The Art of Teaching.

It’s been a while…

And I know as I sit here and type this, come the end, this might be a futile effort that just ends up in the trash… unpublished yet exorcised… we shall see what courage remains…

I lost my confidence writing.

I lost my confidence full stop. Echoes yet remain… doubts about the intelligence of my frustrations, education and right to voice opinions…

“It all needs supporting with evidence or it becomes a rant”…

I’m of the conclusion now that I am the evidence… I live this… have recorded this… feel this…

Like the images we create… records of our passing time…

It may well be unsubstantiated, but for me is real and relevant…

I make no apologies to the academia.

I’ve spent my time contemplating… observing… considering…

My head is full… needs release, create a vacuum so I can start again…

Tangled inconsistencies may well spill out… bare with me please… let me heal the jigsaw…

In his first film as director and actor “The Man Without a Face”, Mel Gibson’s character Justin Mcleod who is portrayed as gifted and inspiring teacher, is questioned by the authorities, and in response to a certain set of questions questioning his professionalism alongside accusations of pedophilia, retorts with the shrewd statement “You just simply don’t get it”…

In these times of Mr Gove’s educational reforms, I find this fictional testimony extremely profound and relevant…

Mr Gove; You simply don’t get it!

Education parallels and constructs society – though politicians would have us believe otherwise – politicians aren’t the “Kingmakers”… yet at present the de-professionalizing of this once well-respected vocation is crippling the moral and very fabric of what it offers. The relentless pressure to measure, assess and compete is not fixed by removing or demoting subjects that offer respite. “ Non academic” now describes this subject we work so hard to promote…

I sat this morning with my Year 11 pupils… mock exam… 5 hours off timetable to start work on their final piece of their final course work… an admitted luxury… but real life… as professional artists work…

Their ideas evaporating from the worked pages of their sketchbooks, vying for position to be constructed onto their once blank canvases… those creative threads teased directly out of their heads, made magically to appear for me like a conjurers trick… the culmination of a seasons work.

I sat and considered their futures… tomorrows visionaries, designers and curators of planet home…

I considered my part in their arrival at this point… the worth-whileness of it… the privilege of formation… instruction…

…and I looked into a blank, possible future where this ceased to exist or was conditioned to be marginal…

…and I wondered…

Why don’t we ask them?

Why presume we know best?

In Year 9 we have something called options… where Year 9 pupils decide what they wish to choose to study for GCSE for their final two years of secondary education. Historically the presumption is then, that 14 year olds are capable of doing this – with the guidance of their parents – but ultimately (for the sake of argument) their choice…

So the precedent is that they are capable…

I don’t have to sell Art to my pupils. My numbers stack up. My Year 10 GCSE cohort this year is just below half of the year group and at present next years numbers are looking equally as good…

But there is an undercurrent…

What would you do if your school were to be judged on the outcomes in 8 (academic) selected subjects? As an educator? As a parent? Is there an inevitability here that the most able will be syphoned off for those 8? Pressurized? The “non academic’s” serving as holding pens?

The Chambers Dictionary has as one of its definitions for academic as: – “Theoretical only, of no practical importance or consequence”!

Do you read this in the same way as I do?

That’s a bit umm… unfortunate… isn’t it?

I repeat…

Mr Gove; You simply don’t get it!

I guess at some stage I need to start writing again… GCSE work marked and moderated… depending on boundaries, my best set of results yet… OFSTED departed and the carnage they’ve caused beginning to settle… can’t comment on that at present as am still to furious and can’t risk getting into further trouble…

For a while now, it feels like things have changed. My focus has to be my teaching. Art cannot… hasn’t featured for over 2 months. It’s been a horrendous couple of months… interest evaporated… complete disillusion and a sense of uselessness again.

Is this my nature? Is this a pattern artists and teachers experience? Incredible highs followed by gut retching lows? Where is the level ground? How do I remain in it?

The solution for me has been simple. Art sacrificed; I equivocally know that I need to teach ahead of making…

…bills… security for my girls… mortgage…

…but…

I took my partner to see Robbie Williams at Wembley Stadium last Saturday… her sister had bought us some tickets for her birthday. I’m not the biggest Robbie fan, but I worked at the old Wembley for 5 years and was curious about the new stadium… a work of Art in its own right. What I didn’t expect was a profound experience that has left me questioning everything I believe and stand for.

The first thing that captured me was the vastness of the space. Seated high in the rafters, those on the pitch area appeared miniature and un-life like… long past memories, unconsidered for decades flooded back of times spent in the commentary gallery, executive boxes and previous concerts and matches… thoughts of gladiatorial arenas from past dynasties filled my mind as the huge effigy of Robbie dominated those beneath it…

And that’s what struck me… that’s where the germination began…

Maybe because I was seeking guidance or answers already… my faith changed 16 years ago when a spiritual experience turned around the direction of my life, and I often listen out for answers…

Further huge representations of Robbie’s head where wheeled out across the stage throughout the concert, leading me to question whether this was all ego based… you know – look at me… I’m the star… I’m so much better than you…

The interview in the program explains Robbie’s vision much better than the show. I disservice him by implying he has a massive ego… in fact I think the opposite… he strikes me as being very humble and self demeaning… but… it did start the thought process that now so captivates me…

Add to that the gaping hole in the roof – a kind of mirroring of the possibilities below; the setting sun shining through it, lighting areas that the spotlights didn’t affect, this very lucid and clear picture started forming… it was as if some greater power was peering down on us all and shaking its head in disbelief…

“Thou shalt not worship false idols!”

Up or down? Which way to look?

Crazy?

… this must sound like I’ve finally lost all my faculties…

…but it felt so vivid and pure…

And then I started thinking…

How many religions and belief systems have similar literature? Is this just Christian faith? Surely not?

What about footballers? Political rallies? Cinema? Television? Theatres? Museums? Galleries? Art?

Art?…

Why make Art? Why view it? Seek it out? Teach it?

What are we doing?

Playing God?

Seeking alternatives?

I can’t shake this. The notion of wrongness is very strong at present… so many judgments and assessments made of late. I need time to settle… more time. I need to make sure that I’m making and teaching for the right reasons. Society is sick at present… maybe I am to… and perhaps answers extend beyond and into other realms?

There is a distinct probability that I could be setting out to provoke this morning… Whether or not this is a good idea, or even if this is the right arena, we shall have to wait and see, but as always for me, this is a forum to test and question my own thinking and sometimes sanity.

I have been teaching a module to my Year 10 GCSE cohort based around Steampunk… the assemblage of different articles and materials based around the industrial revolution when steam power came into its own.

As part of their research work, I asked my pupils to study the work of Robert Gober – (whose work it could be argued, isn’t suitable for this age group… point 1) – instructing them to take ideas from his work and using previous drawings they had created to construct their own piece in his style. What they chose to produce was entirely up to them as had been their sampling of objects for the drawing exercises.

On occasion, I permit my GCSE pupils to work in groups to prepare work, – (point 2; is this acceptable?) – as I would any other Year group. Working in collaboration with another person, as I am finding out for myself, often stimulates and generates new ways of working and encourages further experimentation and risk or chance taking…

Two of my male pupils decided to work together and set about shaping the “Booby Fire Extinguisher” (image 1) as a response to Gober’s work…

For me, I totally “get it”. Despite some flaws with its construction, I think it’s a very clever response to a difficult and challenging subject matter. With reference to adolescent lust and connotations to masturbation, the question really starts coming down to its appropriateness to a formative education establishment… Should I have permitted them to make it? (Point 3).

Place this object in any room, and it’ll change that environment and the conversation within it. It requires no gallery to have impact and will engender discussion – as any good piece of art should…

But should I show it?

Appropriateness?

At present it is hidden from the younger pupils… but my two students wish to gauge opinion and place it in various locations around the school to photo, film and record reaction…

Should I let them?

Artistic license?

Again the artist and the teacher are in conflict. I know what they both say individually, but I need them to function simultaneously, together… cohesively.

Is my function the same as both artist and teacher; to promote art in all aspects?

I remember when Roland Piche interviewed me for a place on my BA at Canterbury. He asked me about the suitability of adolescents viewing the work of Robert Maplethorpe? Not knowing the work at that time, I stuttered out a response and left the interview convinced I’d blown my chance… I was offered a place… so I know I hold the answer…

But what do you think?

What would you do?

Who takes priority here? Artist or teacher?

What am I supposed to teach as an artist?

What becomes acceptable?

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I have no idea what I will write here today. The Easter holidays are fast approaching and that means there is a tendency for me to switch down from teaching and let the artist emerge… but both have collaborated well together since the last holiday and a good balance prevails…

There is a blurring now between what I write here and on my other shared blog with Elena Thomas… most of the work I’m making is towards our exhibition in October and the majority of the projects I have taught this term are reaching conclusion… Mythical Celtic illustrations, Steampunk sculptures and Floral paintings allow pupils freedom to express and develop ideas already researched… creating their own version… becoming the artists…

My own work progresses along interesting lines, moving away from shared starting points…

Here is different… I don’t write for the sake of writing… words and thoughts are precious and I’m sure readers don’t want to read dribble… writing generally clarifies the jumble of thoughts, ideas and resentments that I carry around… freeing me from them… creating a vacuum that needs filling with something fresh… challenging.

There is a huge requirement for teachers to think… to think fresh… minute by minute… hour by hour… day by day… and so on. I wonder how different this is in other professions? I wonder if we are alone? If the general public fully appreciates the demands of this job? If You understand? That need for originality… the New…

Thinking fresh… now there’s an art. Teaching, like design agency work, has a very high burnout rate… people leaving the profession after a number of years. I’m not surprised and I don’t base this on any official or recorded statistics… added to the pressure of trying to manage often-unruly, young, independent thinking, challenging personalities… no wonder! Thinking novel is a challenge…

I went on a course Tuesday of this week… hosted by Apple it posed some innovative questions for me… The event was really based around iPad’s and to a degree was a commercial exercise between Apple and educators. Yet I came away feeling inspired, as though I’d learnt something new and eager to experiment with what I had been taught…

I’m not one who needs convincing about iPad’s in the classroom. For the two years of my Master’s course I struggled to make contact with some of the leading supporters for iPad classrooms, yet here they were on Tuesday, all assembled under one roof and ready for me to network with… and that freshness of thinking was SO evident…

I came away considering my own secondary education. Why had I switched off midway through Year 9? What had I been taught that I use regularly in my working life after school; if ever? What education now means to me, and primarily, what is my role today as an educator?

In his introduction, Michael Munn, Director for Education, Apple UK, cited an example where 500 teachers at an educational conference where given a two minute familiarization task… they were given two minutes to research a given subject… and to a person, each teacher pulled out their phone and Googled the answer…

Two points to this…

… Not one teacher asked the speaker – the teacher – for the answer!..

81% of schools in the UK do not allow pupils to use their own devices!..

Michael Munn’s point was very simple… “If we teach today as we taught yesterday we rob our children of tomorrow”.

Fresh… particularly in light of the fact that 79% of schools believe in the technology.

If technology is to be embedded at the forefront of future education, “fresh thinking” has to be leading the way. Diehard, out dated philosophies have to be ended. New solutions that embrace technology have to trialed and implemented. The teacher has never been needed more and the pupils’ journey needs to be curated to suit their needs. Learners self esteem is critical. They need to achieve on their own… lead and plan… space manage and peer coach. As educators we need to facilitate these possibilities for them, not hold them back within our own education. As the world moves forward we need to be there, leading the way…

So there it is… the fundamental flaw with education today, beautifully illustrated in TES this week under the heading “The catastrophic impact of league tables for individual teachers”.

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6323230

For me it serves as a warning and a highlighter of the possibilities of tomorrow… the risk we are at if we follow down the same path that appears to be so attractive to politicians, governors and the blame culture admiring press…

My eldest daughter recently failed her 11+ by one mark (which is perhaps why I am writing this) at our local Grammar school, which resulted in her not being offered a place. I’m not one to make excuses for her, but with Level 6 predictions for her SATS this summer, I would like to point out a few excusing factors on her behalf.

Four years ago last New Year I had a heart attack that resulted with me being off work for nearly 9 months. This was compounded for my daughter two years later when my partner had a bought of flu that she still has not recovered from, leaving her confined to a wheelchair with very little strength and consequently placing a huge amount of pressure on my eldest to help care for her and her younger sister. Pre-occupied with her mothers illness at a critical stage in her development, my daughter has never once complained or overtly let it effect the way she conducts herself, but I know it has had a huge impact on tiredness and her social interactions. Four years of helping ones parents who should be caring for you, is bound to take its toll…

… and yet… she is judged on one assessment.

I cannot convey her disappointment strongly enough… exacerbated by her best friend being offered a place… leaving my daughter distraught and her confidence shattered…

So what Art is there in assessment?

It strikes me that there is a certain hypocrisy in the “value” of assessment.

The Chambers Dictionary defines value amongst others as: –

1. Worth

2. A fair equivalent

3. Intrinsic worth or goodness

4. Recognition of such worth

5. That which renders anything useful or estimable

6. The degree of this quality

And assess as: –

1. To estimate, judge, evaluate (eg a person’s work, performance, character).

To estimate???… character?

As a starting definition to how we assess, this cannot be suitable? Or fair?

In the last elections held in this country, the leaders of the main political parties took part in three live debates aired nationally on television. Three debates!.. Three examinations!.. If we applied the same evaluation principles on our fair leaders that are requested of us, surely Nick Clegg would now be Prime Minister; he came out the clear winner from that first debate. So why two other examinations? Why do they get the opportunity denied the majority?

Or should character count for more? Should it be applied equally?

Our system determines that we set the majority up for failure. By definition only one person can be “the best”… the rest fail. Some of my hardest working pupils will never attain the highest grades yet their work ethic and commitment are never rewarded, evaluated or appreciated by the examiners. What lesson is that for them?

I have nothing to hide. I will hold up my hands and take my part of the blame in my daughter’s deemed failure. She will not hold us responsible for pushing her to do her best.

Unfortunately as the article suggests, value added doesn’t really add value… it cannot be an alternative assessment criteria, as assessment as it stands doesn’t do what it should or claims to do. The whole notion of testing needs radical reform.

Assessment like teaching should be an Art. My main function as a teacher is to build confidence and belief in young people who most often doubt their own abilities and lack the conviction to press forward their ideas. Assessment must start to evaluate the character rather than the work to construct a worthwhile and competent, rounded overview of individuals, or cease to be relied on as relevant judgment of ability…