Book review
1 out of 10
Author: Peter Hyman
Publisher: Vintage (2005)
Review by Donald Clark - Epic
Hyman was top dog in Blair’s Strategic Communications
Unit, until he bravely decided to give up policy for a frontline
job in a secondary school. He chose Islington Green, the school
to which Blair famously refused to send his children. I was recommended
this book by the wife of the Chair of Governors of that same school,
and as I have just become a governor of a secondary school, I thought
it would give me some insights into both government policy and the
inner workings of a real comprehensive. It did both admirably.
The book’s interleaves reflections on government policy-making
with heart-felt reports on what impact those decisions have in an
actual school and classrooms.
We hear the now familiar comparison between Blair and Brown but
the gossip about what actually happens in 10 Downing Street is fascinating.
It has enough detail to make you feel as if you were actually in
the many meetings. For right or wrong it portrays politicians as
honest, hard working and value-driven people, albeit remote from
the realities of the world they’re trying to change. Blair’s
hatred for old labour and obsession with his own speeches are well
described and you get a real feel for the players including; Blair,
Brown, Campbell, Blunkett, Brighouse, Barber, Miliband and Adonis.
However, it’s the school side that jumps off the page. As
a complete novice, he’s thrown into the deep end. Greeted
with complete and deliberate indifference by the staff, you can
smell his fear. Ignored in the staff room, even berated by the NUT
rep, the genuine generosity of the headmaster is his saviour. On
one level the tales of a typical grim, inner-city comprehensive
are depressing; run-down buildings resembling a prison, corridor
hell, smoking alley, appalling food, tyranny of the timetable, bells/pips,
moralistic assemblies (some plainly political), Shakespeare being
rammed into illiterate kids (that Macbeth mullarkey as one parent
put it) and, worse of all, behavioural problems that would test
the patience of the Buddha. The building itself suffers from the
fact that Victorian schools last 90 years, those built in the 30s,
60 years and 90s, 30 years, that means they’re all falling
apart at the same time.
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His admiration for teachers is clear, but he is not uncritical.
There’s an appalling example of a vicious teacher he had at
school (for every good teacher I’ve found people can also
remember a bad one), the obstructive NUT rep and what he regards
as the failure of primary school teachers to teach adequate literacy,
What on earth have these kids been doing in primary school?’
Some of the advice he was given is priceless. As one headmaster
explained, ‘They either think you’re OK or rubbish and
have decided within a fortnight. No one is ever better than OK.
Many are rubbish. You have to earn their respect.’ Teachers
seem to drift into the job after trying something else first. Many
get crushed with the relentless need to front it out and are perpetually
exasperated with the poor behaviour of those they teach. Interestingly
he saw no evidence of either the headmaster or teachers being swamped
by red tape.
Trevor, the headmaster is seen as a leader and hero, trying, in
collegiate manner, to effect change against the forces of conservatism
(often from radicals). He gives Trevor a voice in the book and that
is useful as he has much to say. The tough part, from Trevor’s
perspective, was in holding teachers accountable, as they’re
hidden in classrooms, largely doing what they want. Trevor also
felt that the system had too many ‘ideas’ people and
not enough people who could implement ideas.
On social issues he points out the importance of the grandparents
(in 30% of cases the carers) and the fact that the supposed underclass
often have money and holidays and aspirations – it’s
just that education is often not one of them, but the personalities
of the children that win his heart. Many see school as a bore, even
agony, yet both sides attempt to make the best of a bad lot. It
was at this point that I yearned for a deeper analysis of the very
concept of a school. Given the huge amounts of money spent on improving
the existing model with marginal improvement, could the basic model
be at fault? Is the answer to failed schools, more intense schooling?
The culture of many schools is one where it is not cool to be clever.
The enormity of the task is clear, well illustrated by the most
touching, running story in the book, his attempt to teach Jimmy
English. The satisfaction it gave Hyman and Jimmy was clear but
the improvements were marginal. Delivery is hard, slow and painful.
There are no shortcuts. Cultural change is the hard part. There
is often a deep-seated aversion to education in the English working
class combined with a rise in rudeness, a TV and DVD dominated culture
and a lack of respect for authority. This wears him and his fellow
teachers down.
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Of course, it’s easy for Hyman to be a critic, but I also
liked his concrete recommendations for change. These included:
- Five terms with regular two week breaks
- Teachers coming to classrooms rather than an army of kids moving
every period
- Staggered lunchtimes and breaks
- A total ban on unhealthy food
- More clubs at lunchtime
- Ring fence year 7s
- Exclusion room
- Positive discipline
- Regular one-to-one tutorials
- Cloakroom with ticket system
- Stop assemblies being ‘telling off’ sessions
- Meticulous planning and pacy lessons
- Eradicating the ‘culture of excuses’ for failure
- Reduce number of LEA/departmental advisors, inspectors and general
‘busy-bodies’
- Focus on reading as basic skill in all subjects
- Nationwide adoption of phonics in literacy
- Correct bad spelling
- Smaller schools
- More attention to poor literacy teaching in primary schools
- Keep children in primary until they have Level 4 in English
- Greater emphasis on speaking
- Scarp the division between primary and secondary
- Banding systems to produce mixed-ability intakes
- Money direct to heads not the LEAs
- Implementation of Tomlinson report
- Policy framework and goals, not endless initiatives
- Empower the frontline
In the end he finds that schools have a couple of missing ingredients
– a sense of joy and belonging. But the book is full of moments
of insight and joy. The book ends on a high with the end of year
assembly at Saddlers Wells with a famous Eastender actor and Alistair
Campbell as speakers. The NUT rep is churlish and refuses to attend!
The results come in and they’re not stunning but good.
Only one small quibble. It doesn’t really trace the development
of any real policy down from cabinet to the frontline in enough
detail. One feels that he is keen not to upset anyone. Politicians,
civil servants, teachers, the headmaster, governors are all good
eggs. Education is clearly full of messy politics, failed policy,
bad practice and dodgy research, yet no one is ever to blame for
anything that happens. It is a world where everyone and no one is
to blame. The one exception was the DfES, where he briefly worked.
He characterises this and other departments as being woefully short
of project managers, contractual expertise and communications experts
and tells of being asked to slow down by his manager, ‘You’ll
learn soon enough, we don’t rush around here…’.
It’s also terribly London-centric. The flight to the private
sector is extreme in London compared to the rest of the country
(13% versus 7% in the rest of England). It has been pointed out
that New Labour’s education policy has been unduly influenced
by London’s sometimes, unique problems, especially the recent
White Paper.
However, everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die.
You have to admire Peter Hyman as took a huge risk simply to learn.
This is the real message of the book. You can carp on about government
policy or poor schools, but it is more constructive to learn about
the issues and act upon them by contributing solutions. As a focused
memoir it is a useful learning experience for any politician, teacher,
governor, educational professional or interested parent.
And lastly, a minor correction for the publisher, The Tipping Point
was written by Malcolm, not Brian, Gladwell.
Final report 9 out of 10
For other book reviews
check out my blog on http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/
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