Of hedges, mosaics, pendulums, and Jesus with a bunch of flowers

Democracy is a double edged sword. Without it, we have anarchy or totalitarianism. With it? Hmmmm.

I did not vote for Brexit, yet live with its consequences. Independence? Not enough votes like mine. Despite my vote “counting” , the Tories remain in Westminster.

If democracy is a system of government wherein the people choose their leaders by voting, are we always going to be disappointed?

Three rhetorical questions just hanging there, had you noticed?

I read a post by Ben Fogle earlier. Here’s the main portion.

“ I failed my exams but exams also failed me. I find it astonishing that in 2023 we are still fixating on exams as the medium of defining people’s intellectual potential and capabilities. As a philosopher once said, ‘everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree it will live its entire life believing that it is stupid’

“Like a fish. Some people are better at swimming than climbing. Some people have exceptional ability to retain information and regurgitate it under exam conditions. Others fall apart under pressure.

“Exams are heavily weighted to perpetuate the continued opportunity of the few not the many.

“I have spent a lifetime healing the wounds of my early childhood failings.

“Fail enough and eventually you’ll concede to those failings and once you capitulate, they became inevitable.

“From there, it’s a slippery slope to self loathing that strips you of your confidence and self esteem.

“The wilderness has been my rehabilitation.

“There is no failure in the wild.

“Just life and death.

“It is black and white.

“The wilderness does not care about race, colour, religion or politics. It is uncomplicated and unforgiving.

“This is what makes it so therapeutic. Without the complicated nuances of society, we are empowered to make decisions based on immediate circumstances rather than perception or reputation. Rather than viewing the landscape and those within it as competitors, we see them as collaborators. It seems strange to me that the single hour of pressurised decision making during my A-levels aged 18 affected me more than the split second decision at 8500m on Mount Everest when my oxygen bottle failed aged 46. One was an artificial indicator of supposed ability. The other a split second life or death decision. I only passed one of them…..

……and lived to tell the tale”

It made me think. It’s not so much that Ben Fogle was saying something I hadn’t thought about, but rather a different - and very personal - perspective. He has a platform that allows his opinions to be shared with millions. I have nothing like his influence or readership. I have experienced a similar oxygen story but mine was twenty meters under water not up a mountain. But what he says has a truth bourne out by my experience.

However, Ben Fogle has also expressed an opinion that National Service should be reinstated. That’s a tough one. It is difficult to see how, even if it were mooted, it could be put into practice. Youngsters who refuse to comply with the most basic and fundamental rules of society would be unlikely to go quietly. No doubt there would be a human rights issue, too.

I don’t think, however, that National Service is back on the cards; but the Scottish Examination system is. And it worries me a great deal.

There’s an adage along the lines of ‘just because you can doesn’t mean you should’. I don’t mean that I don’t think there’s room for improvement: there is. But how we get to an improvement matters just as much.

Mao’s Red Book contains much that is valuable about education but I do not advocate that it becomes our road map to improving the Scottish Examination system.

There’s a public consultation. Had you been aware? It’s reported on phase two.

The Hayward report is long and detailed. It does its best to be transparent, to explain its findings and methodology. “We asked these questions. Here’s what respondents said.” That is laudable.

I think, says Joe Bloggs, that coursework has no place in assessing a young person’s abilities. It should all be done by examination. It was good enough for me . . .

This is a democracy; this is a consultation. You have shared your views. We are making the decisions. So, sorry Joe if your preferred outcome is not what happens.

In the 70s - 50 years ago - an extensive study was done where youngsters’ success was tracked based on two interventions. Let’s call them groups A, B, and C. A were observed and tested throughout the programme but no measures were put in place for them. Group B were observed and tested with the addition of maximum nutritional intake over the course of the programme. Group C , in addition to enhanced nutrition, were given educational support; their learning was more intensive, more immersive, more focused. It was a large study.

Unsurprisingly, Group C outperformed the others by every measure they applied.

They tracked the participants for thirty years. Successes went far beyond academic achievement in school. Group C went on to have, essentially, better and more fulfilling lives.

Conclusion? We know exactly how to have the best for young people. But, it’s so expensive we won’t implement it.

Sighs.

More recently, and more locally, we had an intervention where English and Maths teachers regularly visited primary schools and taught literacy and numeracy. Learners improved their skills dramatically.

One of the most remarked on results was that participants gained significantly across the board. It was not just their literacy and numeracy which improved: their performance across the whole curriculum rose.

Conclusion? We know exactly how to have the best for young people. But, it’s so expensive we won’t implement it.

Sighs.

In our school we have two intervention programmes. Both cost money. One benefits all S1 and S2 learners in Reading; one is targeted at the low achievers in those year groups, aiming to raise attainment in Reading and Writing. Both are successful. (Caveat - with those who engage.)

On the wider scale, the question should not be “How much money does it cost?” The real question should be, “How much do we value the results of spending this money?”

It is the very future of our society!

The highest achieving schools - shock horror - are, by and large, in the most affluent areas.

Based on the latest information available to me, the authority I am employed by does not spend the least per capita on secondary education; however, there are but two which spend less.

As an authority, we’re about a third of the way up the list in terms of social deprivation (most affluent at the top).

In “performance” we are just below the middle of the table. So, pound for pound, we do “no bad”.

It is, then, about much more than money.

The evolution of the Scottish Examination system is being fast-tracked. Remember that mosquito held in amber? To stretch a metaphor, synthetic gene-splicing didn’t go well for anyone, dinosaur or human! (I know it’s a made up story turned into a billion dollar film franchise, but stick with me.)

The exams are being changed. Quite how, we will learn as time goes on. The ‘why’ is a bit more complicated. The Scottish Qualification Authority was, after independent review, to be modified (2021) and soon afterwards, to be scrapped and replaced (also 2021).

Traditionally, SQA sets, administers, marks, and reports on exams. The actual curriculum is not in their purview. Of course, when exams are tinkered with, there is an obvious knock-on effect as teachers alter what they teach (or the emphasis, or the skills, or the strategies. . . )

The proposal is to create a new body which will have responsibility for curriculum and exams.

That’s a major undertaking.

Of course, context is all.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report praised the Scottish system. The CfE, it maintained, offers “an inspiring and widely supported philosophy of education.” However, changes were needed in secondary schools where the exam system remains a significant barrier to its full implementation. The freedoms of the BGE are systematically restricted as learners move into the senior phase of their education. Continuous assessment, it suggested, is something Scotland should look at closely.

It does not suggest doing away with exams completely.

Perhaps a hybrid then.

We should not forget, either, that the effects of the pandemic are a long way from being over. Aside from those learners directly affected over the past three years as schooling and exams were disrupted, there is every single infant, child, and young person who has had their life experience altered. The impact is almost incomprehensible.

And, I haven’t touched on attitude.

Actually, it takes us back to National Service.

Without the buy-in from everyone concerned, it’s a hard furrow to plough.

One of the primary criticisms of 5-14, the precursor of the BGE, was that it was too assessment driven, that its incremental levels rising from A through to E dictated too much of what happened in classrooms. (Yes, level F was added to accommodate the very highest of achievers, but every criticism remains the same.)

We won’t dwell on the fact that my current Nat 5 learners would struggle to pass a level E 5-14 reading assessment. That would require an acknowledgment that somewhere in the last twenty years standards have slipped.

But the judgements remain the same.

Channing Tatum, American actor, worth upwards of $80 million, puts it nicely - "I read so slow. If I have a script, I'm going to read it five times slower than any other actor, but I'll be able to tell you everything in it. . . It kills me that there are standardized tests geared towards just one kind of child."

The big picture is being obscured continually by focusing on details in the micro analysis of the education system. Yes, if I am a ceramicist, placing the blue tessera exactly where it should be, square and true, matters. It matters a lot. But my creation is going to be disappointing (at best), if I position it without regard for the mosaic as a whole.

Many cultures incorporate tiny imperfections into art works, carpets, architecture to reflect that only the divine is perfect, that we can never be without flaw. Navajo spirit lines are minute ‘deliberate’ mistakes, and the Japanese aesthetic concept of Wabi sabi has been around since the 16th century. The National Cathedral in Washington DC has several architectural imperfections, only perceptible to those who know where to look, reflecting the medieval custom that endeavoured to illustrate that only God could achieve perfection.

A copyist’s error in the book of Kells has Jesus - along with peace - bringing joy (gaudium) rather than the intended sword (gladium).

If we accept that nothing we create is without flaw, it is not the same as accepting less than we can achieve.

The proposals for changes to the examination system affect more than the exams and the senior phase of the curriculum.

In Japan, primary pupils enjoy what sounds like an idyll: play, explore, investigate, discover. It is when they hit twelve that hell begins. The standardised testing regime kicks in. It gradually strips creativity and originality. Thinking outside the box is abhorrent - and is quickly suffocated. Absorb and regurgitate is what’s required.

Japanese university students studying in Europe and America are astonished that in classes - even in the cafeteria- their opinions are sought. And, stranger still - to them - they are asked how they formed their opinion, how they justify it. In their own culture that simply doesn’t happen. They may have opinions on things. But, opinions are simply not discussed. Never. Nor are they challenged. Opinions are something you have, not something you talk about. Standardised testing means you need to acquire knowledge and show that you know. That’s it.

Although the majority achieve well, the cost is high. Dropping out is common. So, increasingly is suicide.

Here in Scotland, we are asked more and more frequently to accommodate a learner’s anxiety. How can we respond? Damned if we do and damned if we don’t. How do we engender resilience? Making allowances goes only so far before it becomes counterproductive.

Over 80% of a young person’s time is spent out of school.

I’m just leaving that there.

In fact, I’m going to repeat it.

Over 80% of a young person’s time is spent out of school.

And it’s the exam system that needs changing.

There are, according to accepted wisdom - sociologists, psychologists and suchlike - four types of parenting; one of which is likely to produce well-adjusted and well rounded individuals. The extremes - helicopter parenting and neglectful absentee parenting- produce less desirable outcomes.

If asked, surely all parents would want the best outcome for their offspring. But the investment in time and energy and money is a far from simple equation. Ironically, it is sometimes those parents trying their hardest who mess things up the most.

There are two wonderful poems about exactly this dilemma.

Philip Larkin’s “This be the Verse” and Adrian Mitchell’s “This be the Worst”. According to apocrypha (whoever he or she is), Mitchell miss-heard the opening line of Larkin’s work and ran with it, producing a poem so sweet and sour that it hurts. Larkin’s is all chillies! If you don’t know these two poems, you should seek them out. Both make the point (in delightfully different ways) that we are the product of our upbringing.

There has been much written about the nature vs nurture effects on development. Less about Epigenetics. Perhaps it’s because the field of study is emerging rather rapidly and such theories take time to be researched, developed, peer-reviewed, and ratified. Nonetheless, it would seem that life’s course is even more complex than has been thus far understood.

The upshot, then, is that the learners we encounter bring into our classrooms seen and unseen baggage (and some luggage we’re only just beginning to understand). How we measure their success is up for debate (up to a point). The ubiquitous ’they’ who make decisions, will likely let us know what their changes to the Scottish Examination System are in due time - I am not naïve enough to say ‘in good time’.

And so to the Ouroborus.

Allowing for us preparing learners for jobs that don’t exist yet, perhaps the skills they need are only beginning to emerge. Isaac Pitman’s courses of 1837. Essential knots. The walker with the red flag. The chimney sweep. Let’s not forget the knocker-upper. That was a job and-a-half. Like many others, it is only in the history books now. Progress, the Industrial Revolution, the technological revolution, the advent of AI, have all contributed to consigning many once venerable occupations to the land-fill of society’s unwanted, unused, and unloved. No longer needed.

But, even in the world of chatGBT we need toilets that flush and locks that close and drawers that open. “Even if I have to dig ditches the rest of my life, I shall be a ditch-digger who once had a wonderful day,” says Cornelius Hackl. AI is not going to (like the robots won’t) replace the worker.

How does a plumber learn to plumb? Phlebotomists do not necessarily hold specific qualification to do their job: it's on the job training. Can I get the required certificate of competency? Do you require a Masters to teach? (I’ll leave that particular grenade for now.)

To survive, to learn to budget, I must have a rudimentary understanding of how money works, and a grasp of arithmetic. To buy a car, as well as those skills, I need to be able to read and understand the contract (even the small print). So, English and Maths are, to an extent, survival skills.

I don’t need to know about the opsonisation of the dendritic macrophages. I don’t need to know about the tensile strength of steel and how it compares with brass. I don’t need to know about the normal saturation of oxygen in the air we breathe. I don’t even need to know that the Romans used a circumflex for exactly the same purpose that the Greeks used a tilde. As a Scot, I can even use the svarabhakti vowel without knowing what it is. But to survive? To survive, I need the fundamentals of how the world works. To thrive, I need more.

If I want a good job, I need more. However, my definition of a good job is mine. It might not be what my parents thought of as a good job. Security is what led my father (thanks to my maternal grandfather) away from his ‘trade’ of hairdressing into the much more steady and reliable occupation of working in the crematorium. Now, there’s job security! Don’t mess up and it’s a job for life, and maybe - if you keep your nose clean - a reduced rate when it’s your turn. Mum, as a people person, loved working in a shop but hated her time in an office. She endured the office because the pay was so much better.

But mum was of the generation where education past a certain stage meant a loss of earnings for the family. Mum was clever. But times dictated that pursuing qualifications was of lesser ‘value’ than going out to work.

The pendulum has swung. More and more young people stay on at school and enter university. It is not always their choice. The fruits of both scholastic and scholarly studies are not always a healthy harvest. We have forgotten the norm-referenced curve in favour of its criterion-referenced relative. We need both. There is a striking resemblance between the parabola of a pendulum and the NRC. But they are not identical. The pendulum has to keep swinging; however, inertia achieves nothing. Stasis is not really equilibrium.

Little progress, if any, is made through maintaining the status quo. So, a change to the exam system need not be a bad thing in and of itself. But we need to be careful lest our whole education system in Scotland goes the way of the hedgerow.

Farmers and their labourers used to tend to the hedgerows. Every couple of years they would bend down some of the new growth and weave it in with the old stems, creating a thick and strong hedge top to bottom. They don’t do it anymore, too labour intensive. But there is a little understood cost. The ecosystem supported by the dense hedge bottoms had vanished. It is one of the reasons for drastic decline of bird populations. Insects and small mammals and rodents are also decimated because of this change in practice, which has arisen from changes that were seen as expedient and unavoidable. I am concerned that we are about to do the same thing to the education system in Scotland.

Yes, we need to look at exams. We need to look at what form they take and - vitally - why they exist, what value they hold - what their currency is, if you like. But we must not do this without careful consideration of the entire system from first days in school to last.

If we recognise that more and more learners arrive in secondary with poorer skills in reading, writing and maths, we must look to society as a whole to address the issue, not just bash the primary teachers. Learners often do not value learning, don’t see the point in caring about full stops. IDK becomes IDC, even IDFC.

If they don’t care, we are trying to sail into the wind with a leaky ship and an exhausted and disheartened crew.

Yes, there are wonderful, committed and enthusiastic learners. Of course there are. I see them daily. But there is an ever increasing number that haven’t - for whatever reason - got the “bug” for learning. “I don’t need to know what any of this means; I can just look it up on my phone.”

It is tragic that some are leaving at the end of S4 who cannot write in sentences. Changing the exam system won’t solve that issue.

What concerns me about the review of the exam system and the (yet to be disclosed) changes is that they are looking at the top surface of the hedge and assuming that the roots, stems and branches are all fine. They are not. Failing to maintain the whole hedge stores up problems we don’t even know about yet.

Neither the government in Westminster nor the parliament in Edinburgh seem to be stepping far enough back to look at the big picture. The blue tessera is taking all the focus of attention.

None of us are without flaw. We aim for the best we can. My worry is that, unless the big picture is understood, unless all the issues in the education system in Scotland are seen and addressed, Jesus will end up bringing gladioli and no one will even notice.