School - what is it, do we need it, can we live life without it?
A Smith and Jones reference there, not that anyone my age would know who Smith and Jones were.
It is clear that the world is currently not in a good place and the government's decisions this week are part of a far broader aim of tackling Covid-19 as effectively as possible. In critiquing events and governments decisions, I note that there is no easy solution to what is an immensely complex issue. But I want to talk about school closures, in a far broader context of education as a whole, perhaps offering a perspective that better relates to the experience of students whose lives and entire sense of purpose appear to have been casually disregarded by so many. Some self-inserts may also be referenced.
I am in the cohort which saw the introduction of new harder SATs in Year 6 before being slapped in the face with the new harder GCSEs - gone was Coursework, in was rigour designed to promote the highest level of early academia. In with that came stress, panic, stress and rises in mental health problems among young people to unprecedented levels. I remember only finishing the Biology course after having taken Paper One. The volume of content was simply astronomical. And now we are faced with this...
As early as Year 10 I wanted to go to University, the largely vocational nature of apprenticeships not appealing to me. I remember when I was a mere GCSE student, and complaining about my 30-odd exams, I was promptly shut down and told of the impending toils and troubles that A-Levels brought. They partly right.
Year 12 was on the whole joyous - for me at least. Studying subjects I wanted to do, with people I liked and with the reassurance that despite the greater amount of content and resources, I would have the time - as well as the motivation - to get through it all. Year 13 has been rather different. I can't in good conscience say I've enjoyed it. More content, mock exams and revision - something I strongly dislike. The boundless time and liberty felt just a few months prior seemed to have evaporated.
There is a cynical, snarky argument I have heard which suggests that students treat Year 12 as a doss, therefore seriously ill-preparing ourselves for the challenge of A-Levels in Year 13. However, with most of the work and essay writing naturally geared towards Year 13, this inevitably creates a decidedly more laid back attitude surrounding Year 12. In any event, it's obvious that people would be more laid back in Year 12 - we don't have A-Levels to sit after all.
I was not looking forward to my exams, except maybe Politics but that's because I'm immensely passionate about it. But there was the acknowledgement that the few hours spent on those tiny desks would represent the culmination of 2 years of education which in and of itself was built upon another 5. In fact, A-Levels (and BTECs) are the final beacons of compulsory education in this country, the results hang over you in every future career and can shape your destiny. Our mock results, work in class and entire attitude towards our subjects was built towards these exams, with the knowledge that they would be the proving ground for ourselves. And yet they are gone.
What we are left with is a system of mock results and teacher predictions that jeopardises so many pupils. For many people, mock results are bad. This is because they are the ultimate way to establish what your weaknesses are and how best to tackle them in the run up to the real thing. In my Sixth Form, they were also held immediately after Christmas - bringing its own implications. Teacher assessments are built upon biases, consciously or not. They are influenced by the personality and nature of the student as a human being, for better or for worse. Exams wipe this prejudice away. An ideal world would have seen the cancellation of exams being announced separately to the closure of schools, and ideally not announced at all. But, to change this current plan would be all the more traumatic.
The above compromise will also need an appeals process which I'm confident will stretch for eternity for the aforementioned reasons. In future years, we will now be the anomaly, the asterisk or even the deleted year of students whose results will be voided from league tables for years to come. For students who bombed on their mocks, this is bad. For students who were always worthy of the As and A*s, this is bad. Hope is diminished, as scepticism around our eventual grades is almost certain.
Any non-altruistic incentive to push oneself is also diminishing. My diary in recent weeks is riddled with me moaning about my own inner procrastinations, and the battle to suppress them. No longer.
In the coming months I will be submitting essays to my teachers sporadically in the hope of dragging up my grades, all whilst trying to answer the final question of my article. I sympathise with outgoing Year 11s, whose lengthy summers have been simultaneously extended and curtailed by the demon that is disease. It was the lengthy summer of 2018 which I think partly made the start of Year 12 so enjoyable, and it will no doubt be saddening to spend it unable to travel anywhere, with anyone, or do anything. I, for one, plan to cycle, run and read a lot more whilst attempting to curb the enemy that is screen time, but with my clubs and activities caving in, my inner drive might have to strengthen to never before seen levels in the hope of achieving these goals.
Right now what hurts is - ironically - the lack of closure. Last week, we got the first indication that the school might close for a 4 week block including the Easter holidays. Then on Wednesday came the sucker punch that exams - a previously unmentioned topic - would be not only delayed or adapted but cancelled all together. Sixth Form on Thursday was a nightmare - bereft of any motivation to achieve anything whilst heads were still spinning from the announcement the day before. We walked, bussed, drove and cycled home that day knowing that there would at least be a Friday - a last goodbye to the people and location which had defined us for at least the last 2 years (though for most of us, it was the last 7). Except there wasn't. We got home to find emails sent to parents informing us that there would be no inner closure, as the closure of the world beyond was happening far faster than we could have conceived - for my Sixth Form at least. Yesterday, I went into Sixth Form to clear my locker and try to say goodbye but the response was cold - perhaps due to the numbness of the situation which teachers and students alike now found themselves in. In the absence of an exam 'results day', we have to hope that our Summer Ball/Prom (hanging by a thread in July) can go ahead else this year will end with a quiet whimper, unlike any other.
The past week has been traumatic at times and I- not one for change as you may already know - have found it immensely difficult to comprehend. School is not just the four walls of a building and the knowledge that is absorbed into your mindholes. It is the people and friendships which make you want to keep returning to the same four walls day in day out. It is the teachers who continually push you and engage you in ways a textbook can only dream of. It is the necessity of life that is continually underestimated by the public, media and government alike. Can we live life without it? Undoubtedly, but life as we know it, may be about to change beyond recognition.
P.S Wash your hands :)
It is clear that the world is currently not in a good place and the government's decisions this week are part of a far broader aim of tackling Covid-19 as effectively as possible. In critiquing events and governments decisions, I note that there is no easy solution to what is an immensely complex issue. But I want to talk about school closures, in a far broader context of education as a whole, perhaps offering a perspective that better relates to the experience of students whose lives and entire sense of purpose appear to have been casually disregarded by so many. Some self-inserts may also be referenced.
I am in the cohort which saw the introduction of new harder SATs in Year 6 before being slapped in the face with the new harder GCSEs - gone was Coursework, in was rigour designed to promote the highest level of early academia. In with that came stress, panic, stress and rises in mental health problems among young people to unprecedented levels. I remember only finishing the Biology course after having taken Paper One. The volume of content was simply astronomical. And now we are faced with this...
As early as Year 10 I wanted to go to University, the largely vocational nature of apprenticeships not appealing to me. I remember when I was a mere GCSE student, and complaining about my 30-odd exams, I was promptly shut down and told of the impending toils and troubles that A-Levels brought. They partly right.
Year 12 was on the whole joyous - for me at least. Studying subjects I wanted to do, with people I liked and with the reassurance that despite the greater amount of content and resources, I would have the time - as well as the motivation - to get through it all. Year 13 has been rather different. I can't in good conscience say I've enjoyed it. More content, mock exams and revision - something I strongly dislike. The boundless time and liberty felt just a few months prior seemed to have evaporated.
There is a cynical, snarky argument I have heard which suggests that students treat Year 12 as a doss, therefore seriously ill-preparing ourselves for the challenge of A-Levels in Year 13. However, with most of the work and essay writing naturally geared towards Year 13, this inevitably creates a decidedly more laid back attitude surrounding Year 12. In any event, it's obvious that people would be more laid back in Year 12 - we don't have A-Levels to sit after all.
I was not looking forward to my exams, except maybe Politics but that's because I'm immensely passionate about it. But there was the acknowledgement that the few hours spent on those tiny desks would represent the culmination of 2 years of education which in and of itself was built upon another 5. In fact, A-Levels (and BTECs) are the final beacons of compulsory education in this country, the results hang over you in every future career and can shape your destiny. Our mock results, work in class and entire attitude towards our subjects was built towards these exams, with the knowledge that they would be the proving ground for ourselves. And yet they are gone.
What we are left with is a system of mock results and teacher predictions that jeopardises so many pupils. For many people, mock results are bad. This is because they are the ultimate way to establish what your weaknesses are and how best to tackle them in the run up to the real thing. In my Sixth Form, they were also held immediately after Christmas - bringing its own implications. Teacher assessments are built upon biases, consciously or not. They are influenced by the personality and nature of the student as a human being, for better or for worse. Exams wipe this prejudice away. An ideal world would have seen the cancellation of exams being announced separately to the closure of schools, and ideally not announced at all. But, to change this current plan would be all the more traumatic.
The above compromise will also need an appeals process which I'm confident will stretch for eternity for the aforementioned reasons. In future years, we will now be the anomaly, the asterisk or even the deleted year of students whose results will be voided from league tables for years to come. For students who bombed on their mocks, this is bad. For students who were always worthy of the As and A*s, this is bad. Hope is diminished, as scepticism around our eventual grades is almost certain.
Any non-altruistic incentive to push oneself is also diminishing. My diary in recent weeks is riddled with me moaning about my own inner procrastinations, and the battle to suppress them. No longer.
In the coming months I will be submitting essays to my teachers sporadically in the hope of dragging up my grades, all whilst trying to answer the final question of my article. I sympathise with outgoing Year 11s, whose lengthy summers have been simultaneously extended and curtailed by the demon that is disease. It was the lengthy summer of 2018 which I think partly made the start of Year 12 so enjoyable, and it will no doubt be saddening to spend it unable to travel anywhere, with anyone, or do anything. I, for one, plan to cycle, run and read a lot more whilst attempting to curb the enemy that is screen time, but with my clubs and activities caving in, my inner drive might have to strengthen to never before seen levels in the hope of achieving these goals.
Right now what hurts is - ironically - the lack of closure. Last week, we got the first indication that the school might close for a 4 week block including the Easter holidays. Then on Wednesday came the sucker punch that exams - a previously unmentioned topic - would be not only delayed or adapted but cancelled all together. Sixth Form on Thursday was a nightmare - bereft of any motivation to achieve anything whilst heads were still spinning from the announcement the day before. We walked, bussed, drove and cycled home that day knowing that there would at least be a Friday - a last goodbye to the people and location which had defined us for at least the last 2 years (though for most of us, it was the last 7). Except there wasn't. We got home to find emails sent to parents informing us that there would be no inner closure, as the closure of the world beyond was happening far faster than we could have conceived - for my Sixth Form at least. Yesterday, I went into Sixth Form to clear my locker and try to say goodbye but the response was cold - perhaps due to the numbness of the situation which teachers and students alike now found themselves in. In the absence of an exam 'results day', we have to hope that our Summer Ball/Prom (hanging by a thread in July) can go ahead else this year will end with a quiet whimper, unlike any other.
The past week has been traumatic at times and I- not one for change as you may already know - have found it immensely difficult to comprehend. School is not just the four walls of a building and the knowledge that is absorbed into your mindholes. It is the people and friendships which make you want to keep returning to the same four walls day in day out. It is the teachers who continually push you and engage you in ways a textbook can only dream of. It is the necessity of life that is continually underestimated by the public, media and government alike. Can we live life without it? Undoubtedly, but life as we know it, may be about to change beyond recognition.
P.S Wash your hands :)
Comments
Post a Comment