I believe that everyone is educable. It only depends on the selection of the proper subject of study, realistic expectations about one’s abilities and diligence.

Every six months, I experience harsh discussions about students. The final examinations! The hour of decision, the moment of truth, the climax. I teach at three universities with different students. But it hardly matters whether I work with artists, scientists or journalists. Every time the professors and lecturers gather to deliver their final verdict to those finishing their studies, we discuss the same issue: Why are we still asking questions students have heard literally for years and the answers are usually at least insecure, often confused, and sometimes dull?

Every six months, we undergo a mental journey to understand the causes of the pain both we and the students are experiencing. “How is it possible that students hardly know how to answer,” asked the head of our department today, “when they have passed all the exams during their studies?” The discussion always continues like this: it is our fault, the curriculum is not sufficient, we are too indulgent etc. etc. What appears to be a professional failure open to rational examination and rectification is in fact a pattern of behaviour. I started teaching in academia sixteen years ago, and the song remains the same.

This question is more urgent now, as we are facing the youth of COVID-19 burdened with anxieties and self-doubts.

Rationally, I see this as a problem of mixing different teaching styles. You can nurture a few students with great care individually, and then no exams are necessary. Or you can take hundreds of them and rely on brutal examinations to separate the wheat from the chaff. But you can hardly do both, which is exactly what we are trying to do in academia today – to be caring, respectful and personal teachers while maintaining the rigorous gaze of the expert. All this in the era of mass universities, when a bachelor’s degree has become the new high school diploma.

I believe that everyone is educable, but I am not sure if it is possible at our universities. We have not yet decided what kind of teachers we want to be. The old-school executioners, or friendly and personal mentors? I prefer the latter, but that means that, as a teacher, I can hardly handle more that a dozen students. In the reality of mass education, this is the dream of an idealist.