I was thinking about this discussion today whilst wading through a report
on best practice in college tutorial provision. It seemed that best
practice consisted of having large numbers of documents to provide
auditable evidence that you were in fact providing tutorial support. It
made me long for my old sixth form tutor groups where you had time to get
to know the students as people and were therefore able to 'know' when
things were wrong or there were problems - you didn't engage your students
over a pile of carbonless forms in triplicate!

It seems to me that, certainly in FE, this issue of impersonal, contractual
relationships is permeating the whole system. We are now so concerned with
audit trails and documentary evidence that we have to fit in time to work
with students. The pressure from successive governments to centralise
control of education and deprofessionalise the teachers by removing their
autonomy and limiting their professional judgement is continuing to have
far reaching consequences.

I suppose this rambling leads me to a question - does anyone else see
'education' in its broadest sense as threatened by bureaucracy, paperwork
and central government edict? Is there a risk that we will die out like the
dinosaurs to be replaced by the auditors, the verifiers, the programmers of
interactive learning packages, and the purveyors of clinically safe fast
food theme park adventure?

Thanks Chris for the assurance that there is someone else out there in the
ether who believes in the importance of the 'adventurous journey'.

10:58 22/02/00 +0000, Chris Loynes wrote:
>Hi David
>
>I plan to carry on drawing people into adventure too. Spiritually it is
>full square with my beliefs about life being an inner and outer journey
>of realising and fulfilling passions. If you dare there is risk. All
>mythologies recognise this in their stories. In some ways I believe
>outdoor leaders are the storytellers of our time substituting for the
>aural story telling of our past. Without the mythic framework our
>passions can be uncontained and misdirected. With the framework (of myth
>or adventure maybe) they are harnessed for a healthy expression.
>
>If our call is that we have respect and trust with our participants and
>all other significant players in that persons life then do it. The rest
>of the story about the young person I taught to climb who died is that
>his younger brother asked me to teach him to climb.
>
>Key words you have used for me are authentic and personal. If we keep it
>their we will be sound if not safe in an inpersonal and inauthentic
>world that may judge our actions differently perhaps with no right to
>judge.
>
>regards
>
>Chris Loynes
>
>
>



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