Rough and Tumble

In my last piece I touched upon educational issues. I think we have some serious problems emerging in our whole approach to education which don’t bode well for the future. It may be my increasing tendency to display the advanced symptoms of GOG (Grumpy Old Git syndrome) in which ill-tempered old men can be seen muttering angrily “things were just so much better in my day”, but I think there are causes for concern, even if my GOG might lead to their slight overstatement.

Rikard supplied a great joke/comment which made me laugh. I turned it into a ‘meme’, but couldn’t find a perfectly suitable picture.

It’s the “let’s give him a passing grade” aspect of this that set my noggin joggin.

I first became aware of this kind of trend some years ago when I attended an ‘open’ evening at my eldest daughter’s school, the purpose of which was to help the students decide upon which subjects to pick for A level. In the UK a student at 16 will typically choose 3 to 4 subjects to study at this ‘Advanced’ level. The grades obtained (at age 18) are used as a criterion for university entry.

I spoke to the physics teacher. It did not go well.

Me : what maths do they need these days?
Him : not very much
Me : what?
Him : just some pretty basic stuff (he then went on to explain further)
Me : so they won’t need to know about the solutions to ordinary 2nd order linear differential equations in order to understand things like resonance in an LCR circuit?
Him : oh goodness, no. Nothing like that.
Me : but I did that for A level - why have things been dumbed down?

He took offence. Naturally. He tried to explain that they covered a broader range of topics and that thing hadn’t been ‘dumbed down’. Of course they have, I said. You’ve admitted yourself that, mathematically, things have been quite significantly dumbed down. The ‘discussion’ degenerated somewhat after that.

Thankfully, daughter number 1 didn’t opt to do physics and so saved me from further fractious encounters with the staff (and herself from considerable embarrassment).

The impact on university level physics was also evident. I visited the university where I did my first degree, some years after I was a student there, to give a talk about some of my research. I got chatting to some of my old lecturers afterwards. I don’t know whether they still do this, but they’d been giving an entry ‘exam’ for new physics students - roughly around 3-4 days after the start of the very first term. It was the same test, every year, for several decades. The purpose of this test was to assess the general level of knowledge and understanding so that they could tailor their introductory term accordingly and maybe address any shortcomings.

They found that the test scores had been steadily decreasing over the years, with significant drops that correlated to changes in national educational policy. There was no doubt about it - the current students were less ‘capable’ than previous students. This was evidenced in other ways too.

I had experience of some troubling things at the place where I lectured, too.

We had an exchange programme at the university where we’d get a bunch of students from an African country. These were, in general, pretty damn good students and they usually scored very high marks. The ‘local’ students were not happy. A delegation went to the department head and demanded (yes, really demanded) that the ‘local’ students were marked more leniently in order to achieve grade parity.

I’d already had to lower my standards quite a bit if I’m honest. In my first semester there I set a reasonable exam at what I thought was an appropriate university standard (it was a Calculus II course). I was instructed by the Dean to adjust the scores (upwards) so that I achieved an ‘acceptable’ GPA distribution.

I learned quickly - grades had to be set so as not to ruffle the feathers of the management.

I had one student almost breakdown when I refused to give him any credit for 2 pages of nonsense. It was a lot of work, he said, and that deserves some credit!

We had one student raise a formal complaint that an exam question was one she hadn’t seen before and so should be excluded from consideration of the grade.

There were so many instances of things like this.

It was a continual battle against what I can only describe as a sense of entitlement from the students.

I had one student complain that they should have got a better grade because they’d worked really hard and ‘understood’ everything. It transpired that his definition of ‘working hard’ meant putting in a whole day’s worth of studying on the day before the final.

It was a nightmare having to try to coddle these students. Not all were like this, but it was commonplace and probably a majority.

I got a bit of a rep for being a ‘tough’ teacher (even within my lowered standards). It did have a silver lining. I generally got lower course enrolments and so fewer students to deal with as my reputation preceded me. My student feedback comments were often hilarious. In the same semester (same course) I was described as the best teacher in the university and the worst teacher in the university.

Thanks guys - so about average, then.

It’s hard to piece together where this sense of entitlement came from because the country I was working in could most assuredly not be described as ‘woke’. Other cultural elements were in play I think.

However, the same ‘symptoms’ are also evoked in ‘western’ institutions. I used to discuss these student issues with colleagues from other countries to see if they’d faced similar problems. They had.

I think I’d want to describe our current ‘generation’ as the Be Nice generation. It’s a flippant way of describing the rise in safetyism - which extends to feelings. People, these days, need to be actively protected from things it would seem. Young people need the ‘protection’ of masks and ‘vaccines’ for a virus that had no discernible impact upon this demographic.

But viruses are just one example of the many, many existential threats that are claimed to be sweeping our nations.

People’s very existence is being denied - everywhere. They’re struggling to survive in a climate of systemic oppression. The blue-haired thing in front of you might spontaneously combust if you misgender xem. All that will be left is their nose ring smouldering in the ashes.

At some universities where they still allow ‘problematic’ lectures they will offer counselling for students who may have been traumatized by the experience of listening to such a lecture.

Counselling?

Trauma?

What the absolute everloving fuckity fuckity fuck?

What the hell has happened to us? Say something wrong at work? You’ve created an unsafe work environment. Disagreeing with someone online is ‘harassment’.

We’ve turned into a vapid spineless whingy bunch of arseholes haven’t we?

We ‘educate’ these students, we give them grades for ‘effort’, we tell them that getting things ‘right’ is oh so white supremacist, we pander to their every emotional need, and then we turn them loose on society.

These vacuous tits go on to fill up workplaces, populate HR departments, become ‘diversity’ coordinators, and the like.

The stupid buggers can’t even define what a woman is. That’s some education you have there, love.

It has gotten completely out of hand. We have to walk on eggshells these days so as not to offend one of these pitiful specimens of humanity. Unless you have the financial wherewithal of a JK Rowling then beware - we’ve given these vacuous tits the power to sack you.

It’s a bit similar to certain religions (I couldn’t possibly name the obvious offender here) when they demand respect. I’m sorry, I don’t respect your religion, nor your belief in it. Why should I?

If your religion, for example, specifically allows you to rape the wives and daughters of the men you’ve conquered (who are now either dead or castrated slaves) then I’m not going to respect it. But, of course, there is no religion like this, is there?

If your religion dictates that you mutilate young boys by cutting off their foreskins then you can fuck right off in terms of ‘respect’. Is the foreskin just a superfluous bit that God designed so that you could chop it off in order to show you’re a (hoodless) member of whichever flavour of God Squad your parents belong to?

I’m sorry, but I’m not going to be nice about these kinds of things. They’re wrong. Full stop. Don’t give a shit what you think your God says.

Being ‘nice’ is what has gotten us into this fucked up state of affairs.

We need more rough and tumble - for the sake of our kids and for the sake of our future society. Resilience, strength, fortitude, self-confidence, self-respect, determination - none of these things can be properly built by being ‘nice’ all the time.

You don’t train martial artists with feather dusters. You hit them. It hurts. If they don’t learn quickly how to defend themselves they’ll get hurt again.

Being hurt, being upset, having your ego take a knock¹ - all essential elements of developing a healthy robust personality.

The vapid and vacuous tits of today are about as far from having a robust, healthy personality as it is possible to be.

Toughen up, buttercup.

toughening up the buttercups

1. Equally, if these are the only things you experience that’s not good, either.