Everyone's a critic

I have been publishing posts that refer to external sources and other people's ideas.
Sometimes it makes me feel like a constant critic.
Of course criticism isn't necessarily negative. But it is a huge responsibility. This week I spent time with my students going over their essays - which represent 50% of their marks for the paper (about semiotics and other arcana).
Some failed and I had to hand over the mark and my assessment. It's a tough job and the realisation that teaching isn't about what I say but how well it is received and integrated by my students.
Tugging me in the opposite direction are colleagues in the world of design and advertising. They want to be sure that the grads who knock on their door are capable.
Interestingly the capability they seem to demand most is the ability to integrate into the organisation. Will they accept direction? Are they capable? Things like that. Very rarely will they care whether the student is 'top of the class'.

In a funny sort of a way graduating from top of the class is the kiss of death. You'll be starting at the bottom. It's like moving from intermediate school to college. At advertising school I studied economics, social psychology, business and all sorts of other devilishly clever things but when I graduated and began work - I filed transparencies, picked up galleys from the typesetters and operated the process camera. I learned te business from the bottom. it was like being a polar bear escaping global warming - from iceberg to iceberg. In the process I had to evolve into a marmoset, but that's another story.

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