11 May 2007
student confidence
Jodi's post regarding 'student spin' led me to reflect on how differently students 'market' themselves in the UK. Perhaps not at every university, but at least in my experience, students, even the very brightest, tend to massively downplay their work: 'It's rubbish', 'I don't like it', 'I'm not happy with it'. Perhaps this is some sort of clever self-denigration technique in order to render the marker pleasantly surprised upon receipt of their work, but I don't think so.
In fact, large quantities of my time seem to be spent in trying to boost the academic confidence of my overwhelmingly state-school educated students, to reassure them that they have in fact understood the question, that they do have the ability to write about Hegel/Heidegger/etc. And, of course, they do - if you can't explain these things to an 18-year-old then you can't explain them to anyone.
The educational class difference in the UK between those who went to schools that told them every day that they were 'the cream of the cream' and those that didn't strikes me as one of the most significant culturally subjective divides we have. In fact, what public schools 'sell' above all is confidence. It's all they need to sell - critical thinking just gets in the way when you're trying to be a future leader of industry/arms dealer/politico. If state schools had more time and resources to spend trying to convince working class and lower middle class kids that they were as smart as their private/independent school counterparts, there'd be a quiet revolution in the offing. It's not enough that some state school kids 'get elected' to go to Oxbridge so that they can play rapid catch-up with their cultural 'superiors' - this changes precisely nothing, and worse, fosters resentment among those who were 'smart enough' to break away from their 'lesser' peers.
The alternative is not simply a question of convincing people that 'they're worth it' in some shiny, superficial way - but it is about encouraging the capacities and talents that are there already but get pwned by anxiety and insecurity.
In fact, large quantities of my time seem to be spent in trying to boost the academic confidence of my overwhelmingly state-school educated students, to reassure them that they have in fact understood the question, that they do have the ability to write about Hegel/Heidegger/etc. And, of course, they do - if you can't explain these things to an 18-year-old then you can't explain them to anyone.
The educational class difference in the UK between those who went to schools that told them every day that they were 'the cream of the cream' and those that didn't strikes me as one of the most significant culturally subjective divides we have. In fact, what public schools 'sell' above all is confidence. It's all they need to sell - critical thinking just gets in the way when you're trying to be a future leader of industry/arms dealer/politico. If state schools had more time and resources to spend trying to convince working class and lower middle class kids that they were as smart as their private/independent school counterparts, there'd be a quiet revolution in the offing. It's not enough that some state school kids 'get elected' to go to Oxbridge so that they can play rapid catch-up with their cultural 'superiors' - this changes precisely nothing, and worse, fosters resentment among those who were 'smart enough' to break away from their 'lesser' peers.
The alternative is not simply a question of convincing people that 'they're worth it' in some shiny, superficial way - but it is about encouraging the capacities and talents that are there already but get pwned by anxiety and insecurity.
