91. REFLECTIONS ON THE SECOND YEAR OF PHILOSOPHY UNLEASHED - Still Looking Back and Still Looking Forward

As is now tradition here at Philosophy Unleashed, I thought we'd mark the end of the toughest academic year in living memory - and the start of the summer break - with a look back at the last year of Philosophy Unleashed.

This time last year I set down two hopes for Year 2 of Philosophy Unleashed:

  • More philosophical engagement in the comments so that the articles become a dialogue instead of a monologue.

  • More contributions from other voices. More student writing, and more teacher writing from teachers who aren't me.

Sadly, I would say we have failed on both counts.  While I am very happy that since I set those goals last July we've had over 4,000 visits from over 3,000 people, and PU articles have been used in school programmes around the globe and shared online, it still feels too much like my own personal blog at times rather than the collaborative project I envisioned.  

While it remains nice to have a place to put together some thoughts each week about things that capture my attention or have been raised by my students in class, and it has been a great personal achievement to have been able to ensure a new post is up each and every Monday during term-term, philosophy should not be done in a vacuum.  Discussion and debate is needed.  A lot has been written on here about anarchism, COVID-19, education, and other issues that have interested me personally.  But I would have liked more push-back from those of you with different views on these issues, and some thoughts on completely different issues you feel are more important right now.  What I write on here is never "my final position" or "the truth" - it is usually just a draft of my first thoughts on an issue I am trying to formulate my ideas about.  I have enjoyed, and will continue to enjoy, writing them each week - but the hope was always that they would stimulate discussion or inspiration for readers to write their own rather than simply be a vehicle for my own philosophy.

 At the same time, I understand the stresses and pressures we have all faced this academic year.  Students and teachers have been living in a state of constant change and uncertainty since September.  Our whole way of teaching in schools was radically altered with the introduction of so-called "bubbles" and measures to make classrooms "Covid-secure", and even when not in a formal lockdown many potential Philosophy Unleashed contributors would have been in and out of school across a range of disruptive periods of self-isolation.  With GCSE and A-level students unsure of whether or not they would even have exams this year, then finding themselves thrust into multiple series of in-school assessments to determine final "teacher-assessed grades", I can see why the time to sit down and write a philosophy essay might not have been a priority.  

 Likewise, teachers found themselves having to administer these "teacher-assessed grades" as well as mark the hundreds of exam papers necessary to determine them, all while learning how to pivot differently day-by-day and throw planned curriculum maps out of the window as in-school teaching could flip to online teaching at the drop of a positive lateral flow test.  We had to plan each lesson for a range of eventualities, including our own potential self-isolation or - as happened between January and March - another national lockdown.  The heroic efforts required to simply get through a week of lesson planning this year has left little time or energy for also deciding to write a philosophy essay for fun.

 So perhaps last year's hopes for the blog are like those performance management targets our bosses set for us last Autumn: rendered obsolete due to ever-changing events?

 That said, it does rather depress to think that students with all this undirected free-time on their hands were not motivated to put pen to paper and do some philosophy freed from the restrictive demands of exams.  Or that philosophy teachers around the country were too busy exam papers and COVID-management that they had no brain-space leftover with which to think creatively.  Writing an essay for Philosophy Unleashed offers nothing but a platform for your efforts.  I wonder if our specific position as being beyond exam specifications and not there to help people get the best grade, but only to offer space to develop and share interesting ideas - and the lack of uptake from students and teachers - suggests a worsening crisis in education regarding the intrinsic value of doing things for their own sake?  

 Would we have more submissions if there were a cash prize on offer?  Or if publication guaranteed a place at a prestigious university?  Sadly, I suspect so.

 Prove me wrong.

 Good goals remain good goals even if they aren't met on the first effort.  So let me reiterate the same hope for our return in September.  When we re-open our doors in the new academic year, I hope that in 2021/22, Philosophy Unleashed gets:

  • More philosophical engagement in the comments so that the articles become a dialogue instead of a monologue.

  • More contributions from other voices. More student writing, and more teacher writing from teachers who aren't me.

 As always - I'm pausing the site for the summer so I can have a few weeks off and so can you.  There are nearly a hundred articles on here to keep you going if you still need your weekly philosophy fix and, as always, you can always spend the time without a new post writing your own.  Submissions, comments, etc. all remain open.  Have a lovely summer - and I'll see you in September.

Author: DaN McKee

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