Are inspiration and education mutually exclusive?

There are many things I thought I would want to be when I grew up, but don't panic I'm not going to list them all and I'm fairly certain none of them were the ones cited by the Pussycat Dolls.

I heard on the radio some weeks ago that recent surveys suggest that when posed the "what do you want to be when you grow up" question, most children answered "famous". Having never been famous, I cannot say whether that is a good or bad thing.

What amazed me though was that there was no requirement or intent to specify anything beyond being "famous". Not even saying footballer, fashion designer, musician, author or actor...

Dr Harold Shipman is famous - not exactly the best role model out there (that being said, he was a Leeds Uni graduate so he did something right!).

To clarify, I may well be being totally ignorant to the education sector in the remainder of this post. However these are my views as an outsider and I welcome any and all feedback on where I'm wrong!

Does the modern education framework allow for creativity? Are kids coached out of it? 

Modern education takes its roots from the industrial revolution. All work items are specialised and partitioned. Children are input into the education factory (school) to generate an output: teenagers with qualifications to benefit them as the enter the wider world and become more economically active. 

Obviously one could argue a certain level of education is mandatory and protects society's interests. However once that level is achieved (or during its attainment) should the focus then shift to inspiration? Is it even possible to do both simultaneously in the current framework?

I think politics has shaped education much more than anything else in recent history. In my lifetime, qualifications have been re-branded and re-parametered whilst budgets and curriculums have suffered cuts and restrictions. 

No education minister can come in, undo it all and start afresh which is a real shame but a fact of life I suppose.

The fact you hear the phrase "exam coaching" in education is surely proof enough that the underlying philosophy of education has been diluted.

I have an unbounded appreciation of the teaching profession. They do a terrific job in most instances, shaping lives and influencing good behaviours but can they inspire creativity or the passion for learning when ultimately test results are seen as of political importance and dictate budgets within local government and ultimately the education system?

The counter argument would be that the best teachers find that balance between curriculum and creativity. I'm lucky enough to have seen examples of that in my own educational experience but I think that's something many miss out on.

I stumbled across a perfect quote quite by chance. It's from William Bruce Cameron’s 1963 text “Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking” and it contained the following passage:

It would be nice if all of the data which sociologists require could be enumerated because then we could run them through IBM machines and draw charts as the economists do. However, not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

You can count bums on seats, test scores and attendance records. You cannot count inspiration or creativity.

Many of you will have watched Educating Yorkshire and that highlights the efforts of staff in one school to show there is more to education than just passing the tests. There will be countless examples like that without camera crews but there may just as well be hidden schools, who pass the tests and inspections but ultimately fail their students.

If people who are creative can exceed expectations, why shouldn't the government be creative: take a risk, really learn from mistakes rather than spoon-feed the masses and take away individuality.

My conclusion is that it's not necessarily Yorkshire that needs educating but rather the educational framework which needs re-imagining, allowing teachers to be tangential, spontaneous and inspire creativity. 

When (if) I grow up, I want to see more creativity in the world - and education seems the best platform to make that possible. As Hector from History Boys says:

Pass the parcel. That's sometimes all you can do. 

In my mind, that parcel is inspiration. We should pass on the passion, the yearning for learning and give kids questions not just answers x

Fell back in love with Mr G, Ja'mie and Jonah

Firstly, apologies that "On this day I" hasn't been pushing out posts as regular as it used to be. However secondly it is nice to know that it has been missed, so thanks to those who have actively encouraged me to get back into it. Life sort of got in the way!

Knowing that I'd be getting back into the blogging, and it got me thinking about what I could write about. 

September - where has the time gone? 

Today saw the return of school traffic. September used to be a bit of a tense month. Would I have all the new stationery I needed? What seat would I be given? What are my flatmates going to be like? Where am I going to go now?!

School life being a distant memory, my only exposure now is through my brother. He's just started a new job working in a school. At his previous post he was affectionately known as Mr G - and having spotted his "Mr G" gear in a recent venture into his bedroom (hosting hockey's Patrick Smith for the evening) that prompted me to watch Summer Heights High - turned out he's nicked it, so I bought it again and it's all come flooding back - so this blog is dedicated to Chris Lilley's creation.

If you have never watched it, I wouldn't dare spoil it for you but essentially Summer Heights High, written by and starring Chris Lilley is an award winning Australian mockumentary series starring three of the fictional protagonists (all played by Lilley) in a parody of public school life. 

I'll take the time to introduce each of the main characters very briefly, as they really do sell themselves:

Mr G

The drama teacher, Greg Gregson (aka "Mr G") is passionate about his methods. He is a megalomaniac. He's mental and narcissistic. He's just brilliant - from his dog Celine (who has an "oversized brain") through to his musical penmanship, Tsunamarama (based on the events of the Tsunami disaster, set to the music of Bananarama).

He misperceives (much in the same way David Brent does) that he is well-liked - it is clear that he is unaware that his own perception of his teaching abilities is not shared by most students, but I for one would happily play "Slap the Butcher" if I could every single day...

Jonah

Summer Heights High is Jonah's third school in eighteen months. Leader of the FOB (Fresh Off the Boat) Tongan year 8 crew. He's a teenager with Attention Deficit Disorder, problems with aggression and a passion for break-dancing. 

His disruptive behaviour is very funny and his struggles are not unjust. He just wants to entertain and has delayed "being smart" because he doesn't want to be yet. He's the class clown - the one your teachers all warned you about. We all had one, and if you didn't - then it might well be you. Sorry (Ben!)

Ja'mie

Ja'mie King is part of a school exchange programme. She struggles to cope away from her privileged background but in reality she faces the same issues all 16 year old girls do (I assume, based on TV's representations of teenage girls anyway). She's just "so random" and her prejudices are, well, brilliantly spiteful. Her actions are not without consequence, for instance when she accidentally forwards a slanderously photo-shopped picture of her new found public school friends to the wrong person on MSN, she's abandoned on the playground without a friend in sight.

She's attention seeking and keen to out-do her contemporaries - from asking a girl to her end of school formal to dating a year 7. If it's going to put her in the limelight, she'll do it. You do try to feel sorry for her and want to believe that the experience will humble her, but you know it won't and you don't really even mind. She's rich and she'll never be "povo", "skanky" or a "bogan". She is my favourite character, delivering the majority of the funniest one-liners throughout the series. The fact you sometimes forget that this is a man in drag is testament to Lilley as a performer.

His skills as a writer are no less impressive. The main story lines are stronger than most comedies but the subtleties of its humour are what I think will make this a series I return to again and again. The closure of the stories (particularly Jonah's) feels closer to a drama, you are on the journey with them and their development (or lack of) makes it much closer to documentary than mockumentary.

Well hopefully that's enough to tempt some of you into watching it - don't tell everyone but it looks like the full episodes are actually on youtube... so go and have a watch. 

Chris Lilley has a new series of a similar format coming out soon which I assume will air on BBC3 in the UK (as per Angry Boys and SHH) - hopefully I'll try not to let life get too busy for me to put pen to blog for a review of that. 

And if I do get busy, then puck you x