WHEN did failure acquire such a stigma? If even A levels are not worth the paper they are printed on, pity the poor teenager who achieves only a D or E grade at GCSE (a perfectly respectable result for thousands of pupils). And those who don’t make any grade at all are presumably a write-off. Or “flops”, as one newspaper dubbed them.
It wasn’t always like this. When I was their age you could fail your exams without feeling totally worthless. And you could also still get a good job. In the newspaper industry, thankfully, you can still get a foot in the door without all the academic bells and whistles — a degree, a media course, a relative in the business. There is a chance for the messenger boy or girl to rise and become an editor.
Students who believe they have “failed” if they don’t pass exams might be encouraged to know that Claudia Rosencrantz, controller of entertainment, ITV; Nick Pollard, head of Sky News; Jane Root, executive vice president/general manager of the Discovery Channel; and Simon Kelner, Editor of The Independent, all managed to get where they are today without a degree.
I failed my O-level English language exam because I tried to show off my knowledge of grammar by writing a story rather than sticking to a boring account of a monument which would have gained me the necessary marks. In spite of that setback, I managed to get over it and land my first job as a reporter at 17 on a weekly newspaper through the time-honoured route of knowing someone who knew someone.
What matters more than degrees and A levels is an ability to be creative and persistent. Being denigrated for flunking an exam must be stifling talent that may be late to blossom rather than non-existent. Society needs people with a double first from Oxbridge but we also need flexibility, a few Jack the lads who reach the top through a different route to the academic — one that is less conventional, more entrepreneurial.
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While it is still possible for the enthusiastic to muscle into a media job, I suspect it is not as common as it used to be. I am sure this insistence on “proper” credentials is widespread across professions which formerly would be laid-back enough to employ someone because they liked the cut of their jib. The trouble with the system nowadays is that it is becoming too rigid, dictated it seems by corporate governance.
I know a head teacher who takes up his post at a successful state secondary school this term who began without a degree to his name a decade ago. He acquired all the bits and BA bobs on the job. And I am sure he will make a superb head. Today teachers have to conform to a government-specified entry system, at least officially.
One of the saddest images of the Olympics was Paula Radcliffe crying her eyes out when she crashed out of the marathon. She said she had let everyone down but she should not regard herself as a failure. Though I would have admired her more if she had said, “Look, my body couldn’t take it; the heat and the hills defeated me. I’m going to give up running” instead of going for the 10,000 metres five days later. Admittedly, failing to win a gold medal in three Olympic Games is more disappointing than failing an exam, which you can usually resit, but one of the many insights you gain when you are older is that these devastating events are never as bad as they seem. They are not, it turns out, the end of the world. They are often the beginning of something better. We used to be a nation of bottle half-full people. Now we glumly reflect on bottles half-empty. Such a waste.