Dangerous Bombs of Truth
Land at the rear of Carrow House, Norwich, Norfolk. October 2024
Top down will always lead to squashing
On my way back to collect Tom from training I pass close by a school I know, just off the roundabout. Over the past five years it has become the trust’s flagship, but therein lies the interesting thing: behind the shiny dataset and broad smiles, and through the proud if inevitable boast of consistency ‘in all we do’, it’s actually powered by a constant striving to do the wrong things really well.
Trouble is, top down will always lead to squashing.
A bit more of everything is lost here
Corridor displays display montages of outdoor learning (oh yes) for ‘those who need it’ (oh dear) with stuffed rooms glimpsed through the sharpie artwork of book-themed doorways proving that indoor learning is preferred and widely available for all those who wouldn’t choose it if given the choice.
The school’s youngest are learning fast to sit properly as they cut out stages of the digestive system from worksheets and reassemble them for marking. Others in corridors and tight corners hunch over catch-up. Sad eyes meet.
The teachers are trained in the techniques of powerful questioning, though this doesn’t seem to include being able to spot them in the open as those questions that do emerge naturally and manage to present themselves through the incessant squall of low stakes testing loiter harmlessly at the periphery until their one demand (for action) is abandoned.
A bit more of everything is lost here.
New target
Sure, it was intended to emancipate; its aims laudable (from a certain point of view), but the methods used to implement it and those chosen to measure its impact have rendered it oppressive. And now those shrill calls to ‘increase the efficacy’ and ‘embed with fidelity’ actually just bring the fear. Quite the very opposite of the happy, healthy and safe from the posters. We are oppressed.
For my money, this is where we should drop our bombs of truth.
This is the new target.
The title of this post comes from Faith, Hope and Carnage (Nick Cave and Sean O'Hagan, 2022). Thanks Nick. Sine qua non.