Changing horses ...

Having this afternoon posted a fairly bland response to a comment on my post about how parents help their offspring, I've done a little digging. It seems that once again we have a situation in which an academic and serious student is being sacrificed on the altar of expediency. Left alone in the Advanced Higher English class, he has now - in the run up to the exam season - been told to get on with it himself while his teacher is deployed in assisting with an S4 class. I'm willing to bet that the S4 class is not of the top echelon, and their folios are probably causing bothers. At this time of year, there's always some teacher who's let it go a bit, or who hasn't ensured the progression of the folios - and there's always some class of miscreants who haven't given a toss for the past year and a half and now realise they'd better have something to show for all this time in education before the big world beckons.

All very familiar - and all very annoying. Clever kids never seem to get the staffing resources doled out to the less able or less compliant. They tend to be in larger classes - because they won't run riot - and to be left on their own more often for the same reason. One teacher for one top-level student is seen as a sinful waste, while a disruptive or otherwise challenging pupil will often spend his days with the undivided attention of a minder who is employed to keep him on track, while another will have a scribe and an invigilator all to himself at every exam.

It is not a luxury to have a teacher to direct your studies and encourage thought and engage in challenging conversations. It is a necessity. And redeploying staff at this time of the session is unfair to the student - and to the teacher.