What is the answer!

The days starts, as it often does, with an extended moan about the educational system in which we find ourselves trapped – more particularly the examinations which we impose on our kids. 

We find it increasingly difficult to understand why we are forcing the kids to sit pointless exercises in short term memory gain when we are not teaching them the skills that make the individual facts that they are learning meaningful. 

This is the sort of grizzling that goes on and on and, as we lack the political clout to do anything about the system, there is no satisfactory end in sight – except of course for the exhaustion of red pen after red pen!

The weather is a little more sombre today after the unexpected gift of a sunny Sunday yesterday.  At our lofty elevation we are in the clouds and Barcelona is lost in the off-white blanket of pollution rolling down the mountains.

As the examination season has come to a climax there will be spasm after spasm of pen pushing during the day which will unsettle our teaching and turn us into disgruntled invigilators and make the day so much longer.  For me this is a “long” day anyway so I will be whimpering with frustration by the end of the day – and god help any of the selfish parents who have triple parked blocking my car today!

The one positive point is that Amazon should call today with yet more discs and, more importantly, my real version of Hard Times.  I have tried to use the electronic version and it simply does not work when you are using it for academic purposes and are trying to find the right section of the book.  In some way the electronic version is idea when you have half remembered a quotation you can type in the words and hey presto! there it is!  But for quoting when writing an essay on the computer it is a disaster – or perhaps I am merely saying that I am more comfortable with a book!

I have just gone up to the two sixth form classes that are about to have a Spanish exam and, much like the creatures in Monsters Inc., I fed on their fear and feel much refreshed!  I am going to take over from colleagues who are at present starting the exam so I will have the opportunity to see how they have fared during the hour of examination delight before I continue their watching.  And watch them you have to do because they take every opportunity to cheat.  Examinations are not a time for relaxed working on your own affairs, you have to maintain a vigilance which would do the SAS proud if you want anything like a realistic result from the pen pushing!

I am now stuck in front of a class “doing” their exam and, I simply cannot face staring at them without doing something, so I can at least touch type so I can watch them and let me fingers pretend that they are doing something useful as well.  Their paper is a mixture of multiple choice and discursive questions but it does look as though the general level of work is only for memory yet again.  The kids are thoroughly bored and have does as much as they can, they are now in that dangerous time when they have to make up what they don’t know and hope for the best.  The ideal time to start cheating.  They are fascinated by the fact that I am typing without looking at the keyboard and I suppose, if nothing else, it gives them something to think about or watch rather than cheat!

I am conscious that there is a limit to the amount of vacuous typing that I can do, and there is another piece of written work that should be occupying my time – but I have given up writing the essay until I can hold the text in my hands.

The Text (the capital letters are well deserved) has arrived and it is the wrong one!  Although the description states that it is Dickens’ novel with the introduction by Kate Flint this is not the case and I have been sent a cheap version of the Penguin Classic.  Ah well, at least it is the text in book form and I can work with that.

My notes continue to expand and my inclination to put coherent sentences on paper continues to shrink.  I still haven’t found a significantly original slant on what I have to do to prompt me to put my thoughts forward for critique.  I think I am trying too much and I should settle down and do as I am told in the Assignment Booklet notes and not strive for more – but we shall see after I have completed my umpteenth reading of the novel, but now with added sensual addition of feeling fingers on actual pages.  It makes all the difference.

To sweeten the blow of the wrong text being sent, I had another package from Amazon with my next slew of discs.  Toni is now frankly worried at my escalating rate of purchase, but I can’t stop myself because if the bargains are there, who am I to resist them.

The most interesting of my purchases in a five disc set of “Music from the Middle Ages” with disc five being entitled “L’agonie du Languedoc” and who can resist such an offering!  Well, realistically I suppose that the answer to that would be “most people” but as I already have music about the disgraceful slaughter of the Cathars (including a wonderful extract from an episcopal letter urging right thinking Christians to slaughter the heretical inhabitants of the Languedoc in the name of the God of Love!) I am one of the other group who looks forward to listening to such music with absolute relish!

The only oddity among the other box sets which include The Hilliard Ensemble with music by Ockenghem, Desprez, De la Rue and Lassus and another Baroque Collection with music by Albinoni, Bach, Handel, Palestrina, Monteverdi, Purcell, Telemann and Vivaldi is a box set of the ballets, orchestral works and film music of Prokofiev.

I think that “Lieutenant Kije” is a wonderful work and the “Troika” is one of my favourite pieces of music which, under the right circumstances, can reduce me to tears – once embarrassingly during a long drive on English motorways with me yelling the tune lustily and beating the steering wheel in time to the music.  God alone knows what startled drivers must have thought of me!

I am finding my present set of “car” discs irritatingly tame and some of the tracks quaintly antique in their recording quality, so I think I may substitute the newest arrivals – though it does mean that some time in the future I will be driving along a dismal motorway with suicidal motorists while listening to two discs of Orlando de Lassus’ Penitential Psalms.  Well, if nothing else I suspect that I will be having a unique listening experience on the orbital hell with encircles the city of Barcelona!

After a day of glorious sunshine yesterday, I suppose there had to be a reaction today and it has been dull, cold and this evening, wet.  This is the sort of uneven weather experience that I was used to in Britain but I have become less tolerant of it when it occurs in Catalonia.  Even though today was miserable, it was 14C, so one shouldn’t complain!

Now back to Dickens and trying to find that slant which has so far eluded me!

Where is the sun!

It rained solidly throughout the night.  Well, I don’t know that for a fact as I lapse into something not unlike a coma when I go to sleep so the gentle plashing or indeed vigorous lashing of the wet stuff does not intrude on my slumber – but it looked as though it had been raining all night when I, bleary and myopically eyed finally focused on what is laughingly called the weather over the past few days when I looked out of the bathroom window.

Yesterday we had no sun, not even the magical glimpse which is our due in this part of the world: the star always comes through even through the most unpropitious looking gloominess.  Not a moment of golden light.  Not one.  And today looks equally glum – though I have faith that some gleam will restore my faith.  Please!

On such a contrary day, each action leading towards the car and the commitment to driving to school was a conscious effort – and I can’t help feeling that the school will not be composed of a collection of joyful educationalists today!  I shall take refuge in the knowledge that this is a “short day” leading to the weekend.  And that will keep me going.

Today is of course, my National Day and I am wearing my Dragon Tie to mark the event.  I was a little taken aback by one of my colleagues responding to my tie by saying, “Ah yes, Saint Patrick!”  She was put right.  Although I have seen it written that Saint Patrick was a Welshman who went over the sea to bring Christianity to the benighted shores of that country which is obviously and literally not for old men!

More importantly this morning was confirmation that my last expenditure on a timepiece has at least been partially justified as the date on my so-called “Perpetual” watch changed automatically to the 1^st today without the pathetic fumbling which is the inevitable accompaniment to the arrival of a month which does not have 31 days.  I think that it must have been in the far off days of early digital that I last had a watch that was capable of adjusting itself to the normal rhythm of odd months!  What an example of money well spent!

“Short days” mean long mornings, though I have hopes that the disruption which is a natural parallel to preparation for examinations will allow some wiggle-room for breathing space – which thinking about it may be an inelegant phrase but is a wonderfully mixed metaphor!

As I always set off at 7.15 am to avoid the traffic which is impossible if I leave later, I am always one of the first people in the school.  I am, therefore sitting in my accustomed place waiting for the horror to start, which in this school starts at 8.15 am!  So, when people galvanize themselves to teach the first lesson I feel impelled to do something as well.  I only teach at 8.15 am on two days a week, the other starts are 8.45 am (the normal start of school) and times nearer 9.00 am.  Some days I am packing up ready to start when the wonderful realization strikes me that I am ahead of myself.  This happened today and I therefore had time to prepare and make real a handout which previously was only a pious thought!

I am now stuck in front of a class of 4ESO, a year group I do not teach, because of the exams.  This has not worked out well as the group that I normally teach is doing exams and I have been released to cover another class.  The silence obtainable with 4ESO is markedly more difficult to obtain than with 3ESO, but is still a more real possibility than with the corresponding class in Britain.

Talking of classes in Britain; today is the last day of the Inspection (the capital is only fair in this case!) of Paul 1’s school.  It will be interesting to see how the Inspectorate react to the initiatives that the school has put in place, but which are too new to show clear results yet. 

I wish him well and hope that the Inspectors do not do what they did in one of my inspections and that is turn up on a Friday morning in my Drama class when I had been told that they would have completed all their observations by Thursday.  Indeed, I had take a little glass or seven with relieved friends and I was still feeling the effects when the inspector breezed in, to find me lying on the floor with the rest of the class!  Ah happy days!  That went well.

I have asked about inspections in this country and have been assured that they do take place.  But they seem to be a damn sight more unobtrusive than in Britain.  I think the adjective that I would apply would be “cosy” – and certainly nothing approaching the carefully chosen adjective “robust” which Paul used to describe the initial interviews on the Monday!

The morning wound its length along and I skipped out as soon as was decent.

Lunch today was in a restaurant on our little Ramblas leading up to the church.  The starter was a selection of tapas, followed by cod with garlic mousse, then a crema catalan cake.  Bloody brilliant!  It starts the weekend well.

My OU essay is not going as well as I would like because I think that I am consciously trying to be too clever and find a new approach in a text which has been analysed to buggery and back again.  Ah well, the other way is to stick to all the guidelines in the Guidance Notes and produce something which is as far as I can make it exactly what the OU wants.  Work in progress.

I continue to feed discs into the computer and discover bits and pieces of my past in them!  This evening it was a re-mastered recording of a Beecham version of Le Roi s’amuse by Delibes.  I first heard that while staying in The Great Western Hotel in Paddington as a representative of ASTMS (god, how long is it since I have written those initials!) before we went to a meeting in which Clive Jenkins himself graced our little gathering!  I must admit that I have always remembered the music I heard on the radio in the evening, while the meeting has rather faded in significance in my memory!

The Baroque Box continues to please with a sparse but sharp version of Vivaldi’s Gloria.  I confidently expect more pleasant discoveries as I work my way through the other discs that I have bought recently.  And more on Monday.  When my paperback copy of Hard Times should arrive too.  I should have restricted myself to the book, but I just couldn’t resist the suggestions of the ever-eager Amazon to take yet more of my money with other music offers.

The next major arrival is the EMI Eminence Collection another company re-mastering old recordings and selling them at bargain price to music junkies like myself! 

All I can say is “Keep feeding my habit!”

Weather?

Surely there is nothing more guaranteed to put a dampner on a day than to know that at 8.15 on a Wednesday morning you will be teaching the various forms of the conditional to pupils who don’t want to listen to you.  Why do they not want to listen?  Because they know (they really do) everything (and more) about the bloody conditional and the exercises that we give them they can do in their sleep.  So, a wonderful lesson is in prospect.  Just the way to start the day!

Wednesday morning was one of the coldest of the winter at only two degrees according to the thermometer in my car – but there is also a cloudless sky so no prospect of the white stuff to close the school!

I delayed teaching the conditional for as long as possible relying on vocabulary and phrasal verbs to fill up the time and then after the briefest of introductions an unexpected visitor took all the kids away for them to listen (again!) to a talk from the Charity Food Depository before things could get really tedious.

Another class has disappeared to be replaced by baby sitting for a 3ESO class who are now in regimented rows and most of whom are sitting in front of a computer and doing god knows what.  I certainly do not intend rising from my seat and finding out!

This class is actually a relief!  Not because our kids are capable of sitting quietly – something you would think impossible if you listen to them normally - but because I got the whole thing wrong.  I had assumed that I had lost another free period and that the afternoon was going to be one long slog, but it turns out that it is merely replacement so my teaching (!) load is still the same.

Looking at the class, it does strike me that laptops are the educational equivalent of a dummy for older kids and time has a way of being sucked into the machines as the kids stare empty-eyed at them.  It is also heartening to see some kids revising in the old fashioned way with pen and paper and hands over part of the paper and a soulful look to the heavens to bring the information back to the pupil.  Whatever, as long as they are quiet, I am happy.

I am now a Premium customer of Amazon.  This is not a spontaneous gesture on the part of the company for the vast wealth which flows in its direction from my bank account, oh no, nothing like that.  I have paid an extra amount of money so that I do not pay postage and I get my goods a few days earlier.

In earlier days when I actually had an accountant to do my tax returns I remembering him saying that I should not spend money to save money.  As you can see this lesson has fallen on stony ground and I only hope that my outlay is going to be matched by a increase in the speed of arrival.  I am relying on the fact that everything will be quicker and free, but I do not think that will necessarily be the case. 

I am testing the system by having ordered Hard Times in book form because I cannot study with the electronic version; jumping around a text is simply too cumbersome without the pages beneath my fingers!  The book should be in my hot academic little hands before the end of the week.  I remain to be convinced.

Examination tristesse is beginning to infect the school, not only with those unfortunates (staff as well as students) who have had pre-exam examinations but also those who are dreading the fell swoop of the marker’s pen in the next ten days or so.

I loathe examinations as a “setter” and “marker”; I find them so tediously reliable that there seems hardly to be a need for them.  We learn absolutely nothing about the pupils; all they do is reinforce our preconceived ideas.  They are more exercises in short-term memory use than anything else and their educational value is approaching zero.  But, by god they are important in this place and the mark out of ten assumes an almost mystical importance in the eyes of . . . whoever.

Whatever I feel about them, they will take place and will be marked and will be given back to the pupils so that some sort of fatuous mark can be attached to their names.  There will be meetings and printed sheets and everyone will be happy.  Well, almost everyone.

Today (Thursday) has been a most unsatisfactory day in school.  My teaching has been indifferent and on a couple of occasions I did little more than babysit.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be different – and at least tomorrow is a short day.  And it will be a day nearer to the arrival of my latest batch of goodies from Amazon.  And they will not be here any sooner than before I paid money to Amazon.  I think.  According to the emails that they have sent I should have the book on Monday.

And then the essay.

Lashing rain and high winds are not what I expect.  But both are wreaking havoc around the coast.  The waves are impressive, with wind whipped spray giving a professional look to the otherwise tame, domestic water movements which grace our shores.  But I would rather do without the rain.  Frankly.

This morning was supposed to be a full one but turned out to be much more civilized.  One lesson was of a collapsed class which, because of the calming influence of work on computers actually allowed me to get on with framing examination questions for the imminent series of the examinations which are going to be visited on our kids.

I managed to get the questions for the 1ESO completed in class and was able to send them off to my colleague who is collating the paper.  The next lesson was supposed to be 1BXT but the saintly head of studies took the examination invigilation for himself and left me with a free period when I got a range of other questions for 3ESO done and still had enough time to get to my next lesson in the other building without panting!

Lunch (it was a “short” day) was near the old flat and was cold langoustines to start, followed by mussels then a mixed paella, followed by apple tart washed down with red wine and Casera and iced coffee.  All for a tenner.  Sigh!  It almost took away the misery of looking at the weather.

I have now read everything on the OU course and the next two weeks will see the production of the essay and the start of the period of revision for the exam.  Time is moving on.  I have a month respite (for good behaviour) and then the second course starts!

On Saturday I have a lunch meeting with a friend and a business associate.  Oh god, I do hate investment opportunities.  But I will reserve judgement until greed takes over!

Not all bad!

In spite of an absolutely rubbish Monday, Tuesday was surprisingly pleasant – at least as far as the developing illness was concerned.  Although I probably sound worse than I did yesterday, I feel considerably better and even spent part of the afternoon sitting outside on the Third Floor letting the sun touch my face and give me that injection of Vitamin D that I have missed throughout the winter months!

There has been a new injection on the OU course as well as two new Forums have opened up and I hope this will encourage the other members of the group to contribute more than they have been doing over the last few weeks.  I have been immersing myself in The Preston Lock Out, the songs against the Preston Cotton Lords and political ballads of all sorts to give some of the background to Hard Times.  YouTube has turned up trumps again in finding folk singers who have added the tune and an authentic performance to cold words on the page.

I have given up trying to use my electronic version of the text as a study aid and have sent for the paperback of the novel courtesy of Penguin Classics.  One cannot flick from part to part in the novel electronically in the way that is necessary to be able to write a decent essay.  I can imagine that finding the necessary quote is going to be easy because you can find something by reference to a few words, but I need the text in my hands!

I am still buying CDs as if the house is an ark against the Philistine hordes - if I may be allowed to mix my metaphors in a particularly unsuccessful way!  There are simply too many good bargains around for me to dismiss them!

The Tchaikovsky box set is a delight and I have particularly enjoyed listening to the three unfashionable symphonies 1 to 3 which I have always enjoyed since I bought a (bargain price) box set of all his symphonic works in university – for which I was roundly sneered at, as Tchaikovsky was not really fashionable; far too tuneful and Romantic!  Ouff to people who can’t lose themselves in such gushing lusciousness, is what I say.  It’s their bloody loss!

The next lot of discs that I have sent for are rather more astringent with earlier music of a sparser nature guaranteed to delight.  And then I really must stop as buying discs seems to have become something of an obsession with me at the moment.  But, as I always say, I don’t smoke so I am allowed to squander money on things like this and I am, after all, keeping culture alive on the Third Floor!

I think by the time that I have finished keeping the recorded music industry alive, I myself will have to say alive until well into the next half of this century to listen to it all!  Which, as I fully intend to stay alive until I get back every single penny that I have paid in for my pension (with interest) is just as well because both things should come to completion at round about the same time.  My Uncle Eric, as I never fail to remind myself in dark times, has been drawing his pension for longer than he was teaching!  A real icon for the teaching profession!  A patron saint in the making!

At the moment El Clasico is in full spate with Barça a goal down after what I thought was a clear penalty (Breathe it not in Garth!), though as we are watching it via a computer feed the picture is not of the highest quality and the whole things stops from time to time at crucial moments and is more frustrating than entertaining and I am typing to calm my tattered nerves.  I don’t know what is worse, watching ill-defined splodges of colour jerk their way across the screen or listen to hysterical commentary with a frozen picture.

Toni is frighteningly calm and quiet because he has a sore throat and a headache (and a cough) and has, perforce, to remain silent and fuming!

Tomorrow is a full day and one during which I will have to write a contribution to yet another examination paper so that the Days of Horror at the end of next week will make full use of our own felled forest to add just that little extra misery for the students who seem to have been doing a whole range of examinations this week as well – though the logic of having an examination the week before an examination is beyond me. 

Examinations in the School on the Hill have become an end in themselves and educational logic has long since departed from what is actually going on. 

Ah well, I’m counting the days – and from the Easter holidays I might well be counting the hours!