An article by our Senior Moderator- a Lead Examiner of 25 years

As Results Day is upon us and the papers will soon be in the public domain it is probably acceptable to make some comment on student responses to one of the English Language papers. The Writing section of Paper 2 asked students to write a speech in response to the statement that, ‘in the interests of the environment we should use cars less and public transport more’. Of course, there was some pretty impressive tub-thumping Thumbergian polemics and too many of the predictable identikit essays not saying anything much but including the words plethora, myriad and lackadaisical and at least five different punctuation marks studiously ticked off the ‘plan’ once applied (but don’t get me started on this again!).

There were also a significant number who sought to argue that those suffering from social anxiety could not be expected to endure the trauma of travelling and encountering strangers in a confined and not always wholly sanitary space. This seemed to me to be a rather insular and short-sighted perspective on the effects of climate change. Surely the prospect of global extinction should be a greater priority than a temporary period of minor discomfort. This limited viewpoint, putting the car before the hearse, apparent in several exam answers seems to reflect a tendency amongst some young people to be more preoccupied with the self than society.

Young people have traditionally been angry with the world and sought to change it. Teenage suffragettes were imprisoned and brutally force-fed in pursuit of the vote, hundreds died attempting to overthrow oppression and tyranny in the Warsaw uprising and more were injured fighting excessive capitalism and consumerism in the Paris riots of 1968. Meanwhile today many young people seem more preoccupied with incessantly prodding, poking and examining the current state of their mental health and questioning their identity and preferred pronouns. I saw a YouTube video recently where a non-binary person was explaining benevolently to the confused that their ‘go to’ pronoun was ‘they/them’ but if they were feeling more ‘masc’ they would prefer he/him and that people should be sensitive to this fluctuating identity. ‘Don’t worry- you’ll soon get the hang of it!’ ended the lesson on a smug and patronising note.

It seems to be an extraordinary extravagance to devote so much time to self-scrutiny, but worryingly one that is becoming more prevalent. Of course, it is to be welcomed that teenagers are now less likely to hide their sexuality and can express themselves without fear of persecution – and that is surely a good thing. But, for every Malala Yousafzai willing to take a bullet in her determination to get an education, there may be an inert quivering mass of youth outraged by those insensitive enough to make an honest mistake or worse ‘deadname’ them. Surely young people should be less concerned with inspecting their identity and nailing a flag to it and more concerned with what they are going to contribute to the world in whatever identity.

We seem to have taken a long bus ride backwards from the days of the 1950s when any Call The Midwife fan will remind you of a group of privileged girls rolling up their sleeves in Poplar and putting themselves at the coalface of social deprivation, serving those less fortunate, rather than riding out a never ending ‘me-me-me’ indulgent fantasy as they jollied through their twenties. Back then, we educated all to serve and put community before personal need.  Surely the irony is not lost on any GCSE English Literature teacher who schools today’s students about the catastrophic social consequences of Arthur Birling’s self-absorbed attitude to society and how others were there for his convenience.  Have we not come a full circle from a play written in the 1940s but set just before the sinking of the Titanic, where we labour the dramatic irony of not heeding collective responsibility before the cost and tragedy of two world wars?  Almost a century later we have crept back into a world of self-indulgence.  The focus may not be money and power but it is certainly about attitude and the numbing effects of believing your needs, your identity and your rights to control the opinion of others should come before all else. The default setting of being offended or inconvenienced has put the older generation on continuous guard when it comes to encouraging today’s teens to take responsibility, step up to the plate and work as a team for the greater good.

Like too many other things, this epidemic of introspection could and probably is blamed on Covid and the periods of comparative isolation it enforced. However, parents and schools have a responsibility not to indulge and promote this tendency and should encourage their children and students to re-focus on the world around them and the many political, environmental and ethical issues they could and should interest themselves in and promote ambition and aspiration. They should encourage them to have the dedication, enthusiasm and work ethic needed to pursue their goals rather than enabling life-limiting anxieties and catatonic self-absorption.

If your sensibilities can’t survive a bus ride, what chance you can change the world?

I don’t care if you identify as a Chocolate Hob-Nob – but be prepared to go into battle in defence of your biscuit!