Something Dr Raffin said on the last day of my sociology of education lecture (she is French so imagine an accent):
I have a lot of students who come to me who say, oh, I’m so stressed during this period. It’s the exams and it’s terrible, blah blah blah. What I want to tell you then, my best tip. Some of you may find it even more difficult but let me ask you: Who is giving you pressure at this time (prior to exams)? Is it:
(She opens the cap to her whiteboard marker and draws a unhappy smiley stick figure. To it are arrows pointing to some factors, below.)
The education system?
Your teachers?
Your parents?
Peer pressure?
The media?
Achievement ideology?
The state, even?
Are external pressures your problem?
No! It is through the mind (here she writes “MIND” and puts a few crosses beside the external factors) that we perceive there be any stress or problems. Don’t let these things bother you. Don’t bother about them. You have to cultivate a mind that does not care about such things and focus on what’s important to you. It takes time but you must do so because, what is this [the whole 'stress before exams' thing]: it is nothing. Wait ’til you have your kids and husband and work to pressure you. All of us have to learn how to cope.
(Then she teaches us some breathing exercises to help relax physiologically because she says it starts from the body first.)
An extract
Something Dr Raffin said on the last day of my sociology of education lecture (she is French so imagine an accent):
Dug it out from an email I’d sent. LOL.
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