Grandpont Nature Park - 08:08 on 3 February 2015

27 minutes after sunrise.

Fifth in the series, transformed by last night’s snow and, with five people, one dog and one snowperson (in the field beyond the trees) the most populated so far.

I got my settings wrong, hence the blurriness. Five minutes later I realised what I’d done but I didn’t have enough time to trudge back, take another and still get to work on time. That was the first thing to frustrate me today but it was insignificant compared to the next. I am now feeling very despondent about how badly my side is losing in the battle for education.

There is a qualification my workplace wants one of us to have and a while back I was selected to acquire it. I looked round for courses, found one that was less prohibitively expensive than the rest and made enquiries. I was concerned that there seemed to be only one member of staff teaching all the courses but his answers sounded sensible and I was given a temporary password to explore the ’virtual learning environment’. I’ve been interested to use one of those for a while and although it was disappointingly dreary it seemed manageable. So today I had my first Skype meeting with the director/tutor to agree, so I thought, how the training would be organised. As I expected, he talked about how the virtual learning environment works then showed me the list of learning outcomes, and the ways the requisite range of evidence could be uploaded to prove I’d met them so that I could race through and get the qualification.

‘Actually’, I said, ‘I’m not very interested in learning outcomes, I’m more interested in learning.’  (I never tell my own students exactly what the exam board’s learning outcomes are; I just tell them what we’re going to learn together and make sure, quietly, that they get their qualifications too.)

‘Oh… well, haha, very good, yes, haha. Let’s look at the first outcome.’

He asked me a few questions about my work. I answered. He asked me what evidence would prove I’d done what I said I’d done. I told him.

‘Very good. That’s the first learning outcome done, then. When do you think you can get the evidence to me?

‘Oh, um, next Tuesday? Is there a forum where I can exchange ideas with other students doing the same course?’

No, we used to have one of those but… (the Skype line warped for the 11th time so I missed the answer but I think it was something to do with cheating.)

I have dropped out, 45 minutes into a 300-hour course. At least my employer hadn’t yet paid for it.

I shall be the last person, as I freeze to death alone in the snow, whispering, ‘Education is an experience that changes you. Education is not a commodity. Education… is…

was…’