I am writing from own experience. I went to university fed
upon an accumulated ideal of what it was
to be ‘successful’. After all, the word screamed out in so many prospectuses,
along with ‘achievement’ and ‘attainment’. What all three words hold in common is that they are relatively empty,
ultimately subjective. The suffix of the
latter two, ‘ment’ sounds a lot like ‘meant’ – implying intended meaning. Yet
for myself, the pressure to achieve and attain stripped my life of the meaning
it had .
Some of this is (but not exclusively) in an academic sense. Notice the recent demonization in the press
headlines, for example ‘School League tables: more schools fail to make grade.;
concerning changes in GCSE results.
There are a number of points in this statement I take issue with.
Firstly, that schools are placed in a
‘league’ so to speak, as if a sport with which parents are fed fixtures by an impersonal
government and await uncertain results. School is more than just a ‘sport’ in
the informal sense. Yet there is great that through the emphasis of league
tables, children are becoming caught in another word which can encourage
emptiness – competition. There is nothing
wrong in having your own ambition and wanting to achieve them. However,
I fear that the focus on league tables an ideals of achievement is causing
learning to become ‘competition’.
What I am looking for is re-definition. Of course there
needs to be standards in place to evaluate schools and their effectiveness in
teaching children – but this should be on a school level, rather than in terms
of the students themselves. On a recent ‘Word of Mouth’ programme aired on radio 4, a psychologist
talked of her disappointment on troubled children coming forward to her with
feelings such as ‘I am a failure because I did not achieve A*.’
Again, there could be seen as a need for re-definition. ‘I
am a failure’ is not appropriate. There may be times you feel like a failure, whatever
a ‘failure’ constitutes in your mind, but you only feel so. Our lives are
enriched as well as aggravated by feeling – composed by them because we are emotional
people made of minds. League tables are
driven by them. If we go back to sport,
teams lower in the league tables still retain the loyalty of their fans due to
emotions such as passion and belief. To ‘succeed’ you do not necessarily have
to be at the top. It is feeling at your top which is the thing.
Yet many students do not, and no wonder. If I take another media
example, a recent BBC News article reads
Top university 'not a destination for many schools'. It was the negativity of
the headline which first struck and caused me to question. Not only is ‘Top’ presented
as a proper noun, as if some objective ideal, but deemed an apparent
‘destination’. This appears part of a trend in wider society where there is again,
this set path for ‘success’, of pushing to the ‘top’. Yet to
bring back the point concerning the psychologist and the children,
myself and my own experiences, and many more – so many students are
unhappy. This is not just the case for
university students, but in high schools
and primary schools, as children are faced with empty language and leagues of
learning which does not reflect their best interests. Young people will do
their best when their best interests are
addressed. Surely this makes sense?
Yet this apparently not the course for the current
government. Nicky Morgan’s announcements of aspirations for all primary school
children to know up to their 12
times-tables puts Britain conceptually in competition with other European
countries. It is often this competitive streak which fails to provide long-term
stability. I have memories of shakily
reciting my 7 times-table by rote, in a relay of memory, not necessarily
understanding. This appears much of the case within current education – the
emphasized regurgitation of information, rather than its understanding and
appreciation. It is enough to make anyone feel overfaced.
Yet so much of educating consists of attaching definitions
and expectations to minds which are not educated to consider themselves, to
think for themselves – surely one of the best interests in life. At university
I assumed that ‘success’ lay within the first and flying high. Ultimately,
‘success’ lies within the individual. I know people who are massively enjoying
university, engaging with a wide number of events, and many achieve what they
want to academically as part of this.
Yet so often through the education
system, mental health is treated as an aside in regards to the ever-continuing
push for ‘achievement’. Yet the passion that punctuates my mind still knows that
asides can often be the best bits; especially considering Shakespeare – ‘Exit,
pursued by a bear’. In Shakespeare, asides often provide the action, enlighten
the audience at the expense of the actors. And that is what we need to do
- a be part of an understanding audience
rather than an actor looking for ‘success’ in a league table. We will find a
way to succeed when we find and consider ourselves.
That is why I am supporting Time to Talk, especially in its
relation to spreading mental health awareness in schools, supporting children in their passions and
putting the personality back into learning – at any stage in life. https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/join-the-conversation
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