3rd May 2019 9:00
By Blue Tutors
As usual, as the summer GCSE, A Level and myriad other exams approach, there have been stories in the news about the way students revise and the pressure on young people going through exams. Indeed, we wrote an article last week on our tips for revision, and how to maintain a balanced lifestyle while studying for important exams.
There seem to be two very clear arguments against the work students do outside of their normal school hours, whether it’s school revision courses, tutoring or simply students studying by themselves. One argument is very reasonable and logical, and the other seems a little strange.
The first argument is balance. Everyone needs to get their ratio of business to pleasure right, and this applies to school students as much as it does to working adults. Most people have university stories about a friend who became obsessed with studying and became ill as a result and we all know that feeling of being so unproductive because we haven’t exercised or socialised for a long time.
Balance is crucial for students, and we totally agree with the assertion that school holidays must be exactly that; a time for students to enjoy and relax, and for them to feel less pressured than they might be feeling at school. The suggestion that students should be studying as much, or even more, during school holidays compared to term time will just leave us with burnt out children who aren’t in the right frame of mind to do well in their exams.
The second argument against “extra work” is less palatable to us. There is a reaction to anything which could be considered “unfair” when it comes to education. Social mobility is an increasingly important factor for our society and anything threatening that is tainted; schools offering revision courses are aspirational and have the resources to do so; tutoring is the refuge of the middle class who can afford it; students who study a lot are under pressure from competitive pushy parents and demanding teachers. Whereas some aspects of this might be true, the argument really misses the positive aspects.
Since when have we begun to look at learning as negative? Provided that we aren’t pressurising students and denying them valuable leisure time, what’s wrong with extra-curricular tutoring and study? Our education system is too often seen as a competition which needs to be fair, rather than the formative years of creating intelligent members of society. As a tutoring agency, we’re very proud of what we do and (hopefully) we definitely do give our tutees an advantage over their peers, but the motivation isn’t to keep others down, it’s to improve the lives of those we tutor.