Tuesday, August 18

I spent the morning on Zoom, sometimes with the video on, and sometimes not. We began with a two-hour workshop to look at the goals that Arcada has set itself in terms of defining competencies.

I have always had a deal of difficulty with this as a supposed task, and I continued to do so. Partly I have difficulty with locating the point in the pedagogical process where we intend the competencies to serve a useful function, and partly I have a difficulty with their generality. Do we intend them to act descriptively or prescriptively?

Having said this, Fred made a persuasive argument and produced a coherent set of competences, and for the first time I allowed myself to get persuaded about their use value.

Following this, we attended a meeting about our new sim-cards. Who knew life could get so complicated. I have to change my sim-card at exactly 15:10 tomorrow, and Jutta has to change hers at 15:23.

At 14:30 I abandoned this in favour of emptying the terrace and oiling it: a simple physical task that proved enjoyable in the hot summer sun.

Now, tasks done, I walk for an hour while listening, for about the first time in seven or eight years, to The Field’s first album From Here We Go Sublime. I walk toward Puotila beach and pass over a little bridge that crosses a stream that leads into the sea in about 400 metres.

I stop and look at it for a long time as the water flows beneath me.