Educational life is represented in popular culture. We know it is exam time because, in Radio 4’s The Archers, Pip Archer is experiencing exam stress . Bless, she’s having a bad time.
The transition from school to 6th form has not been easy for Pip. She had been intent on packing in college, but stuck with it. Now, she is balancing a part-time job, an apparently unsuitable boyfriend, and, her exams.
Last week, after misreading her exam timetable, and following a night out with the flaky boyfriend Jude, she missed her Business Studies exam. This meant, according to Pip, the end of the world. As auntie Elizabeth pointed out, it isn’t, of course, but poor Pip’s perspective is shaped by exams, and so is understandable. On top of this, her parents (David and Ruth) have asked her to think about the farm open day, as if she isn’t under enough pressure! David and Ruth are also feeling the strain. They might like to think about contacting Relate, the relationship counselling charity. On their parents site they have some suggestions to help families cope with exam stress. According to an article in The Observer, Relate are providing this advice in response to the stress that parents are experiencing while their children revise and sit exams. The advice to young people, which Pip might have found useful on the morning of her exam, is ‘don’t panic’.
Poor Pip. She will now have an anxious wait until the results day in August. The everyday story of exam taking folk will cover that day from Pip’s perspective. Elsewhere, the news media will enter a debate about the increasing pass rate, and suggest that is explained by easier exams, and thus, falling standards. Maybe, the Archers characters can engage in this debate too, down at ‘The Bull’ maybe?
Education and Society 