To wish that for one day only, we could celebrate academic success

[Lelloteddy]

Without social media being saturated with whimsical/passive aggressive/patronising posts and sermons about exam results being meaningless.
And of course academic success is only a small part of life but for one day only, on the day when many kids are celebrating the culmination of a couple of years of damn hard work with decent A level results, do they have to be shot down with what often sounds like sour grapes and told that their success is unimportant ?

C&P from a FB post that showed up on my timeline as an example:

' There are many options available to you and other ways to achieve your dreams. From repeating your exams, various types of further education, apprenticeships or employment whether it be paid or voluntary they all will help you on your journey. We all have different routes to take us there. And one route is not necessarily better than another'

Is there REALLY any need for the last sentence? Talk about pissing on people's chips

They're just trying to boost the confidence of those who may be feeling down in the dumps about bad results and feel demoralised. I am guessing that someone with 4 A*'s off to Oxford knows that they have done well and have a bright future, which is why these kids are in the local papers leaping up and down on results day. Just because you are boosting the confidence of someone who might otherwise be feeling despondent does not mean that you are pissing on anyone else's chips.
Also, education in this country is not a level playing field and not everyone has the same opportunities, sadly.

In this country, few people actually value education. Working hard, aiming for your goal, then achieving it is just not something to be celebrated, sadly.

In your example they are celebrating academic success OP. They're just making it clear that there are many paths to that success and all are worthwhile.

I get incredibly upset with all the usual 'it was harder in my day" and "A Levels/GCSEs mean nothing now" type of comments in the media. It's just so unkind and unnecessary. As the OP says, why can't people just say well done?

My DD has worked incredibly hard for the last two years and put in hours of hard graft of studying for her GCSES and if she does well it's because of this (and the hard work of her teachers) and not because "any clown could pass them" - rant over!!!

I

Yes, YABVU.
Of course those who have done well can celebrate, but I rather hope they have the grace to support and empathise with those that haven't.
At 18, some youngsters feel it is the end of the world if they haven't got the grades they needed or were expecting - I'll read 1000 of those posts if it saves one single youngster doing something stupid.
Oh, and if it is relevant, yes, I have a dd who picked up her results today, has got in to her first choice, and has been congratulated by dozens and dozens of people, but she would still support those who didn't.

Backforgood as has my DD. These posts are social media are not from crowing kids who have aced their exams, and nothing in my post suggested that they are.

I think I'd say have some thought for those who are disappointed with their results. If you do badly after 2 years of hard work, the future can be very frightening. It feels like you'll never amount to anything. There is so much pressure on kids. It's so important to tell kids that it'll be ok and you can still build a good life for yourself. Exams really aren't everything.

Those who did well are fine I'm sure. They get to be pleased and proud and hopefully most have family cheering them on. It's just kind to also consider others when the press is full of photos of kids leaping for joy because they're happy and did well.

Exams have been made easier over the years, though that is not the fault of those sitting them.

Blame those who set exams or politicians, not the children. I also feel that calling institutions that mainly did vocational subjects to degree level universities was a mistake.

My friend had a panic attack and ran out of one of her a-level exams. She ended up getting a D when predicted an A. She didn't get into her uni place and I have rarely seen anyone that devastated. Everyone around her was cheering and celebrating and she thought her life was over and she blamed herself. She managed to get into a really good RG uni through clearing on a really unpopular course which had lower entry requirements. She is now an academic and doing v well in her career so all was fine. But she could have done with people telling her it was not the end of the world.

I also think the retake exams is not pushed hard enough. A lot of kids fail to get the grades and feel that they have to go to uni that year and go somewhere substandard and damage their career prospects. It would be better for them if someone tells them to knuckle down, retake and reapply next year.

YABU sorry.
If you have done well (or your child) then a post like quoted above isn't going to make you feel bad- and it is also true. School can make young people feel like there is only one way for success which just isn't the case and is heart breaking (and actually soul destroying and mental health problem causing ) for many young people.
So these posts on "results day" are so very necessary as right at that moment someone could feel like a failure with no future to look to.
So I can't agree that the focus should only be on "allowing" those who passed to celebrate as I don't believe that messages like that take anything away from them.
Comments like "any clown can pass" are not okay though and not true.

Delftblue, no issues at all with empathising and supporting kids who haven't done as well as they needed to/wanted to. But is there really any need for the kind of statement I c&p'd?

I never boast about my children's achievements on social media and I discourage them from doing it as well. I tell them how I feel and congratulate them. I just don't understand the need to show off. Tell the people who are close to you directly.
I think what you showed us was celebrating all types of success. Yabvu in my opinion.

I disagree Isadora. The type of posts I see DO make kids who've done well feel bad. They belittle their success. I see them as passive aggressive and dismissive.

"one route is not necessarily better than another"

That's very true, why object to it? ffs

I'm not convinced about the much quoted 'exams are getting easier'. Yes, statistics seem to show more young people are achieving higher grades, and yes modular exams may be easier than linear exams.

However, as a teacher and an examiner, I know that in my subject (English) the current A Level specs demand lots more from the students than the relatively straightforward exams I sat in the 90s. I hadn't heard of literary criticism before I went to uni, never mind weaving various critical viewpoints points into an essay. None of my exam questions asked me to compare the work of different writers. Yes, all of my exams were closed book, whereas now they're half in half, but that meant memory was rewarded, perhaps to the detriment of understanding. I wonder if the change in achievement can partly be explained by changes in teaching methods - I loved my English teachers, and found them genuinely inspiring, but I'm not sure my clasmates who didn't already love English made as much progress or achieve as highly as their counterparts do today.

Finally, my students produce a 3500 piece of coursework, footnoted and with a bibliography (which again, I didn't do properly until my Masters). This is a great bridge to university study, and while they find the idea quite intimidating at the start, it really helps them develop wider academic skills.

I was so proud of my students today, not only did they all do well, but I genuinely feel there are significant ways they are better prepared for university than I was.

'In this country, few people actually value education. Working hard, aiming for your goal, then achieving it is just not something to be celebrated, sadly.'

It would appear so.

Backforgood as has my DD. These posts are social media are not from crowing kids who have aced their exams, and nothing in my post suggested that they are.

and nothing in my posts suggest they are either.
The point stands - they don't 'threaten' or 'diminish' the good news received by those who have got what they wanted / needed, but may well make a MASSIVE difference to those that didn't.

I disagree Backforgood-I think they do exactly that, and what's worse is that they are designed to do so.

I'd bloody love it! Let's have an 'academic achievement day'! Because my academic achievement has resulted in feck all for me personally.

1981 - 12 O levels, 6 grade As, 6 Grade Bs. 1983 - 3 A levels grade A

2017 Physiotherapist. Shit money, no pension (not NHS) but happy.

Whereas my ex-husband with much worse results has far more money, but is less happy.

Personally, the old way of exam results makes sense: Universities, employers, they want to know how clever you are related to everyone else. When I took exams, that's how it was - top 5 per cent an A, next 25 per cent a B, next 40 per cent a C etc.

The assumption was that cohorts would be less vulnerable to change than exams. Whereas now it has changed, and you have to achieve a certain percentage to get a certain grade - so you assume that each exam will be equivalent.

I remember looking at some mock exams from my brother and sister (13 and 16 years older than me), and they were WAY harder than my 'O' Levels. Yes, we are kidding ourselves and our children. But awarding grades on percentage placements would be a start of getting back validity to our exam system.

So in 1983 you would have been delighted to hear people telling you that your three A grades were nothing special and you should focus your attention on your mate who'd missed their target grades? Or were you full of pride about how hard you'd worked and what you had achieved. Feeling a bit of youthful enthusiasm about a bright future?
Thank heavens that social media is around these days to knock any nonsensical notions out of anyone who got great results today

If you can't see the value in pointing out that there is more than one way to skin a cat the conversation is moot really isn't it?

I was very academic at school and pushed all the way through to go to a top flight university etc. But I fucked up my a levels due to massive external issues. I could have died. I had no fucking clue what to do. All my life has been geared towards this inevitable success, and now what? My parents nigh on disowned me, they were so ashamed and disappointed. I got the bus (all perks removed, car keys, phone, house keys etc) into town and to the nearest careers centre, I was so lost. I remember the feeling so vividly 18 yrs later.

If I had known that there were other options available to me I may well have made different choices back then, but as far as I, and everyone else was concerned I was just a disappointment, a failure.

There is nothing wrong with pointing out that academic success isn't everything. Because it isn't. Your daughter still has her success and the doors that it opens for her, so why take a positive attitude towards those who haven't achieved and see it as a slight? It can't be taken away from her.

Where does that message say anyone should be focussing all their attention on those who don't achieve?

I am completely confused as to how it diminishes the accomplishments of the more scholastically gifted or people who are better at test taking. It just says there are also other ways. It in no way puts down those who get good grades. I'm really puzzled sorry. YABU

'If I had known that there were other options available to me I may well have made different choices back then, but as far as I, and everyone else was concerned I was just a disappointment, a failure.'

But most kids nowadays are very well aware of the options available to them. They don't live in a bubble. Are you really saying that the first time an 18 year old suddenly realised that they don't 'need' to go to uni is when they read some snippy post on FB?