Thank God it’s Friday

29th March 2002, 12:00am

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Thank God it’s Friday

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archive/thank-god-its-friday-456
Monday A colleague and I are swapping howlers. He tells me about a student’s recent slip of the tongue. In a discussion about life, the universe and everything, she observed of the human race: “We are the most important people on the Earth.” Not only are our students a bit weak on anthropology, I also point out the spiritual shakiness of a student I saw in another school who said: “Roman Catholics and Christians are not as far apart as Muslims and Christians.” Can’t help feeling there’s a significant point in there somewhere.

Tuesday A trip to the theatre in London. One student is distracted by the fact that his football team is playing tonight. “Are you going to keep your personal radio tuned in during the performance?” “No,” comes the indignant reply. “I’m going to concentrate on the play.” Later that night, on the way home in the minibus, a voice rings through from the back of the minibus. “Can you turn your tape down? It’s a bit loud.” Two put-downs in one evening from the rebellious younger generation.

Wednesday Role-play with Year 9 today and there’s another gem, this time with a gnomic wisdom all its own: “If Gary Lineker had been my idol I wouldn’t have become a drug addict.”

Thursday I am moderating GCSE speaking and listening. Three of us spend an hour observing an activity. We refer rigorously to the criteria, pay special attention to comparability of observation, and offer as relaxed and responsive an atmosphere as we can in the circumstances. Nevertheless, it is left to one student, during the plenary on his group’s tasks, to sum up:

“I was the one who did the work,” he says. “But the others did all the talking because I’m the thick one.”

Friday After months of unremitting toil, I decide to give my Year 11s a break and show them a video of the 1967 Monterey pop festival while they ink in their GCSE coursework front sheets. As it is nostalgic for me, I appeal to them to conceal their derision about its apparent naivety.

I cannot anticipate the reaction that shocks me the most. Faced with the sight of Jimi Hendrix setting fire to his guitar one student says: “What’s the point of that?”

Later, musing over this with a colleague, we agree that when we were teenagers it was our parents who said such things. That’s teaching for you: people say the same things to you when you are 50 as they did when you were 15.

Colin Padgett is head of English at an Essex comprehensive

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