Covid and PPE again – exam board tomorrow – students having to be told how to work

There more about PPE money funding expensive lifestyle here and abroad – leaving out there

Politics is going down the drain faster than I could have imagined. The new far right of Farage is attracting attention and he says he will be prime minister in 2029. Heaven forbid!

Today I have been concentrating on assisting students who have not been doing the work, and no matter what I have said in the past have not yet cottoned onto the necessity for reading and getting the associated benefit from the instructions.

I’m reminded about twenty years ago a student said to me “I don’t like reading.” My reply was, “Well, you’re here to read for a degree, so you’d better start liking it.”

However I am wondering how schools are teaching people to learn. Are we seeing the result of too much “making it easy/entertaining/appropriate for them” that we’ve lost the aim of education? I am seeing a wide range of approaches. I am seeing a reluctance to read from top to bottom. Have we lost that in schools? Are we experiencing an generational thing where the parents are not  instilling and encouraging the desire to learn?

I often hear members of staff say that students won’t read, so it’s not only me, but should we be taking remedial action as they enter university? I’m having to sit down and point to bits they’ve missed and some of them complain that they deserve more. I am not in the realm of doling out cheat sheets. I am not summarising – they need to do the work otherwise they won’t learn.

It won’t be my problem for much longer.

There is the first exam board tomorrow, one of my last.

End of rant. For now.

Music

As it’s the seventy fifth anniversary of the Aldeburgh festival, some Britten.

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976), Violin Concerto, Op 15, Janine Jansen, Orchestre de Paris, Paavo Järvi, Proms 2013