Dear exam students,
School is a strange thing, really. We take all these different people with all their different brains, voices and talents, and assess them all in more or less the same way: how good they are at sitting tests. Like a zoo that only feeds the animals that can roar.
For some of you, learning comes naturally: you slouch in your chair, half-listen, glance at your reference book and – hey presto – an eight. Others attend every support session, exam training and tutoring class and still come away with a fail. That feels unfair, and perhaps it is.
Fortunately, there is life after school. In that life, your school grades for biology count for very little, whilst perseverance, social skills, a willingness to work and resourcefulness count for a great deal more. You have learnt that every organism has its own role in an ecosystem. A forest is not populated solely by animals that can roar: every species burrows, coos, digs or sings in its own spot, in its own niche.
From my own niche, I have spent these past three weeks engaged in thoroughly ritualised behaviour. First, sitting your exam myself, then complaining with colleagues about marking schemes or examiners’ reports that cut the knot just the wrong way. Finally, playing the game of ‘Add a mark, take a mark away’ twice over. At the end, a number emerges which, together with the other exam scores, determines whether you can get on with your life or whether you must take a different turn-off.
Earlier this week the school held an open stage evening, where I watched some of you give wonderful performances and saw others working behind the scenes to help the rest shine. Whatever your exam scores may say: as far as I’m concerned, you no longer need to roar. I have watched you fly.
All the very best,
Reinder Bosman
Reinder Bosman (1997) is a biology and research & design teacher at the Goois Lyceum in Bussum. Here he shares his experiences in and around his classroom and the field.
