Has school destroyed your creativity and self-confidence? I'm working on a book called Recovering From School, to help you heal the damage caused. Join the Patreon or Newsletter to be notified about updates. Paid Patreon members will get early draft previews, as well as a free digital copy when it's done.
School Survival > News >
UK: Examiners worried about violent essays
Examiners have raised concerns over the amount of "sickeningly violent" content in students' creative coursework for their English GCSEs.
An examiners report from the Edexcel board said one of the most frequently used titles for creative writing coursework was "The Assassin".
It comes amid national alarm over a spate of murders and attacks involving young people.
The report also questioned high marks given for poor quality work.
Examiners said some students were producing thinly plotted and extremely violent content in their stories.
'Violent atmosphere'
"The Assassin' again figured frequently as a title," the report said.
"This facilitated candidates to write in their own voice but within a very limiting framework, which allowed them to create and maintain a (sometimes sickeningly violent) atmosphere but provided few opportunities for character or plot development.
Ian McNeilly, from the National Association for the Teaching of English, said teachers should be concerned by examples of violent writing.
"Any teacher presented with a script which manages, in the examiners' words, to maintain a 'sickening' level of violence should be concerned," he said.
"We have got enough assassins walking the streets, unfortunately, without giving them time in the classroom," he said.
The report also said some teachers were giving their students "incomprehensibly high marks" for "quantity rather than quality".
"Some work, which was riddled with spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes, was awarded incomprehensibly high marks."
The report added that schools should also remain aware of the "pervasive issue" of plagiarism.
"The evidence of the folders suggests that centres (schools and colleges) take this very seriously and impose whatever controls they can to ensure student work is authentic," the report said.
Posted by: SoulRiser
Source Article
Where to next? Pick one!
- Check out the Alternatives to School section
- Join our Patreon
- Sign up for our newsletter
Posted in: News on August 25, 2007 @ 12:00 AM
Tags: School
If you like what we're doing here, you can become a Patron and sign up for our newsletter!
This I like. It's good that they're only worried as they should be and not enforcing things.
Not enforcing things.... yet :P
True, but you can't be worried about everything.
Only a matter of time before some government education nut overreacts to this kind of material and has it banned. And I thought schools in the US were bad.
Well, actually, are education system is the worst in the industrialized world, and beginning to be worse than even some school systems in 3rd world countries. How sad :(
Also, teachers giving high marks for quantity over quality is pretty much standard practice over here. I don't know what it's like across the pond though.