Everyday Scrawlings

September 2009  - with a smile on my face, an overpowering feeling of independence and a gut-wrenching apprehension – I began my journey to Sheffield, leaving behind all that I loved in my hometown of Newcastle to start the latest and potentially most important phase of my life, University.

The hype had given way to reality, I was actually doing this, after a monumental waste of a ‘gap-year’ I was taking control! At times it was hard to envisage the future, everything I had been thinking and dreaming of, actually being real and very much tangible. There was so much to gain from this experience, according to the stories and the advice I had received, so much so that it was going to shape the rest of my life, the understanding of the world and most importantly myself. It is fair to say that expectations were high and that I was going to be entering an atmosphere abuzz with intelligence and an excitement to learn. This I did not find.

My original perception of University turned out to be far from reality, to an extent that I wondered if a University ever had been what I thought it was! In the beginning I saw a University, ‘Higher Education’, as being the pinnacle of academic achievement and education, to facilitate the blossoming minds of young adults in order to allow them to flourish in society, to achieve whatever they desire. In this University I saw a collection of individuals with varying values, experiences and visions of the world united by the desire to learn and to achieve. The sharing of such ideals, individuality and of course, knowledge, would be the very pillar of a University with the students almost teaching and learning from each other first and foremost by the medium of collective reading and debating. After all the main reason I was going to University was the Pursuit of Knowledge, to join fellow lovers of learning on a never-ending journey of education and to absorb as much knowledge as possible, this was and still is my goal in life, to be as highly educated and knowledgable as possible in order to support other people in their pursuits!

So when I arrived wide-eyed it is safe to say that after a short period of time the feeling of excitement faded almost as quickly as the level of my expectations plummeted. The reality that I discovered wasn’t pretty nor was it fun, sure meeting new people and trying to make a new city ‘home’ had its perks but I wasn’t solely there for socialising. When it got to the nitty-gritty I was sorely disappointed. To start with the University itself was not how I imagined at all, to gauge my feelings on the University I suggest listening to Pink Floyd – Us & Them, there are the students and then the faculty. I imagined that like-minded students would get together to converse and to learn collectively with the University providing the space and the means to do so with Tutors and lecturers acting as guides to the process of academic achievement. I had hoped to be set reading lists, given information on how to really go that extra mile – after all the quality of work required was to be far higher than that of A-level – and of course to be able to talk and discuss openly with the faculty staff about the information we were being given to achieve a greater level of understanding. None of which was provided or given.

This disappointment was also felt with regards to my fellow students, again I had hoped and dreamed that the folk I was going to be joining on the 3-year Law degree course would be truly interested and intrigued by the subject so that I could quench my insatiable thirst for debate and discussion, this unfortunately was not the case. To be fair I’m sure this wasn’t all of the students but I would say it was probably the majority. I find that still to this day a lot of students prefer to achieve the bare-minimum or to only make effort at the last possible moment, with their social lives and non-educational interests taking precedence despite paying £3,350 tuition. I am now in my 3rd year of the law course and there has been only minimal improvements potentially due to a recognition of the importance of getting a good degree in this current economic climate. However I am still very much disillusioned.

Perhaps it is my own fault however, were my expectations too high in the first place? Was I wrong to assume that education is still as sought after as ever? I have done nothing to help the level of my expectations in recent times if this is the case, I recently read a fabulous book called The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes  in which the author tells the story of the Romantic Generation and the quest for knowledge and discovery. After reading I instantly fell in love with 2 of the most influential members of this fascinating age, Sir Joseph Banks andWilliam Herschel. I read how their Pursuit of Knowledge and thirst for information was never given up upon until the day they died, I read how Sir Joseph had attended Oxford University and became highly respected at a young age whilst William Herschel arrived from Germany and became a world-renowned Astronomer despite having only been an enthusiast through sheer determination and love for the skies (and in the process discovering Uranus). I suppose you could just say that I am deeply nostalgic about how things used to be in the past centuries and decades, and this is probably true but what happened? At what point did people lose the knack for academic enlightenment?

I would love to see a return to the romantic train of thought in Britain with regards to education but sadly I doubt this will ever be possible. It seems to be that education and society in general has shifted away from the values and traditions held by this country, we used to be the centre for excellence and achievement in the world with our citizens making discoveries that changed the world as we know (and how we perceive it) it forever, our universities educating the innovators and geniuses that would advance the human race. Now however most are only concerned with money and commercialisation, I point to the recent education cuts and tuition fee rises as evidence, Tony Blair declared in 1997 that this country’s focus was ‘Education, Education, Education’, he recognised the need for investment and concentration on our students, today we see less funding, quality and support than ever before – stifling the potential of this country for generations to come.

Who knows, maybe one day our Universities will be those places I have dreamed of, nurturing intelligence with students coming together to foster excellence and achievement. Until that day comes I fear other people may be just as disappointed with their educational experience as I am.

Since the start of the August riots around the country various debates have raged on a number of different issues from reasoning to sentencing, usually these debates focus upon the negative issues at hand and seemingly forget the positives that have been seen as a result. Operation Cup of Tea was amazing and #riotcleanup on Twitter also gave me a great sense of national pride and faith in the country, however, for me, one the greatest things to come out of an extraordinarily dire event is the vast number of people getting involved and active in debate and response. It has been interesting to read the contrasting views of different people and especially refreshing to see those individuals not usually ‘politically active’ weighing in with their personal opinions, this adds a new ‘raw’ element to the debate. I have found that those who come to the table with this ‘raw’ opinion are refreshing as it would appear that their views are pure personal opinion uninfluenced and contaminated by other viewpoints, this shows a true political, moral and ethical stance but not always one with which I will agree.

As always in a free debate there is no right or wrong answer, but I believe that a conglomeration of valid points from all angles of argument, with compromise is the closest to ‘right’ we’ll ever get. With a ‘correct’ answer/argument unattainable I find the only clarity to be found is with the political stance of the debaters, whether they be aligned on the left or the right of the political sphere, sometimes they may not even be aware themselves of where they stand (occasionally myself included). An example of such a situation is with the sentences recently handed down to the two ‘Facebook inciters’, sentenced to 4 years each for attempting to organise a riot on Facebook. For me this case highlights true political opinion, there are those who agree with the sentencing with a voracious desire to see steep sentencing enforced, this I find the more ‘passionate’ viewpoint, with no disrespect intended, a view that harbours a more potent moral high ground and a less refined factually based opinion. There are then those who disagree with the sentences with a natural sense of liberalism and ability to reform rather than have custodial retribution from the state. This viewpoint is based upon collated information and an assessment of the facts in hand, for example the criticism levied at the Judge’s decision by the former Director of Public Prosecutions cannot be mere coincidence, yet the vast majority of the people I have spoken to with the more conservative opinion seem to shake off facts such as these and argue that the sentences are deserved with no thought as to the repercussions on civil liberty. I personally fall under the second, liberal, mode of thinking.

With regard to the ‘Facebook Inciters’ case I believe the tough sentences were extremely disproportionate (and set a deeply worrying precedent) and at the very least evident of political pressurisation. The custodial sentences handed down are supposed to be a ‘deterrent’ against future rioting and criminality, I believe quite the opposite is true, Prison stifles future employment and quality of life prospects meaning a lot of inmates go on to reoffend and turn to harder crime to make a living. An adequate deterrent which avoids a prison spell is a suspended sentence, knowing that any future criminal acts AT ALL will land them in Prison is deterrent enough for me, this shows that the state is allowing you a chance to get on the right side of the law. For cases such as the Facebook Inciters and the several others who have been jailed for stealing goods worth as low as £1 this would be an adequate sentence and proportionate as the rule of law requires.

Specific cases aside I believe that as a country if we want to retain basic freedom of speech and expression as bestowed to us all by various Human Rights principles both nationally and internationally, we need to stand firm and apply political pressure on the government to drop, what i perceive to be a tirade against Facebook and Twitter. Theresa May is reportedly meeting with the heads of various social networks to discuss the shutdown or services in events such as a riot, this must not be allowed to happen, as I have already mentioned the silver-lining of the august riots have been the collective goodwill shown by thousands on Twitter. As well as this I recently commented that Twitter is a much faster and detailed way of getting information for the common person than the national news services are, Twitter can bring news as it happens without worrying about screening the ‘breaking news’ first to make sure it is acceptable to broadcast. David Cameron counters this argument by attacking Human Rights laws that are apparently too broad and are frequently perverted (in some instances I agree but blanketing all Human Rights cases as one is wrong), however I find it extremely hypocritical of the UK government and David Cameron when on an almost weekly basis the record of China on Human Rights abuse is condemned and ridiculed as draconian whilst the perceived ‘freedoms’ in the West are championed when in fact they are slowly and covertly being eroded into dust.