Marking time

Back in the UK I worked for a number of years either side of the millennium at a prestigious and venerable independent boys’ boarding school. It is the sort of school at which all of the pupils are obliged to board and only allowed to go home for a couple of weekends each term. There are twenty five boarding houses in total with around fifty pupils in each, under the close supervision of the Housemaster and the Dame (a sort of ‘Matron’).

These days the Housemasters receive considerable support from deputies, though this was not the case in even quite recent history. Since the Housemaster is responsible (in loco parentis) pretty much 24/7 you might imagine that the role can be a pretty exhausting one.

I was friends with several such fellows and used to tease them whenever they complained about what a hard life they led. I would point out that not only were they handsomely rewarded for their pains but that they also got to live entirely rent-free in really quite splendid residences – and to receive generous grants for decorating and furnishing the same.

At the end of each term the school (as indeed probably do all schools) would exhale a deep collective sigh as all the little treasures trekked off home in their parents’ plush automobiles, leaving the staff to relax abruptly and to try to get their lives back into some sort of sensible shape.

All except the Housemasters that is – who would at this point must needs write for each of their charges a detailed and considered report on their progress and well-being, such that the grateful parents would feel that they were truly getting their money’s worth. This task would keep these poor souls busy for another two or three days following the departure of the student body, whilst everyone else got on with the onerous burden of having fun and ‘chilling’!

What makes me think of this now? Well – I have spent much of the last three days marking homeworks, grading lab sessions, evaluating term projects and scoring the final examination papers of my recent students – who are doubtless all eager to know how they have done. I still have about half a day’s work to go and I am now really looking forward to the task being completed.

Strangely, I now feel considerable more sympathy for my former colleagues…