Last I left you we were mid lockdown, it got worse, I’ll tell you another day. Fast forward to A’Level results, for No.2 ... I know I’m late and we’ve had GCSE results too now!
I consider myself a pragmatist, others may consider me a fatalist and some, just lazy .... I reckon I’m a mix of the three, but, still primarily a pragmatist.
The night before A’Level results I sent No.2 this text
❤️ and 🙏 for tomorrow, just remember, nobody died ... unless I smother your father with a pillow overnight 😘
It’s easy to be a pragmatic when nothing ‘too bad’ has ever really happened in your life. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve loved and I’ve lost, in many ways, BUT only relative to the rhythm of life.
No.2 got what he needed to get into his university and course of choice, HOORAH. One less large human inhabiting Haversham House, even if I am having to sell one of his siblings organs to put a roof over his head while he’s there. I’m subscribing to the ‘High School Musical’ ethos of ‘We’re All In This Together’.
Joking aside, I abhor the ‘I’m alright Jack’ culture. Am I delighted for my son? Yes. Am I devastated for all of those bright, talented and aspirational students who didn’t get what they wanted/ needed to move on to the next stage of their educational journey? ABSOLUTELY. I’m not a academic so I apologise if it’s poor grammar to start a sentence with ‘Am’, but I think it reads ok.
Apart from the fact that the government couldn’t organise a party in a brewery, what went wrong?
Apologies if you didn’t enjoy Citizen Smith but primarily, what went wrong is that we live in a country run by public school boys, who are in positions of power. Are they in these positions because they are astonishingly bright and have worked tirelessly to earn them. No, they’re not. They are in these positions because they are primarily wealthy and therefore welcome among the elite. They propagate their social equalitarian spin but seriously does anybody who has a brain cell believe them? Does anybody not see the narrative, because it’s not subtle enough to be ‘sub’. They perceive they are above everyone and beyond reproach. I’d qualify the last statement with examples but I’d be here for the next year and I want to talk about the people that really matter.
The people that matter are those students, their hopes and their dreams. Some of them will have consistently worked hard throughout their courses, others will have coasted up to their mocks, had a wake up call and hit it hard thereafter. We all tick differently. In the absence of a pandemic they would ALL have had the opportunity to prove themselves by sitting examinations. They were denied this opportunity, through no fault of their own. In a ideal, non economically driven world we’d have just written the year 2020 off and started again. Unfortunately we don’t live in a ideal world, so how do we move forward in the fairest way possible?
We have a algorithm ... that considers class numbers and postcode ... not human interaction or professional experience.
The other people that matter in this equation are educational professionals. All of us who have children in full time education should have nothing but respect for teachers, never take them for granted. Maybe I’m fortunate, but I can hand on heart say that my children’s teachers work tirelessly to ensure that not only are their individual educational needs met but they are safe, happy and supported. I go to parents evenings and these people know my kids strengths and weaknesses, nearly as well as I do. They care about our kids and genuinely want them to reach their potential. That said, they are also realistic and honest. Let’s face it, not everyone is going to be a brain surgeon or a rocket scientist. That’s ok because there are so many other things that we can be and are good at, what matters is that that those talents are discovered and developed. Teachers worked hard assessing student’s progress, ability and predicting grades only to be ignored in favour of a algorithm. If I were a teacher I’d feel as disrespected and disillusioned by the exam fiasco as I do as a nurse by the ‘clap for carers’.
I would go on to rant about u-turns, ‘no but, yeah but, no but’, except Thursday is my Friday and I’ve had a glass of wine. So I’ll sign off requesting a commiseratory clap ... for those of us who did very little work for their A’Levels, had a great social life, turned up for the exam, attained D, E, U and have survived adult life relatively successfully thus far.