As an aside, this suits me greatly, as I will be better placed to make my own move without worrying for my parents struggling to cope in the middle of nowhere through another harsh winter. That said, there is a whole new concern as they face such things as central heating, mains gas and having to pay the sewage removal part of the water bill but at least I don’t have to worry about them being stranded when they aren’t able to drive along roads which are dodgy enough in good weather!
This downsizing means that they are getting brutal; collections are being disbanded, dust-gatherers sold or given away and the shredder is on burn-out over working at thirty six years worth of bank statements and quarterly electricity bills and it is from this paperwork clearance that I found myself one day last week with baby’s school report in one hand whilst clutching a bundle of my own in the other.
Reading them, I was struck by one huge factor; the glaring lack of individuality and character within the current report format. It has been this way for many years, but seeing the new style alongside my own personal reports just highlighted it all the more.
Reading the summary of each subject, I could clearly see the template the teachers start with:
This term, we have been studying [----].
[Child’s name] has worked hard across the subject to meet [his/her] targets and is currently working at a level [slightly below/slightly above/significantly above] the average expected of this age group.
[Child’s name]’s target for the term ahead is [-------]
From this standardisation of reports our children are denied the simple joy I had on that day last week as I sat with a large mug of coffee to read through the old reports, reminiscing over particular events which led to such remarks as
“an extremely active participant in class debate” - well it hadn’t started as a debate, but if someone is wrong, they need telling!
“dedicated to the completion of tasks” - after a particularly heated argument with a teacher about wanting to finish a story, which resulted in a change of lesson plan for the afternoon session from games to 'story-finishing'
and the somewhat revealing
“she seems far more actively involved in sports this school year, perhaps aided by the introduction of mixed-sex classes” - actually, true as that statement may be it was not for the reasons her words implied, merely that as the boys were naturally more competitive, games were more exciting and fun; consequently I forgot my kit less and claimed far fewer ‘early showers’ once they joined us on the hockey pitch!
But what memories will today’s reports invoke besides “Oh, I remember that year – the one when I was slightly above average in everything but reading, where I was significantly so!” - this could be any year, surely! There is nothing that will remind them of that day they made a model, played a particular game, had a certain conversation; all we are doing is churning out a generation of Insert-name-here, copy/pasted automatons completely void of any emotional involvement, personality or individuality.
Anyhoo... there is other stuff blocking my brain right now, most of it not quite so maudlin or complainy, so I shall leave this rant for now!
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