<\/p>\n
Education is arbitrary: what we learn is arbitrary; how we learn is arbitrary; whether we learn is arbitrary. This was something I suspected as a student and have had fully confirmed for me while on the other side of the chalk board.<\/p>\n
To put forward a very obvious example, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the seating plan. Quite naturally, I start the lesson at the front of the room[1]<\/span> and I like to wend my way around during the hour, checking the students are learning correctly and check out who has the coolest clear file. Of course, this means the students nearer the front are more likely to get my help because I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll encounter them first.<\/p>\n Students at the back also get their worksheets last and are always called to collect the sheets and hand them in, meaning they have to stop writing first and thus, if the activity has a time-limit, they get less of a chance to finish the sheet. I attempted to counteract this slightly by handing out sheets face down and only telling people to start when everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got a sheet but this doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really help\u00e2\u20ac\u201c they just turn it over and start anyway. I could try handing out the files to students individually myself instead of passing them back along the lines, but my arms are short and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not good at holding lots of paper simultaneously. Sheet-valanches tend to happen. And then I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m in deep sheet. (Sorry.)<\/p>\n And, of course, students at the front get the best stickers. They get Snoopy and Pikachu and Elsa and the multi-coloured four leaf clover; the kids at the back have to make do with Woodstock[2]<\/span>, Rattata, Hans and that horrid pure blue clover[3]<\/span>. They have it rough man. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m surprised they even bother to show up.<\/p>\n The most unkindest cut of all however must be the homework. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m tasked with going around the class and checking who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done their homework and who hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t, but of course I have to start somewhere. The cannier students at the opposite end of the class get precious extra minutes to jot down those final few answers or just put a random mark next to a multiple choice question. I know this is happening, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing I can do unless I actually see them writing. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re playing Granny\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Footsteps\u00e2\u20ac\u201c I can only impede that which I actually see moving.<\/p>\n I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really know what I can do to correct even these rather overt arbitrarities (there are a million more subtle ones to be found in the classroom). I could move counter-intuitively, make a bee-line for the back of the classroom without checking anyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work and then start my rounds but then I waste time when I could be helping and as a result fewer people receive the benefit of my wisdom. Is that a good pay off?<\/p>\n I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m almost tempted to suggest instituting a Mad Hatter Policy where after every grammar point the students switch places but Depp\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tainted anything to do with Wonderland. And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never found a top hat which fits my enormous head. Other solutions which I consider during my downtime is to clone myself, learn to teleport, use ravens to scry on the students when I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not looking or ask the teacher to check half the class\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 homework. But then I think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just being ridiculous.<\/p>\n This article doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a conclusion\u00e2\u20ac\u201c how can it? These are problems without answers; education is a game of solitaire\u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s better than nothing but not by much, no one really gets the rules or enjoys it and you inevitably have to cheat to make progress\u00e2\u20ac\u201c everyone knows this. Everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s known it for centuries and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t magically have the solution to a human-history-spanning problem. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re asking far too much of me: I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just a classroom assistant. One with a large head, stubby arms and who can only attack the people stupid enough to move in front of him\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6come to think of it, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m kind of like a T-Rex.<\/p>\n Rory Kelly<\/p>\n [1]<\/span> I say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153quite naturally,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but actually I guess one of the advantages of having an assistant is that they could feasibly start at a different position; I would try this except I think it would make it look to the students like the teacher and I had had a fight and weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t talking at the moment.<\/p>\n [2]<\/span> *Shudder*<\/p>\n [3]<\/span> *Shudder shudder*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Education is arbitrary: what we learn is arbitrary; how we learn is arbitrary; whether we learn is arbitrary. This was something I suspected as a student and have had fully confirmed for me while on the other side of the chalk board. To put forward a very obvious example, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the seating plan. Quite…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false},"categories":[445,48,417],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5760"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5760\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.hyogoajet.net\/hyogotimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}