Ria’s Ramblings

One of the tricky things about teaching is perception – the perception of students, by the teachers, and the perception of teachers, by the students.

It’s very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that all students are time-wasting  no-hopers who would rather do anything than their work. In the drama school environment,  one often wonders why certain students have chosen even to study theatre, as they clearly have no interest in the subject beyond fame and fortune. However, this clearly doesn’t apply to all students, and some of them are even quite reasonable human beings! Some become friends, over a period of time. Some you don’t much like, but admire their talent and dedication. Some you do like, but despair at their inability to focus or achieve their potential. And many are all but forgotten before the ink is dry on their diploma.

It’s equally easy for the students to misjudge the lecturers. Now, we’re talking about Higher Ed. here, not school-age children. Although sometimes seeing the difference is difficult……. Speaking for myself, I really want a person over the age of 18 to have achieved some level of maturity. The drama school students range in age from 18 to 40, and that’s great. What’s not great is the glaringly obvious issue that the older students (usually) have more discernment and judgement than the younger ones. This is natural, and the transformation from the 18-year old clueless student to the 21-year-old graduate is nothing short of miraculous. But lordy! On the way to it, they can make life extremely difficult – both for themselves and for the lecturers.

One of the issues which grates on me almost daily is the idea that all lecturers somehow have ‘favourites’ and that this imbues the recipient of our favour with much higher-than-deserved grades and an easy passage through the system.

This drives me nuts and it is here that overwhelming immaturity raises its head. Here’s the thing folks: once upon a very long time ago it may have been true that certain students were favoured, and benefited from that favour.  But in the current education climate, it’s a ridiculous concept.

Anyone who works in government-led education will tell you that there are SO many checks and balances, SO many rules and regulations, SO  many hoops to jump through, that it is actually impossible to grade a student higher, or indeed lower, than they deserve.  First, evidence of every movement, every breath they take, needs to be supplied. Then the lecturer grades the work. Then these grades are submitted to an internal verifier, who decides whether or not those grades are fair, based on the evidence. If there is an apparent anomaly, the lecturer either has to grade again, or fully justify the decision. Then once agreement has been made between the lecturer and the internal verifier, the whole lot goes to an external verifier, who knows neither the lecturer nor the student. And the grades are checked again.

And that’s as it should be. So please excuse my scorn for any student who says that he or she didn’t get a distinction ‘ because the lecturer doesn’t like me’, or ‘only’ got a pass, ‘because the lecturer hates me’. It’s a stupid, if not ridiculous thing to say, when you understand the context in which we have to give grades. There is no leeway for personal preference. My dears, if you get a pass, it’s because that’s what you earned. If you get a distinction, it’s because you were excellent. The end.

This all comes back to that ’sense of responsibility’ thing that I often bang on about. Some young people seem to lack all sense of responsibility to themselves, the process, and each other. They know their rights. Oh you’d best believe it! They could easily get a degree in knowing their rights…….. but with rights come responsibilities, and this is where the system seems to be failing miserably.

When I was at school (on the Ark), it was made clear to me every day of my life what my responsibilities were. And I, along with everyone else, was expected to uphold those responsibilities. Being late wasn’t an option. Not handing in work wasn’t an option. Disgracing the school absolutely wasn’t an option. Nothing was an option, actually. Only getting on with it. If you got a lower grade than you wanted,  then you had to work harder next time. It was your fault for not doing it right. And most importantly of all, if you broke the rules there were consequences. Harsh ones. But you soon learned therefore, not to break the rules.

Strangely enough, no-one ever died from this. Strangely enough, we all left school (note: school, not university) with a highly-developed work ethic, good manners, and the capacity to function properly in society as adults. The vast majority of my classmates went on to be highly successful in their work, and that’s not an accident.

Between then and now, something has gone really wrong. The government has taken away from teachers the right to impose discipline. And students know that. It’s all-but-impossible to fail anything these days, because failing students means a drop in funding, or lower retention rates (hateful expression). Basically speaking, if a student turns up and can remember his name, we pretty much have to pass him. This accomplishes the square root of bugger all. It teaches the students just one thing – that they are going to get away with it, whatever.

Recently, I heard about a student who had publicly called a lecturer something really quite unrepeatable. Loudly, and in front of the rest of the students, other lecturers, and the lecturer concerned.

If I had done that at school, I would have been expelled, on the spot, no questions asked. Clear your locker and get out. Apparently (at least in Higher Ed) this is not now an option. It was clear that the student was a long way out of order, and it wasn’t the first time that this kind of behaviour had been seen in that student. So what happened? The student was made to apologise.

You know what? NOT GOOD ENOUGH! The apology should have been demanded, and then the student sent packing as well. But the person handing out the ‘punishment’ has hands tied tight by the ropes of government edicts.

Discipline needs to be brought back into schools routinely, so that schoolkids have got a clue when they become uni students. We wonder why society’s going to the dogs? It’s because we’re not teaching our kids how to own their mistakes.