‽istis ponders the sorting hat
(weekending August 20th 2022)
As A level, T level and BTec.
results come out in the UK, ‽istis ponders:
·
intelligence
·
achievement
and effort
·
assessment
and certification
·
grading
– inflated and deflated
·
doors
present or absent, opening, closing, other ones found
·
life
chances and the building of young people’s futures – and then, perhaps, all our
futures
·
university
places - conditions met or unmet, still available through ‘clearing’, courses
popular and subjects more or less worthy
·
parents
and carers, siblings and friends: joyful, brave-faced, disappointed,
celebrating, and some perhaps not really caring or much interested.
And if we
were to recognise a potential complexity and multiplicity of factors – ‘nature-al’
and ‘nurtural’ – a host of positive and adverse influences that perhaps, possibly,
maybe come together to realise those grade-signifying letters and numbers
presented on a page, in an email, by text:
·
individual
(can we really hold you responsible for ‘cleverness’ or effort?)
·
familial
(because or despite; and how might we know the difference?)
·
economic
(with poverty and wealth perhaps tipping the scales as the BACS payments are made
to private tutors and private schools?)
·
social
(part of the majority, the privileged, the advantaged – or minoritised or
disadvantaged; and where and when and how might we ameliorate or compensate?)
·
political
and operational (what % shall we deem acceptable this year at each level from A*
downwards?)
...then perhaps
we might consider that much is perhaps artifice and construct, set in to systems
and institutions that we have created or have allowed to develop by accident or
design – in order to:
·
select
in or out
·
differentiate
·
judge
·
deem
worthy
·
enable
or disable
·
slot
in to hierarchies that we may even think are ordained
·
sort…
But, as yet another Tory party leadership hustings passes by (more
or less noticed), if we could entertain the idea that - after the sorting is
done - it may not necessarily be all about individual responsibility and we
cannot so readily say that I am inherently better than you, then how risky/liberating/unsettling/levelling/mitigating/threatening/empowering
would that be…
…and what else could then be different‽
©
Pistis
NB: further reflections and comments linked to this week’s theme
and past blog entries to be found on Twitter: replies, retweets (which don’t
necessarily indicate approval, sometimes the very opposite!) and ‘likes’:
@Pistis_wonders. ‘Follows’ and respectful comment and dialogue welcome...
