Posted: Monday 7 September 2009
Back in the jug agane
Every year I wonder what to say to pupils in the first assemblies of term, to welcome them all back for the start of term and to inspire them for the year ahead. Despite wanting to find something fresh and new to say, I'm afraid I usually end up saying roughly the same thing each time. It's very pleasant to be able to report on good exam results which have come in over the summer break, but in doing so I always want to speak not only to those who have gained the grades they hoped for, but to those who haven't.
When a year group does particularly well, as the current S6 did in their Highers this year, they can be congratulated as a whole. But when I mentioned that the new S5 actually did better in their S4 exams, and that therefore they might well be aiming for even better Highers this year, there was a collective, and very audible, groan, which I think came from both the year groups concerned.
I do always go on to say that exam results should not be seen as some sort of inter-school competition, an academic version of whether the 1st XV or 1st XI have had an unbeaten season. They are not even just about the results that individuals get, although they are clearly an important passport into Higher Education for those individuals, and it is getting more difficult to get into the highly selective courses in some universities without very good grades.
Surely education is mostly about exploring and discovering knowledge and, through that, developing skill in learning and a depth of understanding which contributes to one's personality and outlook. I always urge pupils to look beyond exams and the 'need to know', and to follow their curiosity to things that seem interesting, even if they don't seem relevant at first. Is this too worrying as an educational vision?
I don't have a problem with most of what 'Curriculum for Excellence' stands for - it seems fairly sensible, particularly now that Fiona Hyslop, the Cabinet Secretary, has explained that it isn't about curriculum change, and is more about improving teaching.
But the 'four capacities' have begun to grate on me and I wish we could quietly bin them. It's 'Successful Learners' that pains me most. It's far too self-congratulatory and not nearly cynical enough. In my experience, learning is never 'successful', because it is never-ending, and there is always an element of self doubt or at least there should be. The other three capacities are simply intellectual chaff, as illustrated by the fact that the three adjectives and three nouns are completely interchangeable. None of the four capacities indicate that there is stuff out there which needs to be learned.
What I realise I cannot say, to pupils and to staff, is 'well done everyone, keep it up', although this year I was very tempted. The educational zeitgeist is too much about targets and outcomes for this sort of casual approach. And saying 'everything's working' would hint at a complacency which doesn't exist in the school, because we will, I hope, never see ourselves as completely successful in our learning.