At the chalkface Aims and objections


“Aims and Objections” I scrawl on a board. It’s compulsory. “Don’t you mean objectives,


sir!” trills a twerp in the front row. “I know what I mean, Perkins!” I object to flagging up the


shrunken parameters of our lesson. I must not do so. I must have outcomes. Measurable outcomes – which squash the serendipitous or accidental. I must do measurable teaching. Tick! goes Ms Mumps of Management. Tick! goes Mr Vholes of Ofsted. Job done. Job kept. Rent paid. Fear wins. Soul lost. What a palaver! It can drive you barmy. It did for many of my teaching generation. It wasn’t always like


this. English teaching was thrilling for years. We could be creative, risky, fearless. Planned outcomes? Who they? How could we know what we thought ‘til we heard what we said? Stimulus Ruled. Dance. Drama. Anything. Pedagogy was flaky, but poems festooned the walls. Exhilarating times. No more. We lost our mojos – and our bottles. Now we just deliver A*s for the Man. But, wait, there’s light, there’s


hope. Some teaching chums – hip young gunslingers – have had enough of all this. Their number is growing. They could use some help. Well, it’s at hand. Phil Beadle, the David Byrne of Pedagogy – or is that Stan Bowles? – has a cracking new book out. It’s big on our old


school creativity, but with a proper pedagogy. Bracing frolics – with a sharp intellectual underpinning. We’re back to Homo Ludens. Not Homo Examinus Fodderus. Out go outcomes, in comes process. You treat the arts as forms of pedagogy. Crash them, mash them up. Drama, sport, music and dance – especially dance. You get physical. You “get on off that thing!” as James Brown urged. There was much leaping about in my classrooms. Dave Mania was often off that thing – and much else - break-dancing. Shaka used to spin on his brain. I tried to curtail them. Well, I shouldn’t have done. It


can be a learning experience.


You dance about subjects. You do The Juxtaposition. “Adverbial tap dance”


anyone? The “exclamation


mark ballet”? Isn’t this a bit daft? Daft’s


good, insists Beadle. And a bit risky? What about the rent, unmet targets, Mr Vholes and


the P45? Courage, mes braves! It works. Pupils like it. Teachers too. They put lessons in a strategy box – like: “Take the students out of the classroom. Refuse to justify it to anyone who asks! Run around a field shouting! Dance the causes of the First World War!” Alright! Why not? Let’s go. “You! Perkins! Do ‘The Aims


and Objectives Shuffle’. You! Mumps! Do that ‘Ofsted Block’. You! Vholes! Do ‘The Outcomes Creep’.”


• Ian Whitwham is a former secondary school teacher.


News


Art attack: TV presenter and artist Neil Buchanan, right, shows pupils how it’s done at the Face Britain launch. Outnumbered star Daniel Roche speaks (above)


Will art project break world record? by Emma Lee-Potter


From photographs and paintings to 3D images and graphics, youngsters across the country have been challenged to create their own self-portraits – and help to break a world record. Face Britain, a new project


launched by the Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts, is aiming to be the UK’s largest ever mass collaborative art project. Open to all children aged four


to 16, the initiative will provide a unique snapshot of how the nation’s young people see themselves. It


will also celebrate the nation’s chil- dren in the lead up to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. To mark the Diamond Jubilee,


all the self-portraits will be com- bined to create a montage of the Queen – which will be projected onto the front of Buckingham Palace next spring. It is hoped that the portrait of


the Queen will set a new Guinness World Record for the artwork with the greatest number of individual contributing artists. More than 100 children attend- ed the project launch at London’s


Imagination Gallery last week, along with culture minister Ed Vaizey, Outnumbered star and Face Britain ambassador Daniel Roche and Jeremy Newton, CEO of the Prince’s Foundation for Children and the Arts. During a pre-recorded video


message shown at the event, Prince Charles, founder and president of the Foundation, said: “I firmly believe that everyone should have the opportunity, at an early age, to be given access to and to be inspired by the arts. “Sustained access to perform-


ance and visual arts can empower children to explore their creativity


and to enhance their personal devel- opment and self-esteem.” More than 30,000 Face Britain


registration packs have been sent to schools in the UK, with a letter about the project from former children’s laureate Michael Morpurgo. Face Britain is not a competition so any child can take part, whatever their level of skill and whatever medium they use. Youngsters must photograph their finished work and then upload it to the Face Britain website before March 31 next year. For more details, online teach-


ing resources, links and images, go to www.facebritain.org.uk


16


SecEd • September 22 2011


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