'Nother Solent

One of the things

that holds me back from waking up this blog is the feeling that any post that comes after a long silence ought to be important.

No, there is no good reason for this feeling. Here is a trivial and oddly-edited paragraph from the end of an education story in the Times a few days ago:

How to soothe students? Tht reports that the University Mental Health Advisers Network wants students to get exam questions in advance as it would “significantly reduce the fear factor associated with the unknown”.

Thanks for that report, Tht. Now it is true that for some subjects proficiency can be meaningfully tested by an open-book exam. Outside school, when you program computers or balance the books or fit an engine part you are allowed to have the manual in front of you, so long as you know your way round it. For other subjects this wimpy proposal would simply move the fear later in time and deny the students practice in overcoming it. If you present yourself to a potential employer as a French interpreter she does rather expect you to understand and say lots of French words, you know, even ones you did not know were coming. If you wish to drive a lorry on the public roads it is considered best for you to how to emerge from a junction without having to consult page 141 of the driving test manual.

Continuing the education theme, I commented on this post of Brian Micklethwait's on the subject of whether parenting and teaching conflict.

And not continuing the education theme, there are a couple of posts by me over at Biased BBC.