PART
TWO
So what in fact was the point?
I have tried to fathom the value of the
learning within the whole experience and
can't seem to separate that from the
recollections of the dark side of
Bretton Hall College of Education - the
FACULTY.
And what of all those bearded
professors, with 3rd
class-honours-degree-refugees from
Cambridge, and dull tutorials in halls
and rotundas with pillars and frescoes,-
many were just a time filler ahead of
great egg and chips dinners. I have to
ask myself – was any of it any good??
What did they do right and what did they
wrong?
I think BRETTON HALL COLLEGE and its
collective staff did lots of both
There have been plenty of ‘decades’, a
few more qualifications from
institutions on 3 continents and plenty
of ‘chalk face’ and university
comparisons to help me reflect on the
question and……. I have a few real
conclusions. – just warm fuzzies.
What did they do right and what did they
wrong?
On the DID RIGHT side, there was a safe,
growth community for developing kids,
some good lectures, some caring people
and the vastness and beauty of a
rambling estate with lake all
rescued from down-on-their luck former
upper-class millionaires. This was an
environment that allowed growth
opportunities, mistakes, outrageous
self-indulgent expression,[ i.e drama
students] some crap poetry, some OK good
lectures, lots of parfum de leb-red,
ENTS and other social high
points-understatement.
There was a no-to-low stress atmosphere,
a tolerance for bad fo-ne-tic spelling,
bonding, coupling, rolling and tumlin’
all night long.
But probably the real gift to all came
from Bretton’s philosophy and raison
d’etre ‘Get people ready to go off with
their innocent and blind motivation …to
do good for small children.’
“ OK. Wake up! Three years of debt,
squalor and debauchery is up. Off you go
into the heart of darkness, it’s pay
back time.”.
The Wentworths and Sir Alec always got
the better end of the deal sooner or
later
What was for me the most shocking fact
; the un-waivering faculty belief and
the doctrinaire attitude that the three
SHORT years were supposed to take
students from “kids in wonderland” to
‘kids as professionals’. That was just
plain silly.
The career was as tough as hell - you'd
better be prepared - try Tyneside and
North London. It is a profession that
either eats its own young [teacher burn
our /drop out/push out] or throws them
to the beasts – usually clumsily
disguised as 3rd
and 4th
form girls. I guess that firm
commitment by the institution that they
were 'getting it right' was grounded in
economics not in reality. To this day I
deal with teachers and faculties of
Education and I believe that it was a
bizarre and unreal concept to go from
street kid to ‘urbane professional in
1000 days. Silly.
Also WHO did it right?
I do have respect for some of the
Faculty. I have to mention Joe Briel who
did Ed Philosophy- I had time for him
and his old school European thinking.
The boss, Dr. Davies, got me out of a
jam. After that, were few other faculty
who really made a mark on me, and I
probably did not make a mark on them.
--Hey Ex-Faculty reading this – who is
this guy-what did he look like?== Sad
but true, there were some real wankers
living off the public payroll and hiding
from real life in the valley by the
lake.{There are names.}
I should give the organization something
more on the credit side - maybe they
really did know that a cluster of
witless 18-24 year olds had some serious
growing up to do and they needed the
time and space, the booze and the hash
to do it. Thanks for that.
What did they do wrong??
I would suggest that what was wrong was
the combination of myopic
naivety about life in the 60’s and a
significant REAL EDUCATIONAL VALUES
OMISSION. This was also crippled by the
local requirement to follow blindly the
partisan POLITICS of the day – including
a lot of dopey post World War II
euphoria, Building a Better Britain
etc, All the while everything and
everybody was hidden away in a Yorkshire
dale.
Due to subsequent years of poundings
within the education industry, I can
suggest that the learning program in
Bretton Hall was missing SO MANY COMMON
SENSE CORE ESSENTIALS of educational
thought and principles that it was
somewhat a swiss cheese of a program.
All the stuff from DEWEY and TYLER on
up - missing. [No, I didn’t miss the
lectures, nor fall asleep.- I went to
most and threw out the notes in about
1997] There were huge essential
knowledge gaps or missing ‘cornerstones’
that teachers would need on a RIGHT NOW
IN THE CLASS basis > They would have at
least given them a fighting chance at
being a part of and staying with a tough
profession. It was simply not there. I
have often wondered if doctors, lawyers
and engineers got such a thin start up
package. Are bridges falling down yet?
Ah but, maybe the program core was not
built to answer the deep questions of
the day. Or maybe it was built to give
out ‘just enough’ shallow stuff, as an
introduction to an extremely complex
world – not too much don’t scare them -
just enough to keep you in but not
enough for you to see ahead. I guess
the core of the strategy was – “get them
out there and let them take a few years
of body punches," to ‘hone their craft’
– sink or swim, only the strong
survive.
Becoming a good teacher took years, it
hurt,it was tiring and thankless work
but in hindsight, what didn’t get into
my skill-pack during training years was
absolutely scary.
What was OMITTED?
I am rather resentful of what was
omitted. I think there were huge
OMISSIONS. How many people went into
this career WITHOUT the right frame of
reference to teach kids? Oh what a
price those kids paid for us to learn.
New teachers need to have their
knowledge skills and attitudes in good
shape as they begin their day–every day,
so they know what they are facing right
there in a classroom. Add to that the
required multi-dimensions of knowledge
needed to survive in big schools, small
town staff rooms, ADHDeducation-deficit
parents, shallow politicos and the
tyranny of the ‘head-master’ – [better
get a good one.]
Even for experienced action-oriented
teachers, Monday mornings gives them
stress. The exiting toolbox from
Bretton was almost empty [don’t hide
behind ‘well it was offered’ --that’s a
crap argument]. Even a thin toolkit was
no basis on which to start a career.
SO WHAT WAS NEEDED ?
First piece of missing knowledge needed
by any emerging Bretton new teacher
would be the highly politically charged
question of “WHY ARE YOU HERE?? “
Well the answer is simple... you serve
as a cog in the political purpose of
supporting the school system and the
goals of its long established agents of
control. When you submit to going into
the classroom there is no doubt that you
we sucked into the objectives of the
organization above your head - cheap
human control and a the production of a
few talented folks for the work force.
Education of small minds per se was a
lowly second place value.
FIRST JOB
The game plan on the first jobsite was
to work out how you would get some
degree of compliance and social order
from your students. That’s the deal,
that’s how you pay the mortgage.
Secondly, get them kids motivated to do
anything of purpose in school, and
thirdly make sure the headmaster knew
you could cut-it, fourth; show up
everyday. Achieve those and you’ve
won—you’re a professional.
Did no-one tell you that, just before
you left after the 1000 days. All you
needed was one simple sentence.
The most frustrating illusion of all was
that newbie teachers felt there was the
capacity and requirement for imparting
that special knowledge about your
special subject area to these empty
vessels. I believed it –for a while. So
treasure that belief, and then deal
with urgent special needs and ESL
students- ohoh wheelchairs stuck again-
and "Herrow, do you speeky any Chinglish??"
The home lives of these kids were
shocking enough to send Dixon of Dock
Green into retirement. Hmm, now Sandip,
sit still, I’m here simply to teach you
about History of European Art !!!!
Four months as a teacher in North London
– Crazy. Within the ONE SCHOOL - the
blacks hated the whites, the Irish were
becoming more unpopular, no-one wanted
to talk to or about the Ugandans, Black
or Asians who were displaced from
Africa, the Greeks hated the Turks and
nobody could get through to the Jamaican
/ Caribbean kids – least of all whitey
from the land of brown ale and mushy
peas.
Of course there were some successes
along the way, there was the occasional
university entrant and then graduate who
cane back to say hello, the occasional
successful entry to art school, but the
majority of the time, the 70’s and 80’s
teachers in my sphere of knowledge were
there to play their minor role in the
system.- take the money and run. Mix
that attitude in with oppressive nature
of decisions based on declining budgets
and add a little shake of local petty
politics, a drop of little town catholic
school attitude - you see the picture.
If you’re still a teacher at 55 – you
clearly did not see the picture.
Slowly and sadly it became clear that
the system was fundamentally run by the
tyranny of accountants in the LEA
office, the comprehensive school math
department glory boys and national,
high-stakes exam results.
Because of the educational strangle hold
of these high stakes exams, it was also
difficult to understand where artsy
subjects would fit in terms of the
operation and credibility in the
school. Who was interested in the fine
arts ??? Even now it is tough to accept
that [ in this culture ] arts are
considered to be somewhat of a cultural
frill.
MOVING ON - AS WE ALL DID
There have been some benefits to getting
a Masters level qualification through
Newcastle Polytechnic,-as was. That was
10 years after leaving Bretton and after
getting bruised for a few years in the
chalk trenches. Later, a Masters Degree
in Education from the University of
Victoria BC Canada in the early 80’s
took me “out of the classroom”- [another
day for that]
…. There that about ties it all
together,. 15 years in classrooms and 3
countries later - I left teaching.
Thanks goodbye.
Dylan was right – did you learn the
words? Times of rapid change they are?
Recent years have brought a change in
societal functions, operations and
values based on the many facets of
technology including applied educational
technology, especially in North America
where I’ve been since about 1982.
This entire concept of technology and
rapid societal change and related
affluence has blind–sided anyone hangin’
onto their underdeveloped assumptions
and nostalgia of the world from the
sixties. There are still people who
believe that the agrarian societal model
of education would go on forever.
Change was not on people’s radar and
certainly not in the last days of
‘kids in wonderland”. Did the Bretton
toolbox have a section called rapid
adaptation to change – you will all need
this – I did not see it in mine.
Because just around the corner humankind
will be confronted with a barrage of
problems unprecedented in the history of
this planet: Climate change and
overpopulation, food shortages and
pandemics, urbanization and pollution,
financial meltdown and
mass-unemployment, and armed conflicts
over even the most basic of our needs.
No more chalk and talk. There are bigger
issues right now – real important ones.
Adapt to change or go under. I mean it.
I thank Bretton Hall and Sir Alec for
my 1000 days … it was fun but that’s all
it was.
I wish you all the best – write here
and tell me how wrong I am. Remember I
am not a writer, never have been…I just
daydream into words, so bear with me.
Liam ARTHURS
Far Away
Left Coast
Canada
