Invigilation. A strange, vaguely ridiculous word. A tedious duty for most academics and one which many universities are now subcontracting.
I never found invigilation to be a waste of time. Quite apart from ensuring that students do not cheat during their exams (thereby devaluing the degrees we award), invigilation offers some time to observe, to think and occasionally to discover. I remember conducting silent surveys regarding the numbers of left-handed students and the places where they prefer to sit ...
I am writing these words looking at a class of 64 final year students writing their examinations. A lot of anxiety in the room, mixed with concentration, application and hope. I try to imagine these same students in 10, 20, 30 and 50 years' time. I am trying to think of each and every one of them. A has become a museum curator, B a wine-taster, C an actor, D a community organizer, E married 3 times, inherited a fortune and never had to work in her life.
F's promising musical career was cut short by cancer. F rose to great corporate levels, but was sacked at 50, an alcoholic by then. G, never a great student, is now a government minister. H's depression got the better of him - he still lives with his mother who is dutifully caring for him. J, the genius of the class, now runs very successfully a warehouse business.
There are future furniture salesmen, stockbrokers, adventurers, soldiers, househusbands, property speculators and maybe even the odd academic in the room. And then there are those in jobs yet to be invented.
How do I know? I am looking at a room when 40 years ago I was taking my high school examinations and I know what happened to those sitting next to me in that classroom. What I didn't know then and what I don't know now is how Fortune will dispense her blessings and curses to each person.
64 students in a room. The same as the number of squares on the chessboard. 64 life stories in the making. 64 bright and promising young people in charge of their destiny. But have they consulted Fortune?
Having also spent most of my week being an invigilator, I come to realize that your description of your musings is very close to mine... With the major difference that the students I was day-dreaming about are stuck in a curricular that seems to be leading only downwards on the social ladder... which led my musings to go downwards too... on the moral ladder. I indeed was considering how many of them would be able to sustain themselves without social welfare ... or armed robbery... The French school system is going down... and the sinking of the Costa Concordia (or even the Titanic for that sake) will look like a detail in history when we finally come to realize the failure of the so-called "Education Nationale"...
ReplyDeleteYes indeed blue musings...
Dear Isa,
ReplyDeleteYour blue musings touched me, since, like you, I have deep misgivings about current developments in education and their ramifications in ever-increasing inequalities, injustices and iniquities. Current changes in Higher Education (including its ever expanding commercialisation, globalization and McDonaldization) pose many threats to the principles of free inquiry and rational discourse presented by the Humboldt ideal. The thought that most Oxbridge graduates, educated by tax-payers money, become fodder for the banks and financial institutions in the City of London is enough to depress most sensible people.
I should say, however, that teaching young children, whose minds are still pliable and receptive, you should not underestimate your own ability to influence them, no matter what the state dictates. One thing will remain, whatever the state decrees. Teachers occupy an archetypal position in most pupils’ minds (often without realizing it). This gives them very considerable leverage, provided they can control their own emotions of disappointment, betrayal and, above all, cynicism. I think that cynical teachers do more damage to children than even government blindness. Great teachers will continue to provide long-lasting inspiration to their pupils and will be remembered fondly for a very long time.
Y