tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5888062989539166264.post1056810574593937878..comments2024-01-14T08:50:45.677+00:00Comments on The Richard Madeley Appreciation Society: Dour SaturdayUncle Dick Madeleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01124053234469634414noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5888062989539166264.post-63242576750911242142008-08-31T18:44:00.000+01:002008-08-31T18:44:00.000+01:00Elberry, you are naturally correct. But do we have...Elberry, you are naturally correct. But do we have to bow down to this bloody political vision of mediocrity as preached by those in power. I'm probably a romantic; no, I am a romantic . I believe that one man can make a difference...maybe it's Sir Dick!Richard Havershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15309594787689405779noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5888062989539166264.post-22623332496759793552008-08-31T18:27:00.000+01:002008-08-31T18:27:00.000+01:00i've considered this path at least a dozen tim...i've considered this path at least a dozen times in the last 7 years, and each time rejected it. Teaching at university consists mainly of marking soul-crushingly tedious essays that are 90% just the regurgitated lecture notes. Probably the greatest thinker/writer i've met in the flesh was sacked from Durham 5 years before i arrived, for trying to teach properly. Another tutor, who later went off the rails with booze, said he calculated he'd marked 8 million words of essays; it wasn't necessary to estimate how many of these were interesting, it would have been one in ten at most (and this at Durham, mind you, imagine at Huddersfield or Sunderland...)<BR/><BR/>One of my tutor friends read about 2 books a year: the rest of the time was spent marking student essays and preping for tutorials by re-reading the curriculum texts. That's no way to live.<BR/><BR/>As for schools, i gather it's even worse, understandably since at least English undergrads choose to do it, even if only because they think "it's a doss innit". Schoolkids don't want to be there, even at A-level they're too young to have made any real choices.<BR/><BR/>So you have 30+ violent, sneering, crackhead children who have never known any form of discipline in their lives, who have not a shred of courtesy, politeness, decency, or morality, and who furthermore DON'T WANT TO BE THERE - and their schooling to this point has encouraged them to think correct English doesn't matter (that this is 'elitist'), that literature is pointless & boring...well, let's just say you can borrow my expandable baton if you get the job.<BR/><BR/>i've heard too many tales from PGCE students and teachers to want to do it. i know of 2 gifted teachers who quit because the system wouldn't allow them to teach: what they were required to do couldn't be described as 'teaching' - it was just Beckettian nonsense to please Nu Labour bureaucrats. Another PGCE teacher (and martial artist) i knew ended up using kung fu on the students when they attacked him.<BR/><BR/>i suspect Richard Havers is talking about schooling as it was pre-1997? Or even further back? Don't confuse some golden age of teaching with 2008, bub, you'll send Madeley to his death at the hands of 30 savage beasts.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5888062989539166264.post-43274800967217246802008-08-31T17:42:00.000+01:002008-08-31T17:42:00.000+01:00Katy and Richard,Oh, don't get me wrong. I agree w...Katy and Richard,<BR/><BR/>Oh, don't get me wrong. I agree with you. I would like to think that I am the sort to inspire. It's just that the system of exams, paperwork, and marking don't leave much room for that. It's not how good a teacher I'd be where I would fail. It's that I'm not a bureaucrat, with experience with all the paperwork. I would guess that all the great teachers that influenced us in the past would fail in the current system.<BR/><BR/>And I've still not managed to fill in this form...Uncle Dick Madeleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01124053234469634414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5888062989539166264.post-22752648015421775702008-08-31T17:07:00.000+01:002008-08-31T17:07:00.000+01:00I'm not sure I like the sound of this! The path of...I'm not sure I like the sound of this! <BR/><BR/>The path of least resistance is the way to go? <BR/><BR/>Forgive me Dick but that's bollocks. I know!<BR/><BR/>To quote Barbra Streisand, as I of course do frequently - With all there is why settle for just a piece of the sky?<BR/><BR/>As someone who took two attempts to get O level English Language and an O level pass at A level English Lit I can speak from experience. I was crap at exams, partly because I now realise I have some dyslexia issues. Has it held me back?...not one jot, especially with spell checker :) <BR/><BR/>More to the point, I had English teachers that inspired me, taught me to love the subject, literature and everything about it. They also encouraged me to read way more than most people do. Teaching is not about exams it's about inspiration.<BR/><BR/>For me, the vision became the dreamRichard Havershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15309594787689405779noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5888062989539166264.post-83206503393926633892008-08-31T13:52:00.000+01:002008-08-31T13:52:00.000+01:00I had three literature teachers in my life that in...I had three literature teachers in my life that inspired me profoundly, two in school and one at university. I was clever at school, but struggled because I was opinionated and an easy target for bullies. I would often try to find ways not to go to school. Frankly the only thing that made it bearable was the breath of fresh air and hope that those teachers gave me.<BR/><BR/>Even within the system you can give people hope, a sense of what is possible and a taste of a world where imagination and creativity, open mindedness and outside the box thinking has a place. It has always sustained me and made me fight harder to retain my difference, my uncompromising stance and my belief that we don't always have to fit neat boxes.<BR/><BR/>The trick is to teach them to play the game, but to let the gifted ones see that it is a game and is just a way to getting on to a bigger freedom that is possible.<BR/><BR/>Do not give up.katyboo1https://www.blogger.com/profile/00182125401184061843noreply@blogger.com