{"id":437,"date":"2018-01-10T10:31:29","date_gmt":"2018-01-10T10:31:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hilarymoriarty.co.uk\/blog\/?p=437"},"modified":"2018-01-10T10:31:29","modified_gmt":"2018-01-10T10:31:29","slug":"the-real-thing-authenticity-in-the-classroom-and-beyond","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/?p=437","title":{"rendered":"The real thing: authenticity in the classroom and beyond"},"content":{"rendered":"

Buried in a breathless review of the recent exhibition, \u2018Raphael: The Drawings\u2019, at the Ashmolean Museum<\/a> in Oxford, there\u2019s a reference to something I know \u2013 recognise \u2013 but have never heard named thus. It\u2019s a term that really nails a complicated and attractive quality one might wish one had, particularly if one was a teacher. Because it would be lovely if all teachers had this quality. In spades.
\nLadies and gentlemen, I give you \u2018sprezzaturra\u2019. Classicists and linguists among you may recognise the word \u2013 for all I know, it may be a regular in the more elevated crosswords. But let me repeat for you the definition offered by the critic in the particular article which caught my eye: quoting Baldassare Castiglione<\/a>, credited with having invented the word, he defines \u2018sprezzatura\u2019 as \u201ca certain nonchalance which conceals all artistry and makes whatever one says or does seem uncontrived and effortless.\u201d
\n
\nThat sounds like a gift of the highest order. Fairy godmothers please note.\u00a0It seems to me to equate with wearing wisdom lightly, with not appearing as if you tried too hard, getting things right without looking as if doing so caused you to bust a gut.
\nDoing what without getting in an undignified sweat? Well, anything really.\u00a0Such as doing well academically.\u00a0In fact we so admire those who can achieve much without looking as if they tried too hard that it was commonplace in the olden days for the few people getting to the giddy heights of a First Class degree (it was 7% of students in 1994, 24% in 2016, so don\u2019t tell me there\u2019s no such thing as grade inflation) to be denigrated for visible hard work \u2013 \u201cYeah, nice he got a First, but he was always a swot, never out of the library…\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s as if we like to think that real excellence is effortless, or it\u2019s not real. You\u2019ve \u2018got it\u2019, or you haven\u2019t, like \u2018star quality\u2019 \u2013 whatever that may be, I use the inverted commas advisedly.
\nIt\u2019s a seductive but dangerous thought.\u00a0 If excellence is only real if effortless, then what about the rest of us?\u00a0 \u201cNever going to get a First \u2013 no point trying. . .\u201d
\n\u201cBut you might if you worked harder. . .\u201d
\n\u201cBut if I work hard and don\u2019t get it, I\u2019ll just look stupid and I\u2019ll have wasted all that time when I could have been partying and meeting millionaires.\u201d
\nAnd you can\u2019t help but think better not to make that look too effortful \u2013 or am I mistaken in thinking a millionaire might actually be put off by a pretty young woman putting loads of effort \u2013 the hair,\u00a0 the make-up \u2013 into catching him? Why do I believe he would be more attracted to a woman who suggests that whatever she says or does is uncontrived and effortless?
\nI will come back to schools, but for the moment just consider two alien worlds: politics and sport. I will admit that when it comes to politicians, I have given up looking for \u2018sprezzatura\u2019. The more they seek to appear \u2018uncontrived and effortless\u2019, which in this context might translate as \u2018authentic\u2019, the more I suspect, in these post-modern times, that not only long practice and much effort, but also a battery of coaches and advisors have been involved in the creation of the public persona.
\nWhich leads you to wonder who is the candidate\/minister anyway, if so thoroughly shaped, moulded \u2013 created? \u2013 by the shady, anonymous team getting great jobs and even honours for their contribution to the making of \u2018The Great One\u2019?\u00a0 Does he\/she have \u2018sprezzatura\u2019? Nah, but don\u2019t worry, we\u2019re fixing that.\u00a0 Hence perhaps The Times concerns about improved TV and other performances from Jeremy Corbyn (JC) in the last general election \u2013 \u201cHis performances have prompted questions about the team behind his improvement,\u201d a correspondent mused.
\nIn return, the advisors \u201cinsisted no outsiders were brought on board.\u201d Does that mean the politician is indeed \u2018authentic\u2019, \u2018the real thing\u2019 after all? But then the advisors were happy to declare, \u201cInstead he has undergone intensive preparatory sessions with Seumas Milne, Director of Communications, and Andrew Fisher, his policy chief.\u201d And in addition, a former advisor to the Labour Party campaign chief \u2018has been credited\u2019 with influencing his smarter appearances, she having \u201ca good awareness of the optics, how things look and come across.\u201d
\nMeanwhile, JC is reported as having \u201ceschewed the advice of PR professionals to improve his look or debating style.\u201d So that\u2019s alright then. The writer seems to be making fine distinctions between \u2018PR professionals\u2019 and bright and perceptive members of his own team who apparently gave him enough right advice to work the transformation from \u2013 what? The \u2018real\u2019 JC? And if so, who is he now?
\nThe irony of a long-time teacher questioning the value \u2013 authenticity? \u2013 of any kind of teaching or coaching on an individual, and worrying about how much coaching\/teaching\/advising is possible before all \u2018authenticity\u2019 is drowned, is not lost on me. Was I not working with\u00a0students to impact such transformations all those years? And how did I become the person to stand in a classroom and presume to do that?<\/p>\n

“Am I mistaken in thinking a millionaire might actually be put off by a pretty young w<\/em>oman<\/em> putting loads of effort \u2013 the hair,\u00a0\u00a0the make-up \u2013 into catching him?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ironically, I don\u2019t think I was transformed from student to teacher myself by the year-long course which purported to train me to lecture in further education.\u00a0 Not even our lecturers demonstrated what might be useful tactics for all of us, aspiring to do what they did. Mostly we seemed to be told painfully dull details about the history of tertiary education, which was never going to help in any classroom where we encountered real-life post-school students, most of whom had enjoyed little academic success in 11 years of compulsory\u00a0education.
\nBut I had the immense good fortune to find \u2018digs\u2019 (Lord! Does anyone else remember them?) with someone who was already lecturing in FE. Irene was brilliant.\u00a0 Pragmatic. A realist. Indeed, the Real Thing. Wise and generous. Whatever I took into the classroom came straight from Irene\u2019s book of survival for young lecturers: \u201cKeep \u2019em interested, keep \u2019em entertained, and do not bore them.\u201d
\nI was forever grateful, and an improved performer. Which of me was \u2018real\u2019?
\nMaybe my problem is with the very definition of \u2018real\u2019, or \u2018authentic\u2019. There is no doubt that we live in times which accept as gospel the possibility of self-improvement, nay the responsibility to engage in any and every activity which will improve on the original you. Learn, practise, put in the hours, go on the diet or take the body-building supplements, get the teeth fixed, have the plastic surgery, earn enough to buy and wear the best, be the very best possible version of you.\u00a0 Employ the gurus, who will coach you and shape you and mould you into someone who can appear at interview, or in class, or on stage, or at the hustings or even in parliament \u2013 where it is perhaps possible someone else writes every word you will utter \u2013 and how real does that make you?
\nIt\u2019s nice that a respected art critic can find \u2018sprezzatura\u2019 in the drawings of Raphael. I am delighted that it is there, and recognisable even now.
\nI just wonder who taught him that?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buried in a breathless review of the recent exhibition, \u2018Raphael: The Drawings\u2019, at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, there\u2019s a reference to something I know \u2013 recognise \u2013 but have never heard named thus. It\u2019s a term that really nails a complicated and attractive quality one might wish one had, particularly if one was a\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13],"tags":[42],"class_list":["post-437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ie-today","category-independent-education-today","tag-authenticity"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/j-moriarty.co.uk\/hilarymoriarty\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}