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- Do you believe that kids are less intelligent
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just because they're born and raised outside a major city?
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That's what school authorities suggest.
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Let me introduce you to Matthew here.
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He's in year five in a small, rural school,
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almost 800 kilometres west of Sydney.
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He wanted to be a doctor when he grew up,
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but now he doesn't think he's smart enough.
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Matthew just got his results
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from our national assessment programme,
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and like thousands of other rural kids,
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he achieved below average.
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Again.
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Teachers will tell you
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that Matthew's story is all too common.
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The rural kids just can't match
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the achievement of kids in the city.
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In the most recent assessment programme,
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they were actually one and a half years
1:00
behind their city peers.
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That's a huge gap.
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Educational authorities
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have been throwing millions of dollars
1:08
at rural schools every year
1:10
so that kids can participate in remediation programmes
1:13
to try and fix this achievement gap.
1:17
But, the problem still persists.
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What if educational authorities
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have been looking at the problem all wrong?
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Instead of believing that rural kids
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aren't as intelligent as kids in the city,
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I worked with rural communities
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to highlight that our education system
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is guilty of geographical narcissism.
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This means that cities are the reference point
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for everything in education.
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Rural places are only really mentioned
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when they're compared to cities,
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and this is just to highlight that they're disadvantaged.
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That's not the way that rural people see their hometowns.
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They know that there's a rich diversity of culture,
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histories, and environments
2:00
that all influence rural students in the classroom.
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Kids like Matthew grow up
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learning some of the most advanced science
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and mathematical skills in their everyday lives
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when they do things like manage local water resources,
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harvest crops, or build fences.
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Educational authorities just don't recognise this knowledge.
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I developed a tool that helps measure
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and remedy this geographical narcissism in education.
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It highlights when city bias is occurring
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and provides a more inclusive, rural-focused reference point
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that can be used by educational authorities to transform
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the way they acknowledge rural places in schooling.
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This tool will go a long way
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towards helping Matthew here
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achieve his goal of becoming a doctor.
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Because he really is smart enough.
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Educational authorities just have to open their eyes
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and see it.
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(soft music plays)