Dream Children
Mar. 3rd, 2011 01:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
steepholmI refer not to Charles Lamb's might-have-been little ones, who must "wait upon the tedious shores of Lethe millions of ages before they have existence, and a name", but to the highly-corporeal, not to say in-your-face students at Jamie's Dream School. The show is ostensibly designed to give these pupils, all of whom left school with fewer than five GCSEs, a "second chance" by letting them star in a TV reality show drink in the wisdom of some of the most eminent people in Britain. (Only three of the nineteen teachers are women, by the way: Mary Beard, Ellen MacArthur, and... Cherie Blair!)
Not only are these teachers the "best" at what they do, but they have a small class to teach, and apparently unlimited resources: David Starkey was able to bring the Staffordshire hoard into the classroom and set up a tilting yard in the playground; Robert Winston to take a chainsaw to a dead pig [cue vomiting]. Yet it all failed: no one paid much attention to Simon Callow on Shakespeare; even Rolf Harris couldn't enthuse them about the Impressionists; and Starkey fell at the first fence by insulting one of the pupils for being fat and then going into a huff when he responded in kind.
As an educational experience for the children, this was probably of limited value. However, it was an excellent advertisement for professional teachers - and maybe that was its secret purpose all along? Teaching is one of those jobs that people have a tendency to think "anyone can do" (cf. children's writing, which also has a fatal allure for celebs). But these eminent scholars, politicians and public figures stumbled and/or fell - despite having all that cash, just one class to teach and no administration to worry about. It would be nice to think that they would draw the obvious conclusion: that teaching is a difficult profession in itself. Maybe we'll hear just a little less about "long holidays and short days" now? Alas, I foretell that next week David Starkey will blame his own incompetence on the woolly-minded teachers who let the kids get into this state in the first place. And that the Daily Mail will agree with him.
Not only are these teachers the "best" at what they do, but they have a small class to teach, and apparently unlimited resources: David Starkey was able to bring the Staffordshire hoard into the classroom and set up a tilting yard in the playground; Robert Winston to take a chainsaw to a dead pig [cue vomiting]. Yet it all failed: no one paid much attention to Simon Callow on Shakespeare; even Rolf Harris couldn't enthuse them about the Impressionists; and Starkey fell at the first fence by insulting one of the pupils for being fat and then going into a huff when he responded in kind.
As an educational experience for the children, this was probably of limited value. However, it was an excellent advertisement for professional teachers - and maybe that was its secret purpose all along? Teaching is one of those jobs that people have a tendency to think "anyone can do" (cf. children's writing, which also has a fatal allure for celebs). But these eminent scholars, politicians and public figures stumbled and/or fell - despite having all that cash, just one class to teach and no administration to worry about. It would be nice to think that they would draw the obvious conclusion: that teaching is a difficult profession in itself. Maybe we'll hear just a little less about "long holidays and short days" now? Alas, I foretell that next week David Starkey will blame his own incompetence on the woolly-minded teachers who let the kids get into this state in the first place. And that the Daily Mail will agree with him.