Previously, academic year end is characterised by a sense of relief, of gratitude. The foremost gratitude is usually that laboratory activities occurred without incident of injury or fatality. Relief that students appreciated efforts to be taught and curriculum completed with success and satisfaction.
This year, different. The pace of the year appeared fast (or that perception due to the age-old perception of time acceleration by ageing?), yet the retrospective perception is that of: "what was actually achieved?" There has been much information published about the "attendance crisis", the effects of which have had devastating consequences upon chemistry comprehension in particular. Topics are inherently inter-connected and failure to comprehend the significance of the foundational knowledge has unsurprising dire consequences."Stakeholders" (i.e. families, school management, students themselves) appear to appreciate wholly that whatever latest incarnation of "ed-tech" is not going to substitute for the timeless (pun intended) factors of time present in the classroom. Furthermore, a lack of intellectual stretch, of curiousity, was a strange observation this year. Maybe a "one-off" cohort thing; shall see next year.
As ever in a results-driven business, "judgement day"/ "reckoning"/"reap-what-you-sow"/etc. may prove to be the ultimate "truth-teller" or "reality-check". A resumption of the various "summer reads"...
