Exporting our cliches

[robinturner]

This from a couple who were so (understandably) fed up with the British educational system that they moved to Zambia: "We were sick to death of the way in which the powers that be were tilting at the windmills of education. We were also becoming neurotic about the ever widening jaws of the legal system ... Holidays aside, it's the teaching which has been the real jewel in our crown."

At the end of the day, to cut a long story short, I sincerely and truly hope that this isn't a case of the blind leading the blind along a road paved with good intentions into a slough of despond; in other words, I hope they didn't go to Zambia to teach English, but I fear that their reference to "a stack of Hamlets" wasn't referring to cigars.

Comments

I'm a qualified "lecturer"...

[ankh156.livejournal.com]

Degree-level too... for my hæmerroids. I used to teach at the London College of Printing (E&C and Clerkenwell), Keith Joseph was Education Secretary. This idea that teaching should be left to teachers is bullshit. Teachers are some of the laziest, most doctrinaire whining toadies I know. I always thought it to be the case when on the 'receiving end', but assumed that was just instutional ingratitude on my part. When I found myself among their number I wondered what the fuck I was doing there. One of my colleagues at LPC once told me "This'd be a great place to work if it wasn't for the students..."

The idea of those crusty old fucks inflicting their 'home counties bourgeois fascism' on unsuspecting african pupils gives me nausea. I know K Joseph wasn't much good, I suspect Estelle Morris was pretty good (must have been - she resigned !), and the latest fat ginger prat is pretty uninspiring, but seeing how the world is changing so fast and becoming so perilous for the students, the idea of their teaching reposing seraphically in a prehistoric time-warp just convinces me what a waste of time my course at Garnett was. Education happens IN society, is done TO society, and must REFLECT society. Teachers are not qualified to do it alone. It's like policing - to be effective it must be done by consent.

Rant ends.

Re: I'm a qualified "lecturer"...

[solri.livejournal.com]

One of my colleagues at LPC once told me "This'd be a great place to work if it wasn't for the students..."

I've heard that so many times, although rarely expressed so bluntly. My answer (usually under my breath) is "If you don't like students, what are you doing in a university?" And if the answer to that is "research", I would reply that if you're such a research wiz, you should be able to wind up with a research post which requires no teaching beyond the occasional postgrad seminar.

As I've posted before, what is there not to like about university students? It's not as though we're teaching in some filmic ghetto high-school with students ODing in the toilets and your car has bullet-holes - the worst thing these kids get up to is sharing MP3s and plagiarising off the Internet.

The more serious problem you mention is probably unsolvable, in that while many teachers are "lazy, doctrinaire, whining toadies", all of those adjectives can be applied to many of those who are supposed to be keeping an eye on them. The ex-pat authors of the article did make a good point about the absurdity of the some of the rules governing teachers these days, such as not being allowed to touch children (aparantly, this doesn't apply to PE teachers, which I find pretty ironic).

If I taught the way I do in a British secondary school, I could get sacked for molestation. If I taught the same classes in an American university, I'd probably be hauled before a disciplinary tribunal for un-PC language, and the only people who'd support me would be (aaargh!) Republicans.

Re: I'm a qualified "lecturer"...

[ankh156.livejournal.com]

"what is there not to like about university students?"

I got myself nicely ostracised by choosing to eat with my students in the graphics workshop (which was right next to the canteen) rather than with my colleagues in the smoky staff-room listening to their reactionary tosh. The students were wonderful : stoical, determined, funny, likeable - even the rebellious and lazy ones.

LPC asked me to renew my contact. It was tempting. LCP is a historic place (Tom Eckersly, Steven Dworkin, Alexei Sayle, Neville Brody), but I refused. I went off to Cambridge to start my own business - MISTAKE ! I couldn't have stayed at LCP tho'. I'd have gone mad.

[vret.livejournal.com]

Not entirely relevant, but you may find this interesting. I found it scary.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,3604,1243551,00.html

[solri.livejournal.com]

Definitely scary.

I think it should be a prerequisite for any higher degree in English Literature (not to mention new disciplines like Critical Theory or Queer Studies) that candidates should take and pass a first-year course in a hard science.