Schools praise their students; is it time that teachers get the same treatment?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
If you are attached to a school \u2013 teacher, parent, governor \u2013 you\u2019re likely to spend some time at the end of the summer term expressing lots of praise and thanksgiving, congratulating many people \u2013 staff as well as pupils \u2013 for achievements many and various during the school year just ending. In my case, as a governor, the last week of term featured four speech days and two splendid musical productions \u2013 more clapping \u2013 as well as two governors\u2019 meetings. Much paperwork, reviewing the year just ended and peeping over the parapet to take a squint at the year to come, and all very interesting, but not clapping events as I recall.<\/p>\n\n\n
Which was just as well, because you do a lot\nof clapping at a speech day, which features much applause for the\nsuccess of the year just ended, much encouragement for all present to\ntry harder, do better, do more next year so that you too can be a prize\nwinner.<\/p>\n\n\n
It\u2019s a bonus for all if the prize-giving speech maker is\nan alumnus\/a of the school. If this is the case, he or she stands like\ntangible evidence of the efficacy of the school and its systems,\nsometimes many years ago, turning out people who are successful in their\n field in the here and now to which (presumably) they were aiming back\nin the day when they came to the school, a scared 11-year-old or a\nhomesick boarder. What they say in their speech almost does not matter \u2013\n though it\u2019s great if they\u2019re fast and fluent and funny. Their very\nexistence demonstrates that the school \u2013 for them at least, and possibly\n a lifetime ago \u2013 did a good job, finding talents, creating stars.\nThere\u2019s an unspoken presumption that the school will still do exactly\nthat for every child now within its gates, even the ones who today are\nprize-less. <\/p>\n\n\n
These august and successful individuals spur you on\nto do more, work harder, in pursuit of the glittering prizes in the real\n world above and beyond the books, book tokens, cups and shields being\npresented today \u2013 \u2018Right person, right prize, please God, and if it\nisn\u2019t, take it anyway and get off stage and we\u2019ll sort it out later!\u2019 I\nhave been the deputy who organises that short journey for the books and\ncups, from table to speaker with the right child in front of him \u2013\nperilous, not easily forgotten.<\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cCould you\nimagine a school where prize day included a category for staff \u2013 Best\nScience Teacher, Best in Humanities, Best at Languages?\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n
The\n irony is that not every Old Boy or Old Girl will tell a happy tale of\ntheir own time in school, and it\u2019s not uncommon for such a speaker to\nhave found his\/her way in the world only after being politely asked to\nleave the school to which they now return, trailing clouds of glory. I\nhave heard several versions of \u201cThe best thing this school did for me\nwas kick me out\u2026\u201d Such speakers are seldom academics, professors and\npillars of the education community because almost without question they\nwill have enjoyed school and all it offered and hated the leaving of it.\n The ones who got kicked out were almost certainly already demonstrating\n that school was not their environment, not a place in which they felt\nlikely to thrive. School may have asked them to leave, but they had\nprobably demonstrated that they would get out one way or another. I\nrecall one very reluctant pupil walking into the school lake \u2013 \u201cYou\ncan\u2019t keep me!\u201d she called, and indeed it seemed wiser to let her go,\nhowever much her father was convinced the school was perfect for her.<\/p>\n\n\n
No,\n the renegades with little taste for their school when they were pupils\nare inclined to grow up and do the kind of unusual things that mark them\n out as a possibly interesting \u2013 entertaining, even \u2013 speaker for speech\n day. They\u2019re the entrepreneurs and businessmen and women, or possibly\nrock stars and TV people. No doubt there will come a day when they are\nthe former contestants from Love Island. Now there\u2019s a thought.<\/p>\n\n\n
It\u2019s\n great fun hearing such people \u2013 \u201cThe day I escaped through a bathroom\nwindow to meet my boyfriend, and the Head said that was the end, and it\nwas horrible. But when my Dad was driving me away, the Head stopped the\ncar, tapped my window and said, \u2018I know you\u2019re going to be a big success\n \u2013 don\u2019t despair\u2026\u2019 And she was right \u2013 because look at me now \u2013 with my\nown business, now breaking into Europe, and I can\u2019t remember the last\ntime anyone asked me what my A-level grades were!\u201d I don\u2019t think she\nsaid, \u201cHa!\u2019 but she came pretty close. And who would blame her? After\nsuch an exit, it must be sweet indeed to return in the dazzling car, a\nguest of honour where you were once a pain in the neck.<\/p>\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s\n not uncommon for a speaker to have found his\/her way in the world only\nafter being politely asked to leave the school to which they now return,\n trailing clouds of glory.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n
And when you\nthink of most prize days, a speaker who has found tremendous, tangible,\ndemonstrable success in the world\u2019s terms without having enjoyed a\nsuccessful school career is entirely appropriate for an assembly in\nwhich those without prizes will actually outnumber those who have them.\nBy definition on such a day, there will be more pupils empty handed, not\n clutching trophies, not feeling successful just yet. When such a\nspeaker was at school, they were also one of the have nots who didn\u2019t\nget prizes.<\/p>\n\n\n
The speakers I\u2019m describing have all been quick and\nconvincing in talking to that part of their audience which appears, for\nthis day at least, to have had a grim year, winning nothing, shining in\nno endeavour. The message is usually, \u201cWell done everyone who did well\nthis year in any of the many activities which school offers you, and you\n have a prize to prove your worth. And let me tell anyone without prize,\n maybe next year you will be a prize winner because you\u2019ll be taller or\nstronger or the light will dawn in a tough subject or you\u2019ll have an\ninspiring teacher or you\u2019ll discover a talent or interest you never had\nbefore \u2013 and all this is possible and I wish you all every success. But\n school is not the world, and there are many, many ways to lead a\nsuccessful life outside the school gates. Keep looking, till you find\nyour way, and what matters to you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n
Is it completely mischievous to wonder about a prize day for staff? Most schools now operate a system of staff appraisal which, logically, ought to inform both staff and superiors about the state of play in any classroom. Imagine a school in which staff were not content just to see the usual boxes ticked for performance, but actually sought to perform better than their colleagues, just as pupils will compete with each other for exam grades. Could you imagine a school where prize day included a category for staff \u2013 Best Science Teacher, Best in Humanities, Best at Languages? Given the example of an international competition for the Best Teacher and considering how very seriously pupils take their duties in the many school councils which now give students a voice, a prize for the Best Teacher in the school may not be so far away.\u00a0 I can\u2019t wait\u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n