other reason so for 12 months I don't know nine months of the school year after every lesson I'd ask him did you understand that give him extra attention praise him when he got the thing right go to his desk you know doing the exercises and give him a bit of a hand really just give him special attention I say it was unfair because I never gave that attention to any other child in the class just this one boy because I wanted to see whether it was a case that a person just cannot do math or because they believe they can't do it and of course it was a second case because at the end of the year that boy came top I moved him from bottom to top just by giving him a belief

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 19:07 (to 20:23)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Told a boy was hopeless at maths, the young teacher gave him attention, help and praise for a year, and the boy came top. Ajahn Brahm uses it to ask what you have decided you can't do, and who told you. Often it's a not yet, not a never. Keep going; belief does half the work.

In brief (our summary)

As a young schoolteacher, Ajahn Brahm is told a boy in his maths class is hopeless — he came bottom of three or four classes the year before. For the school year Ajahn Brahm gives him special attention after every lesson: did you understand? — helping at his desk and praising him when he gets it right (unfair, he admits, as no one else got this). At the end of the year the boy comes top.

Teaching point

Often people can't do something only because they believe they can't; challenge that identity view.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Changing our attitudes to who we think we are | Ajahn Brahm | 17 Jul 2015 · 2015-07-19 · ▶ watch from 19:07 to 20:23 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

3 other tellings of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'Mass' = maths (not changed).

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

  • Class A and Class B

    In brief: An English school splits a year group into two classes of exactly equal ability by exam score — only the headmistress and two…

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    This was a story of a test which was done in a school in England. Two classes of kids, the end of the year exams, you know, we just done the end of the year exams for our kids in school here in Western Australia. The school year is just finished or about to finish. And it's usually the usual thing is on the basis of the results this year, you know, that's how you'll be graded for, you know, the streams of learning for next year. And there was one school did this really interesting experiment. They had two classes in one year and having done their examination, they never published the results. There was, if I remember correctly, the head mistress and two psychologists were the only ones who knew what scores every kid got. But instead, what they did, they allocated the children as evenly as they possibly could. The kid who came top went in the same class as a kid who came fifth and sixth. No, fourth and fifth. Yeah. Fourth and fifth, 8th and 9th, 12th and 13th, 16th and 17th. They all went in one class. The kids who came second and third, sixth and seventh, 10th and 11th went in the other class. So they split the classes up as evenly as they possibly could. And the head mistress tried to find teachers who she thought were equally good. And they even went as far as to find classrooms with equal facilities. They made everything equal as possible except for one thing. They called one of those classes class A and the other one class B. And they were totally equal in ability based on the exam results. and they wanted to find out what would happen next year. Half of those kids went into class A and they weren't more brilliant, but their parents said, "I don't know how you did it, son. You're in class A. Carry on. Well done." And even the kids who came second and third going into class B. I want you to work harder next year. You know, no more privileges for you, more homework. the the parents thought class B meant the worst and even the teachers taught her to a lower level and the kids be know with her in class B the kids started to believe the class A kids were superior than the class B kids because one year later when they gave the exam again the children in class A did so well as if they were the top half chosen from the year before. And the class B kids did terribly. Literally after one year, half those children became class A children and the other one became class B simply because they gave that label and they believed in it, they became it.

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  • The tribe that praises the wrongdoer

    In brief: Ajahn Brahm recounts an email about a tribe untouched by other cultures: when someone does wrong — steals or hits someone — he stands in…

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    somebody sent me this interesting email the other day and it was some tribe which has you know been totally untainted by other cultures that in this try when anybody makes a mistake or does anything wrong or bad like steals or hit somebody or he stands in the center of this circle and all the members of the tribe stand around him he's done something bad but do they punish him no for two or three days he has to stand in the middle and they all tell him wonderful things about himself what a great person he is for three days when he's done something wrong

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  • The honey and the milk

    In brief: In parallel supermarket checkout aisles, at almost the same moment, one child drops a jar of honey and another drops a carton of milk —…

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    And this was an example of the two children at the supermarket checkout, they were in parallel lanes. And almost exactly the same time, one child took out a carton of milk from the trolley, and he dropped it on the ground, and it went "splat" all over the floor, making a whole mess. And his mum said, "you stupid child". Almost exactly the same time in the parallel aisle, another child, they picked up the jar of honey. And it was slippy they dropped it. And they went "smash" all over the floor. But that mother, because she must have come to the Buddhist Society in Nollamara. That mother, she didn't say, "you stupid child". She said, "that was a stupid thing you did." And we emphasise the huge difference between those two responses. Now, if you examine it, you call, that's your "stupid child", it's as if they are totally stupid. They're, like, totally sort of corrupt, that when they were made, there must be some genetic malfunction that they are actually stupid. They're permanently stained with stupidity. And that's that first child. And many of you can recognise, such reactions when you make a mistake, and someone calls you stupid, someone calls you dumb. Someone calls you all these things. And what they're saying is, you're fatally flawed. There's nothing worth redeeming in you. And you know what it's like when that happens to you. You feel totally diminished, totally hopeless. You lose all your self esteem and that's no way to bring up a child. The other child received "that was a stupid thing you did". You're not a stupid kid. But, you had a moment of stupidity. And what that means is that you're recognising the truth, that was the sort of a silly thing to do to pick up that jar of honey making it all slippy. But, you're not a stupid person. There's more to you than that.

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  • 'Miss, can we have quiet time now?'

    In brief: A deputy principal who learned meditation with Ajahn Brahm teaches her Year 6 class 'quiet time' every morning, from five minutes at the…

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    one of the uh the people who learned meditation with me uh she was a a deputy principal of one of the schools primary schools she's retired about 10 years ago now so it shows you how old the story is but she would uh be teaching meditation in her class of kids and there were year sixes grade sixes and know grade sixes you know they're starting to you know get close to puberty and starting to be a bit Troublesome but she started teaching the meditation from the very beginning of the year now she called it quiet time rather than meditation cuz now meditation is uh looked upon as being Buddhist and for a good reason cuz basically Buddhism invented meditation now we started it off so it has that Association even though that you know anyone can meditate you don't have to be a budhist to meditate and you even some people say that when they sit down meditating at home they the dogs meditate too which is one of the other nice areas they they sit quietly next to you and I'm sure that people who meditate next to their dogs their dogs bark less and they're much quieter maybe that could be could be a study on how to quiet down dogs but the uh she was teaching quiet time starting off with 5 minutes at the beginning of the year and finishing off with 15 or 20 minutes as a group activity which started every morning of the school year and she told actually it wasn't her but it was her principal because I remember going to the school once and obviously having some tea with the principal and he was he was not a Buddhist but he was praising sort of this lady and how that her meditation introduced in this year 60s the changes which he saw happen which was not just the children's intellectual ability increased because their attention was strengthened and but also and their academic uh results increased and he could see this having been a principal looking at it from objective position but also he found out some other things which were happening that the social interaction of the children in that class improve they are more sensitive more compassionate and less aggressive towards each other which was an important part of what happens when you do become more attentive more sensitive just the the mindfulness develops the compassion and the understanding and I remember her giving an example of what happened and many many times she said that sometimes in the class of kids in our modern schools sometimes there'll be some sort of argument or some sort of altercation and usually whether that would be a fight or a big argument now that one of the kids in the class would put up their hand and say Miss can we have quiet time now and when they had quiet time just for 5 minutes just doing a simple relaxation watching the breath calming the Mind down afterwards the altercation finished and there was no sort of big argument or big problem not only that that people were sensitive to each other because of their digital development of meditation year sixes they could actually tell when somebody was in a bad mood or someone was sick or someone was unhappy and because of that they had this beautiful little mini Society in their classroom which had been enhanced by doing a tiny bit of meditation every day

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