Time for a little understanding
Recently spotted on social media: a parent railing against the fact that kids could arrive up to 30 minutes late to an NCEA exam and still be allowed to sit it. The gist of the complaint? This sort of nonsense sets up our kids for mediocrity.
I wondered when the complainer had last been late through no fault of their own – a bus not turning up, a traffic snarl-up, a breakdown (vehicle or personal).
And I wondered when they had last cocked up. A few weeks ago, I booked a return flight that was a whole 24 hours too early and about 10 years ago, I booked one that was whole month too late – both were errors that whacked the wallet hard. My daughter once missed an important exam because she got the times mixed up. We’ll never know if she’d have passed Scholarship Media.
We’re reasonably organised at our place, but sometimes human beings make
mistakes. It’s usually when there’s a lot going on, when the brain’s compartments are chocka with the minutiae of life, or a major event paralyses the grey matter responsible for scheduling. And it’s worse towards the end of the year when events and gatherings are more stacked up than White House spray-tan appointments.
I also wondered when the complainer’s kids last had to contend with the sort of challenges many young Kiwis of examsitting age face: domestic chaos, disrupted sleep, lack of breakfast.
Maybe home is a refuge, a garage or a car. Not all childhoods are places of structure and order; not all kids come home to a household where education is revered and getting to an exam is a priority. And even though some children are utterly loved, cared for and expected to succeed academically, they have other responsibilities such as earning money to keep the family afloat and getting younger siblings off to school. Perhaps it’s a minor miracle some students get to exams at all, even if they are a bit late.
I’m all for being on time – it’s not that difficult when you are born with the uncool early gene. But in the scheme of things, half an hour’s grace – which, by the way, disadvantages no one except the exam-sitter who is deprived of precious minutes – is not a soft approach. It is merely recognising that s... happens, human beings make mistakes and not every child arrives at an exam on time, rested, belly full of nutritious food and primed for success.
If only they were.