You wake up one morning and wonder what you're going to do in life. You wonder about the kinds of people you can talk to. You wonder about the kinds of people you can listen to. It pops into your mind…I know, you say, to yourself, why don't I find someone who had a private education, studied law, went into Conservative Central Office, voted against gay marriage, and when someone was dubbed 'toxic' by the back room boys, this person got his job, the job with more undemocratic control over its area of administration than any other job in government? This, surely, is the person who will be worth listening to. This is the person who must know the lie of the land, the rub of the green, the way the wind blows. This is the person who must have the best long-term view of what education does for people of all kinds, all backgrounds, all points of view.
Then as luck would have it, this person suddenly gives a speech on this very subject. And whether it's something that she's concocted herself, or whether it's something cooked up by the back room boys in her party, the result is:
Mouth-open, Rubbish-jump-out.
Why would we or should we think that a politician with this kind of background and outlook has got anything useful to say on this matter? And then we discover that we are back with deeply unhelpful remarks which put science and the humanities in opposition to each other, when any decent society would be trying to create conditions in which we can combine these approaches in education and work.
Science investigates the world through testing, trialling and collecting of evidence. Much of the humanities do the same thing. The arts do a lot of inventing which in its own way tests, trials and collects evidence too. Science keeps trying to be 'right' in terms of being able to produce results than can be reproduced. The arts tend not to as there is great premium on being 'original'. Other parts of humanities also look for evidence and make comparisons across time and space as back-up for hypotheses. But none of these approaches is in opposition to any other. At the heart of science, there is invention in order to create hypotheses or to create applications from what has been discovered. At the heart of the arts, there is evidence collecting in terms of creators looking at what people enjoy or are moved by.
We should not be conned into thinking that this Secretary of State for Education has anything useful to tell us. We should not be conned into thinking that this Secretary of State for Education has anything to tell us about science, humanities and the arts. We should not be conned into thinking that this Secretary of State for Education has anything to tell us about jobs and employment.
Wednesday, 12 November 2014
Tuesday, 11 November 2014
New Poem: Alchemy
I had been on my own in my office for about three
hours. It’s on the top floor of a converted factory.
I don’t lock the door. People don’t drop in. It hasn’t
got my name up. So I’m sitting at my table when a
young guy walked in and said, ‘Have you got any
books on alchemy?’
‘No,’ I said, ‘I don’t think I do.’
He said, ‘That’s a shame because I’ve been doing
some alchemy. My brother is a musician but I’m not
going to go down that path.’
I said, ‘Alchemy was big a few hundred years ago.’
He said, ‘Really? Wow.’
I said, ‘People in Shakespeare’s time were keen on
it. Actually,’ I said, ‘what a coincidence, I’ve got a book
about a man called John Dee, right here. I’ll look in the
index. Oh yes,’ I said, ‘there is lots in here about alchemy.’
‘Are all these books yours?’ he said.
I said, ‘Yes.’
‘Can I buy that one off you?’
‘No,’ I said.
He said, ‘What are you doing here?’
I said, ‘I’m writing.’
He started laughing.
I said, ‘I’ll write down the title of the John Dee book.’
‘To tell the truth,’ he said, ‘I don’t really do reading.’
‘No worries,’ I said, ‘can you use google?’
‘Yeah, yeah,’ he said.
‘Well,’ I said, ‘just google ‘alchemy’ and see where it takes you.’
‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I’ll do that.’
New Poem: Rabbit
I was on a children’s TV programme for a short
interview. In the studio was a puppet. A rabbit.
I answered the question. The rabbit said, ‘Great.’
I left. Three years later I was in a bus queue. A
man joined the queue.
He said, ‘Hi.’
I said, ‘Hi.’
He said, ‘No?’
I said, ‘I don’t follow you.’
He said, ‘Do you remember me?’
I said, ‘I’m really sorry, I don’t. I’m no good with
faces. Then when I remember faces I can never
remember the name.’
He said, ‘It’s Gerry. We met doing a kids’ TV show.’
‘Really?’ I said.
‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘I’m a puppeteer.’
‘What was the show?’ I said.
‘You really don’t remember, do you?’
‘No, I don’t,’ I said, ‘I’m really sorry.’
‘“Headliners”’, he said, ‘with Floppy.’
‘Ah, yes, “Headliners”, yes. And Floppy. The rabbit.’
‘That’s it,’ he said and he nodded.
‘You were Floppy?’ I said.
‘That’s the one,’ he said.
‘The thing is,’ I said, ‘I don’t actually remember that
we met, did we?’
‘You just said we did - “Headliners” with Floppy. You
remembered.’
‘Yes, but...I mean...I remember the..’
I didn’t finish what I was saying.
‘You remember Floppy,’ he said.
‘Yes,’ I said, ‘yes.’
He didn’t say anything else. Neither did I.
Monday, 10 November 2014
New Poem: Map
Sometimes, when it’s cold or things haven’t been
going well, I go to a nearby station and stand in
front of the map. Not the one for the rail routes.
The map that shows the station amongst the local
streets. On the map there’s an arrow and it says,
‘You are here’. I stand and look at the arrow and
read, ‘You are here’. Then I go home.
My new books for 2015
Next year's books look like this:
Jan 8 You Tell Me me and Roger McGough - reissue of book of our poems with revisions and new poems from both of us added. (Frances Lincoln)
Feb 10 Alphabetical - US edition coming out published by Counterpoint
March 10 The Bus is for Us (pictures by Gillian Tyler) - a picture book for the very youngest children about children who like going on the bus. (Walker Books)
March 26 Monster (pictures by Neal Layton) a picture book - third in the series of 'Rover' and 'Howler' in which the dog tells the story. This time he follows the girl to school and thinks that she's been kidnapped… (Bloomsbury)
April 23 What is Humanism? (co-written with Annemarie Young) - a book for 9-14 year olds about being humanists and atheists. (Wayland)
May 7 Don't Forget Tiggs! (pictures by Tony Ross) another book in the series of short (very short) novels for younger readers following our 'Burping Bertha', 'Choosing Crumble' and 'Fluff the Farting Fish'. (Andersen)
June 11 Uncle Gobb and the Dread Shed (pictures by Neal Layton) a novel for children about a really irritating Uncle who lives with a boy called Malcolm and his mother Tess. Malcolm and his great friend Crackersnacker plot on how to get rid of Uncle Gobb… (Bloomsbury)
Saturday, 8 November 2014
New Poem: Ceiling
After she died, he lay in bed looking up at the
ceiling. He heard a shuffling sound, the
movement of paper over paper, books falling.
A continuous sound. Relentless. The ceiling
trembled and bulged. At the sides, where it
met the walls, the ceiling inched downwards.
It juddered. He lay in the bed watching it getting
nearer. He knew it was the weight of the papers
and books that was forcing the ceiling down.
Nothing could stop it. He could have got out.
He could have escaped. He didn’t. He waited.
He knew the ceiling wouldn’t stop. He knew
he couldn’t stop it.
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