Resilience

A very good friend of mine is currently doing some work as an invigilator¹ and last week, when we were in the pub, he started to tell some stories about what he’d seen. Our conversation lead to a bigger issue for our young people today, and what we, as teachers can do about it: resilience, or the complete lack of it. We give so much to the students, so many ‘second chances’² or ‘by tomorrow and it’ll be fine’ that they have no idea how to act when they come up against something actually difficult.

See, the conversation with my mate went something like this, and it illustrates perfectly what I’m talking about: a student had turned up for the exam and saw that the desk assigned to them was not against the wall. Queue a complete meltdown by the student, with assurances from the invigilation team that it would be sorted. The student ended up sitting on the floor having a tantrum like a toddler³.

Now before anyone starts jumping up and down about ‘exam concessions’ and ‘if it’s on their learning plan’ or similar, let’s just consider what happens here. Firstly, the student was told concerns were going to be addressed, but still had a meltdown. Why? What did the meltdown achieve? What will happen if they don’t get a desk by a wall in an office job? What will happen if they don’t get their own way?⁴ What would happen if every student wanted a desk by the wall or window? It appears to me its getting easier to get concessions, so where does this end? Ten students sitting next to a wall, with at least ten rooms being used to accommodate this so the rest of the school has to shut for the entirety of the exam season.

Other concessions include having a ‘quiet space’ – what like an exam hall full of people who literally are not allowed to speak? These concessions lead to a need for extra invigilators to be hired, which is great for the people hired, less so for the already stretched budget.

Equipment is also loaned for the duration of the exam⁵, which is nuts. My mate said at the start of a different exam, a student asked to borrow a pen. As soon as he asked if anyone else needed one, another NINE students raised their hands. How the fuck do you turn up to an exam without a pen? Are you going to get your answers down via the medium of ESP? Maybe origami or interpretative dance

On the day of any maths exam, I used to get a steady stream of people turning up and asking to borrow a calculator or a protractor. Given this is all equipment we have used in class and have told them repeatedly to bring the equipment, it is incredibly frustrating⁶ to have to sort this on exam day.

Of course, with league tables and the massive pressure on schools to improve results, you have to lend the equipment because you’d be nuts not to, but what are we teaching the students by doing this? There will always be a safety net? Someone will look after you? Talk about creating a false impression for the rest of your life. Years ago, I worked in a warehouse, and you had to wear steel-toe-capped shoes. Forget the shoes and you got sent home. Guess how many people forgot their shoes?

I think teachers have become their own worst enemies on the equipment front. We always have equipment to hand, and we always lend it out to those that don’t have it. Maybe we shouldn’t. When your child starts in year 7, parents get sent an equipment list, so perhaps we need a zero-tolerance stance if a child turns up without that equipment. Proper sanctions of the kind that would make you instantly regret not being more organised, such as:

a) you cannot represent the school at sport⁷

b) parents in for a meeting

c) obviously detention, but how effective is that really⁸?

d) provide the equipment, and charge the parents a fee for providing it, plus an admin fee

e) make them eat biscuits that are not chocolate hob-nobs⁹

Now, this obviously is unfair to parents who are on low incomes, but most schools already have procedures in place to help these students and their parents, so it shouldn’t be an unsurmountable problem. I’m talking more about tackling those who just cannot be arsed to be organised (parents and students).

Another instance here is school trips. Years ago I organised a curriculum thing, I forget what but it was important at the time, and sent a slip to home on paper¹⁰ and asked for 100% response, including any that said no. The deadline came and went, and I hadn’t had more than about 40% of the slips back. I complained to the whole year group, wrote to parents again but never got anywhere near 100%. When I asked the Head to get involved, she said no as I was being unreasonable in expecting everyone to reply.

Why? Why is it ‘unreasonable’ to expect a reply about your child’s education? What the fuck? Why is not actually normal to expect a response? Bear in mind this was about a curriculum thing, not some tenuous jolly, so I wanted to check all the parents knew what we were offering. Thanks for the back up there, head teacher. And yes, in year 11, when that year group needed to return slips saying they would either collect their exam certificates or please post them to this address, guess how many responses we got, and how much admin time was spent chasing parents?

For me, it’s about people taking responsibility for their child’s education, and eventually for the child to take responsibility too. If we keep offering solutions to their problems, how are we building their resilience? You want a desk by the wall, I’d love for you to have one, but it’s not possible. How can we solve this problem? You didn’t bring a pen? Sorry, son, not my fucking problem. What are you going to do about it? You forgot your parent permission slip for this trip? Guess what, you’re not going.

Resilience is about a bit more than ‘just getting on with it’ and we need to make sure our students are prepared for a future where people will absolutely not look after things they should look after themselves (such as a pen). Perhaps not bending over backwards to accommodate every single thing a parent demands would actually help the student in the long run. Conversations along the lines of ‘yes I know she wants a desk by the window, but so does everyone else. She sits where I tell her to. End of discussion.’

Perhaps by insisting on higher basic standards earlier in their education, and not pandering to the most demanding of requests¹¹, our students will be better prepared to adapt to tougher situations later in their life.

FOOTNOTES

1. It’s always entertaining when non-teachers see exactly what dealing with teenagers every day is like. Suffice to say we had more than one beer. ↩︎
2. Which is actually their third, fourth or even fifth chance in reality. ↩︎
3. The student was 18. Bit embarrassing really. ↩︎
4. I know of a teacher currently who responds to negative situations by sitting on the floor like a toddler. They don’t get their own way, and they get laughed at a lot. ↩︎
5. Sometimes longer if the invigilators don’t keep a record of who borrowed what. ↩︎
6. Other, more expletive heavy words are available here, but in a rare show of restraint, I have elected not to use them. ↩︎
7. This is the biggie, really, unless the kid gives zero shits about sport. ↩︎
8. You must stay inside. During winter. In the UK. ↩︎
9. The horror! ↩︎
10. Back in the good old days, when people talked to each other and didn’t send all staff emails because Timmy has mislaid his pencil case. Again. ↩︎
11. EHCPs for two students in the same class will often contradict each other, so what the hell are we supposed to do then? EHCPs are legal requirements, but this student needs a desk to themselves and my room doesn’t have enough spare desks for that to happen. What happens now? ↩︎