dream school dream on
In his new series, Jamie’s Dream School, the TV chef gathered together a group of disaffected, disruptive and under-achieving kids who had dropped out of school with precious little to show for their past 11 years’ inclusion within it. He then asked some of the smartest (and most high-profile) people in the country to teach and inspire them in their chosen subject. Rankin (what is his christian name?) teaches them photography; Cherie Blair preaches about the law; Ellen MacArthur shows them the basic principles of yachting; Alistair Campbell span politics; etc. etc. Between them they staged a tad crude but highly watchable experiment in how to potentially turn around the half a million kids in this position in Britain today.
What was immediately obvious, besides how stupidly they all chose to wear their school ties, was how chaos quickly took over and pretty much immediately became the norm. The major issue the ‘teachers’ faced was not one of violence or aggression (as is usually the want of the Daily Mail) but that of lack of attention. The pupils couldn’t concentrate for more than a couple of seconds at a time and they couldn’t keep their mouths’ shut. The classroom did not represent a place of learning, merely a place for a laugh, a joke, an argument and a bit of rough and tumble. It was a social club, no more, no less. The group dynamic was a disaster which only sought to bring the worst out of all the kids: the group dynamic of chaos encouraged chaos. The first lesson learned was that where there is a concentration of chaotic kids, there shall be chaos.
To varying degrees, the teachers’ all lost their tempers and most resorted to raising their voices and ranting and raving. And so would I have done. These are venerable learned individuals who’s audiences hang on their every word. These kids however had little (if any) idea as to who they were and precious little desire to want to learn any Latin, math or law. And then the penny dropped: divide and conquer.
Aha, split them up and concentrate on developing a personal, almost one-to-one relationship. You could almost see the lights come on in several of the children and even if they outwardly wanted to remain aloof and indifferent and hence part of the group (we all need to belong somewhere) inwardly they sooo wanted to learn and grow. It became apparent that the specific teaching technique didn’t matter: some were soft and approachable, others were strict and a bit cold. There can be discipline – indeed they actually craved discipline – but first there had to be that connection. It was the emotional connection and individuals’ personal interest and praise that mattered. It was all about a personal bond.
That’s all the good news I’m afraid. I sincerely hope the kids in Jamie’s school have taken something positive from the experiment and that does indeed have a profound impact on their futures. The bigger question is whether or not we are able to take this knowledge and bring it to bear on the remaining 499,980 and my belief is there’s not a chance. Recreating such a close knit learning structure in the public sector will remain only a dream. Sadly, there’s no money, too few resources, no momentum and not enough desire to change the current structure. More’s the pity.
