bramling
Veteran Member
I'm not even particularly old (sort of hovering around the start of what we call middle age) and I completely agree with @Belperpete. I don't support the premise "should the young shield", but I do think the young are much more resilient than people think. In particular under-10s or thereabouts just need to be loved and know they are loved, and they manage to cope with near enough anything.
It's much more difficult for teenagers, but there is plenty of time to recover, as he says. Many, many teenagers fail their exams for many reasons, and with the right help it is possible to pull things back and have a successful life - my Dad being a good example. It doesn't feel like that at the time, but it is, always was and always will be true.
I don't agree with the premise in the thread subject, but I do think we need to stop "hand-wringing" and just deal with the practicalities.
True. But what you've got there is a life lesson, they sometimes come in the most unexpected form, and that life lesson might do that person some good later.
They'll find an alternative path if we help them do so. Or they might find their intended path still works, because their sixth form college or university will perhaps take into account the difficulties they've had. Or perhaps they might find something unexpected as a benefit - for instance, I was very young for my year and went to university a bit too early and a bit too immature, and would have hugely benefitted from a year out and going a year later (other than that I was the last year not to pay fees). If I'd been forced into that unexpectedly my experience may have been better overall.
I don’t think we should just dismiss the exams situation as a life lesson. This cohort of children, like every other before them, will have spent a decade of school leading up to what would in many cases have been a final examination. No doubt some have their opinions on final examinations, but fact is this is what whey were working towards, and suddenly the goalposts were spectacularly moved at virtually zero notice, and we now have people being graded based on mock exam performance (which at the time was never envisaged to be a final exam) or in some cases what teachers thought a child should get. To my mind none of this is satisfactory, if it were me I’d be mightily pissed off, and even if one thinks they are fair game to learn a harsh lessons, what value in learning it when the damage is already well and truly done?