Tea Stains and Daisy Chains: education

Banana Moon's Study of the Student Species

09:33

The other day I was sent an email from a lovely lady called Jessica, who told me about Banana Moon's recent blog post about different student stereotypes. The idea is that their 'study' is just a bit of fun for new freshers to find out (if they've been living under a rock and don't know already) the types of students they're bound to meet when they arrive at university. While I'm not a massive fan of labeling people, I can't really deny that students at school and at uni do tend to fall into certain categories.

I would say that while I was at school, I was probably most like the Super Perfectionist (with hints of Teacher's Pet).

The description of the Super Perfectionist given on the blog is as follows:

"The neatest of all the student tribes, this well-kept creature is likely to be spotted lurking behind once all his peers have left the learning cave, placing papers into files and specially allocated plastic wallets. During feeding times, the Perfectionist may be spotted moving items of food around his or her plate into a particular formation – a far cry from the more unsophisticated members of the University social structure".

I'm afraid to say that I was often the last one out of the classroom thanks to frantic filing, colour-coding, or note-scribbling. I was the one who got stressed if the teacher moved the powerpoint on before I'd finished copying the slide down word for word. Being asked to take notes from a double-page spread in the textbook was one of my worst nightmares, as I felt the need to have every single piece of information written down, regardless of its relevance. You can never be sure, this obscure Swedish case study may seem pointless now, but it could come up in the exam.

I was also one of those really annoying people who cried actual tears if they got a B. Not cool.

So there we have it, I'm a self-confessed Super Perfectionist.

And as for the hints of Teacher's Pet... lot's of hand-raising, no detentions and never not doing the homework. Yes, I'm one of those.

I want to make something really clear though: I think it's so important that we don't base our identities on these stereotypes. When we label ourselves and other people, it can make us feel restricted and it can also give us something to hide behind.

While it's a bit of fun trying to work out which 'student species' you're most like, you don't want to finish your education and realise that you don't actually know who you are, as you've been trying to live up to a certain stereotype. If you'd like to hear more of my thoughts on identity and labeling at school, take a look at this blog post.

Banana Moon are also running a competition for bloggers, giving them the chance to win a tablet and a Banana Moon T-shirt! All you have to do to get involved is write a post about which student category best suits you. This competition is open to all bloggers. For more information, visit this page.

Harriet x

article

What have I been writing recently?

17:00

daily routine

What I missed out on whilst too busy 'fulfilling my potential'

00:33

Now that I’ve been home from my five week stint at university for six months, I’ve started to realise how much of daily life I missed out on whilst trying to be that ‘perfect girl’:

Simple pleasures:

With my tightly packed schedule of studying and athletics training, I barely had time to breathe, let alone do anything vaguely relaxing. I assumed that a lazy Sunday breakfast listening to the radio and reading the newspaper was a luxury enjoyed only by the fictional characters in films. “How do they have time to do that?” was probably one of my most FAQs. Although I was a little jealous, I always thought that I was the one doing it right; if I got my head down now, surely I could enjoy these simple pleasures later on, once I was successfully settled into my well-earned Good Life? Possibly, but why wait, when this might never happen? Of course, it’s important to find the balance between work and play, but if I’m honest, I think I’d rather have had one too many cups of tea in the garden over having every single piece of homework completed to perfection.

Every-day tasks:

I’ve now found myself actually enjoying some potentially boring things that I never had time to do, such as doing the weekly supermarket shop with my mum on a Saturday morning, having the evening meal ready for my family when they get in and even emptying the dishwasher every morning after breakfast! So I guess in some ways, my previous lack of normal, everyday activities has worked in my favour, as I’ll never complain about having to do them again! (I’ll probably regret saying that in a couple of months…)

Life skills:

But as well as the simple pleasures and these rather unremarkable tasks, I also never really had the chance to learn how to be independent, which is something I touched upon in my first blog post. My dad sorted out my bank account, my phone contract and my cross-country fixtures, whilst my mum made my appointments and even booked me into the hairdressers. Let me just make this very clear; I do not blame my parents for anything AT ALL. They were simply doing their best to make my life easier and to give me a bit of free time to myself. I would probably have done exactly the same thing for my child. It’s only when I look back now and realise that I went off to university at the age of 18 with the life skills of a 10 year-old, that I see there may have been a problem. (I’m not even exaggerating- today when I was working on the till in Oxfam, a little girl came up and boldly asked whether we had any toy cats out the back. I was so surprised, until I remembered that it was only me who could barely even manage to order my own food in a restaurant until a couple of months ago!)

So, why am I telling you all this? Well, I think everyone needs to be aware of the importance of the above things. It’s so easy to take them for granted, or to push them aside as pointless, especially when you’re so focussed on achieving and succeeding. But I really do believe that anyone who lacks experience in (or exposure to) any of them, isn’t prepared for ‘life after school’. Of course, there are plenty of other, more major things that prepare someone for university or the world of work, but these (especially the first two) aren’t so obvious. Therefore, maybe just try and keep them in mind and make sure you’re allowing yourself time to develop in all areas of your life, not just those directly linked to academic success.

Harriet x

article

In the News: 'Less stressful?' Maybe. 'More productive?' I don't think so.

19:59

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-27357031

According to the above article, sixth-form lessons at a private school in Surrey are now to start at 13.30, instead of 9.00. Apparently, this is to allow the students to have a lie-in. Despite being a sixth-former myself last year, I can't help but laugh at the fact that this is actually serious. You may beg to differ, but is it really that unreasonable to ask a young adult to be awake at 9am on a week day? Fine, stay in bed all day at the weekend, but surely the discipline of being up and presentable along with the rest of the working world is all part of getting an education?

Here are some flaws that sprung to mind at a first glance:

By sleeping all morning, students will have wasted half the day. While some may make up for this lost time by studying later at night, many will spend their evenings relaxing. I have no idea how they are expected to get all their work done if they're spending half the day in bed. Are they meant to study through the night? If so, they'll probably put their body-clock so out of sync that they'll be no more alert at 13.30 than they previously were at 9.00.
In the same way, getting up later will probably mean going to bed later, which seems to undo any positive effect of this idea. Even taking the "delayed-phase clock" into account, if the students are sleeping for the same number of hours as before, then they are unlikely to be much 'more productive' when they do make it into lessons.
Not everyone fits the 'lazy student' stereotype. What about those who are naturally early risers? Are they expected to lounge around all morning, or start their studying at 9 or 10am and carry on through until 19.00? This seems very unfair and will just cause these students to become exhausted.
How will students continue with a jobs or any extra-curricular activities that they do? It seems unlikely that many clubs/music groups/societies/sports practices will take place before midday or after about eight in the evening. As well as taking away the personal and social benefits of these things, this will also give students less to put on their personal statement or CV, meaning that they are less likely to get into university or get a job.
The 'working day' begins at 9, or earlier. Upon leaving school, these students will undoubtedly have some difficultly adjusting to a 9-5 job or a 9am lecture.
The fact that many students "did not sleep sufficiently during the week" can probably be partially blamed on staying up late watching TV and checking Facebook etc, rather than the "delayed" biological clock. Going into school later won't change this.

I've probably come across as an 18 year-old going on 50, but I can't believe that no one else under the age of 20 would agree with me!?

I really hope that this "pioneering" move won't catch on in too many other schools, otherwise 1.30-7 may well become the new 9-5.

Harriet x

A levels

Can the effect of today’s education system on young people be likened to the identity loss of the individual in dystopian literature?

15:41

This may seem like a bold statement, not least a controversial one, but let me explain.

The whole point of dystopian literature is of course to highlight potential flaws in society and allow the reader to reflect on the world. However, it is unlikely that either 1984 by George Orwell or The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood were written with the view to being compared to the education system in the 21st Century.

The title I created for my A2 English Literature coursework claimed that ‘The purpose of dystopian literature is to dehumanise the individual’. I then went on to discuss this view in relation to the two novels mentioned above. In the introduction, I began by distinguishing three factors that, in my opinion, define a human being (simplified of course for the purpose of the essay), which were individual identity, freedom and dignity. Whilst I’m not going to sit here and argue that the experience of students in the UK today is undignified and compromises freedom, I can’t help but notice some similarities when it comes to the loss of individual identity.

On many levels, students today are encouraged to ‘be themselves’ and create a personal identity through pursuing their interests and goals. But does this really match up with the huge emphasis placed on exams, grades and success? As I explained in my previous post, I feel as though the pressure of school, sixth-form in particular, caused me to lose myself, or perhaps never even find myself. In other words, in some ways, school seemed to stunt my personal growth. Many of you reading this will probably completely disagree, as I’m sure most people experience the opposite. It is undeniable that school is full of opportunities and experiences, which have the potential to inspire and motivate young people. However, I do believe that it doesn’t always work like this.

In my essay, I explored the significance of the names of both Winston Smith (1984) and Offred (The Handmaid’s Tale). The character’s lack of individuality is reflected in the commonplace ‘Smith’ and the possessive ‘Of Fred’. My name is of course Harriet, although during my time at school, I couldn’t help but feel that I was defined by what I did, rather than who I was. For example, while the head teacher may not have always remembered my name (perfectly understandable), I was ‘The Runner’. In the same way, to many of my peers I was ‘The Clever One’, or ‘The One Who Always Has A Spare Pencil’. I was known as the girl who always seemed to be going up for awards in assembly. But of course I wasn’t the only one; girls (and boys) like me are everywhere, in every school all over the country. I speak only for myself, however, when I say that I was hiding behind these labels, as empty and ‘vessel-like’ as Offred. I had no time for personal growth and development when every moment was taken up with trying to succeed, both academically and physically. “Surely you’re expecting too much; your identity lies in your studies and interest in sport?” I hear you ask. The truth is, I wasn’t particularly interested in my studies, because everything I learnt seemed to be for the sole purpose of passing an exam, rather than for the enjoyment of it. On the rare occasion that something did grab my interest, we had rushed onto the next topic before any real flame had been ignited. And as for doing research in my own time on these subjects? No way was I going to spend the precious few moments of ‘my own time’ looking into something that wouldn’t be in the exam! Of course, much of the ‘A’ Level content is interesting, yet is compromised by the fact that we seem to be learning for the sake of learning. In the days before each of my exams, my one wish was to ‘get all this information out of my head!’ Walking out of the exam hall, I felt complete relief at being able to just let go of all the facts and figures I’d been so desperately clinging on to for the past few months. Is this really what education should be about? Sure, almost a year on, I can remember the vague overview of the A2 Psychology course. But if someone gave me the exact paper I sat, I’d wonder how on earth I even began answering the questions.

If it seems as though I’ve gone off on a tangent, let me bring you back to the point. I gave everything I’d got to those exams, in order to keep myself covered by the label that said I was ‘The Clever One’. What would be left of me if I didn’t get those A*’s? I had nothing to fall back on. This was made even worse when I gave up running around exam time because the pressure of training and revision had got too much. Then, when the exams were all finished and I had my A’s and A*’s, I emerged, bleary-eyed, feeling as though I’d spent the last year or two in a dark cave. I realised with horror, that without the safety of my label-identities, I had absolutely no idea who I was. And here I return to the title of this piece; my identity was lost (or perhaps never allowed to form) because I was driven by the need to succeed at the things I was known for: academia and athletics. I believe that this drive was partially fuelled by the competitive nature of today’s society and the emphasis placed on exam success by the education system.

Unsurprisingly, I can’t offer any ground-breaking solutions. What I can say, is that if I were to do my time at school again, I would be more aware of life after sixth-form and exams. I would invest time in doing activities that might be irrelevant in the classroom, but would leave me with more than just the letter ‘A’ at the end of it. If I could go back, I wouldn’t look down my nose at my friends who seemed to spend more time ‘having fun’ than revising. I don’t know what the perfect balance is between the two, but I do know that those friends are now coming to the end of their first year at uni and I’m sitting at home trying to pick up the pieces.

Harriet x

Banana Moon's Study of the Student Species

What have I been writing recently?

What I missed out on whilst too busy 'fulfilling my potential'

Now that I’ve been home from my five week stint at university for six months, I’ve started to realise how much of daily life I missed out on whilst trying to be that ‘perfect girl’:

Simple pleasures:

Every-day tasks:

Life skills:

In the News: 'Less stressful?' Maybe. 'More productive?' I don't think so.

Can the effect of today’s education system on young people be likened to the identity loss of the individual in dystopian literature?

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