F.Y.I
THIS IS A MUST WATCH
Subnormal: A British Scandal
Station: BBC 1
Date: 20/5/2021 (Thursday)
Time: 21.00pm
Producer: Lyttanya Shannon
Duration: 59 Minutes
It was one of the biggest scandals in British Education . In the 1960s, while young black adults were getting to grips with the struggle for black power and a long fightback against police abuse was starting, the majority of West Indian migrants were keeping their heads down. However, in a white-dominated country, where the politics were becoming increasingly racialised , there was a question of how society , and its teachers, saw these young black children .
Before having a chance to develop intellectually , they were labelled as stupid, difficult and disruptive and categorised Educationally Subnormal (ESN)
At the same time, celebrity psychologists Hans Eysenck and Arthur Jensen were propounding theories that black people were genetically less intelligent than white people. These theories infiltrated teacher training and found their way into schools. IQ tests were then based on these theories with the odds horrendously stacked against children from the Caribbean.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000w81h
Note: Educationally Subnormal (ESN) was abolished as a category by the 1981 Education Act.
