Monday 29 February 2016

What would you replace SATs with?



Those of us who oppose SATs will be asked/told, "So, you don't think children should be tested until they're 18 or 21 when it's too late?"

I suggest we can reply by saying:

"It's possible to have a testing system that
a) is directly intended to help the child on his or her next step
b) is administered by teachers and
c) moderated with the use of sampling. 

None of this is high stakes, (which applies the pressure on children) or confined to right/wrong answers which narrow the curriculum."
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Sunday 28 February 2016

Poetry in the Primary School

I gave a talk at Goldsmiths, University of London on 'Poetry in the Primary School' last Friday.

Here's the gist of it:

My key point is 'Believe in the poem'. 

By this I don't mean something mystical. I mean that in order to convince children that they can enjoy reading and writing poetry you have to believe that poems can do the job for you. That's because poems are full of 'hooks'. Poets spend their lives trying to think up ways in which poems catch the ear and the mind. That's our job. 

Poems may have beginnings and middles, but they don't have ends. Every poem is the beginning of something else - a conversation, a re-reading, a reading of another poem, the writing of a poem, or making a drawing, a play, a film, a photo or having a think about the poem. Again, that's because poets make poems so that they start other stuff.

So, the best thing a teacher can do is to create a poetry-friendly classroom and a poetry-friendly school. If you get this right, the poems will do the work. So this means thinking up every possible way in which children can get access to poems, perform and publish poems. 

Here are some suggestions for making a poetry-friendly classroom:
Have a poetry shelf in your classroom
Every so often, clear the decks and do the 'poetry show'. The children choose poems to perform, they perform them - solo, in pairs, in threes. Get the children to discuss what they thought were good ideas in other people's performances that they would like to try next time.
Write out a poem you like and put it on the wall. Put some post-its next to the poem so that the children can write what they think about the poem and stick it on the poem
Give each of the children a blank poetry book so that over a term or a year they can make their own poetry anthology made up of the poems or bits of poems they collect, and the poems they each write. 
Use any 'outlet' like school blogs, school bulletins, letters home and the like to sneak in a poem either written by the children or a published poem. 
When you have a spare few minutes - before play, lunch or going-home time, just read a poem. Don't ask questions about it, don't do any 'work' in relation to it. Just read it. Encourage the children to choose poems to read a poem out in the same kind of time-slot, so it's not only you.

All this - and I'm sure you can think of others - is about making poetry belong to the children. It is about the ownership if literacy. 

Reading poetry
When it comes to reading single poems, SATs require a particular narrow kind of comprehension approach based mostly on 'retrieval' and 'inference' along with some ludicrous stuff about trying to guess 'author intention', the 'effectiveness' of certain poetic techniques like alliteration and personification. Please remember, these are just categories invented by examiners because it's the surface, 'factual' stuff that they can give marks to 'reliably' (i.e. right and wrong answers) not because it's much to do with how and why poets write poems. So, for example, the claims that this or that sound (e.g. alliteration) is 'effective' because the 's' sound is angry or the 'm' sounds is sleepy is nonsense. The main reason why poets do alliteration is in order to stick chunks of language together. It's a form of 'cohesion'. Indeed poems are specialised forms of cohesion of language. 

So, if you can create some non-SATs way of reading poems, that's great.
Here are some areas that are good for discussion to help the children enjoy poems:
1. Is there any thing in the poem that reminds you of anything that has ever happened to you or anyone  you know?
2. Is there anything in the poem that reminds you of anything you've ever read anywhere else, any film, TV programme, play, painting...
3. What questions would you like to ask anyone in the poem? the poet? 
4. What puzzles do you have?
5. Can you have a go at answering any of these questions? 
6. If we can't, is there anywhere we can go to find answers? 
7. What if there is no one answer?
8. Poets stick poems together so that they repeat sounds, and pictures. These create patterns. You can put loops round words or parts of words and link them with 'secret strings'. You can be poem-detectives and find these strings. Remember, sometimes poets do this by creating a pattern and breaking it. Sometimes they do it through opposites - which are also a way of linking things.

Writing poetry
The simplest, easiest, most 'infectious' approach to writing poetry is to read a poem and say to yourself, 'I could write a poem like that'. You can interpret that in at least two ways: a) can I write something that has the same sound, or some pattern? b) can I write something that came into my mind as I was reading or hearing the poem?

Once the children get into this mind-set - that poems can be starting-points for writing - you will find there is no stopping them. There will be variety and difference in what they write and how they write, across 30 children. Use this variety to produce more variety.

Poets are always on the look out for ways to start poems. If reading another poem doesn't do it, then collecting scraps of stuff we hear and read will do it too. So, create a Word Wall made up of scraps of words, phrases, language that you all collect: lines from songs, poems, funny newspaper headlines, things that people say, proverbs, signs...

Sometimes, when you decide to have time for poem-writing, remind the children of the Word Wall and see if there are starting-points for poems there. Explore in particular ambiguities and oddities of language and how the intended meaning of a phrase may be different if you think of the word another way: 'US Flies in Hamburgers' - as Roger McGough showed - can mean two very different things. 

Alternatively, use phrases or lines from songs, poems, proverbs and the like as first lines or titles for new poems.

Poetry
Poetry has the advantage of being a place not confined to the rules of formal, continuous prose. If you look across poems written over the last 100 years, you can see that poets keep inventing new ways of writing, new ways of laying words out on the page, new conventions. 

We can show children this, to show them poetry is a language and image, and story playground. 

This shows them not all written language is the same. Indeed, a quick glance at street billboards, signs, leaflets, ads, headlines in newspapers, comics and graphic novels, writing on the side of packaging etc  - quickly shows that there is a wide variety in written language. We can also find much stronger links between the way we speak and the way we write, when we write poetry - if we want to. Poetry can use any or all of these different ways and create new ones. 

This involves a completely different approach to language than the one prescribed by telling children that there is only one way, the SATs way and that continuous formal prose is the only useful way to write. 

It suggests that language is there for us to use, to invent, to play with in order to say the things we want to say. It belongs to us. 

One of the advantages of poetry is, as I've mentioned, that we can make a strong link between what we say and what we write. I call it 'talking with my pen'. This approach (one of many) shows children that they can write with the language they already possess. I often use simple open-ended questions to help them do that: e.g. being someone in a story and asking the children to think about what this person 'can see', 'can hear' ,'is thinking' ,'can hear other people saying', 'is saying'. The answers to these questions, put on a line one below the other can be the start of a poem. You can then introduce some repetition to give you a rhythm...

This finally leads back to what is this all for and who owns it? 
All poetry belongs to us. 
By doing these sorts of things, we pass poetry over to the children so that they can own it, possess it, be possessed by it, and make new poetry for their own purposes. 



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Complete list of my books

2015
Don’t Mention the Children, Smokestack Books
2015
A Great Big Cuddle, poems for the very young, illustrated by Chris Riddell, Walker Books
2015
The Bus is for Us, illustrated by Gill Tyler, Walker Books
2015
Mad in the Back, illustrated by Richard Watson, Barrington Stoke Ltd.,
2015
Uncle Gobb and the Dread Shed, illustrated by Neal Layton, Bloomsbury,
2015
Quick Let’s Get Out Of Here (revised paperback) illustrated by Quentin Blake, Puffin 
2015
What is Humanism? How do you live without a god? And other  big questions for kids, with Annemarie Young, Wayland. 
2015
Monster illustrated by Neal Layton, Bloomsbury
2015
You Tell Me (with Roger McGough) illustrated by Korky Paul, Janetta Otter-Barry
2014
The Wicked Tricks of Till Owlyglass (2nd edition, revised) Illustrated by Fritz Wegener, Walker Books
2014
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt (Baby Record Book), Walker Books
2014
Wolfman, Illustrated by Chris Mould , Barrington Stoke Ltd
2014
Send for a Superhero!, Illustrated by Katharine McEwen, Walker Books
2014
Good Ideas: How to be Your Child’s (and Your Own) Best Teacher , John Murray
2014
Choosing Crumble, Andersen Press Ltd
2013
The Bear in the Cave, Illustrated by Adrian Reynolds , Bloomsbury
2013
Poems of Protest, with an Introduction by Michael Rosen , by William Morris, REDWORDS
2013
Fluff the Farting Fish, Andersen Press Ltd
2013
Even My Ears are Smiling, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
2013
Alphabetical: How Every Letter Tells a Story, John Murray Publishers Ltd
2013
Aesop's Fables , Illustrated by Talleen Hacikyan , Tradewind
2012
I Never Know How Poems Start, illustrated by Yullya Somina, Collins
2012
Happy Harry's Cafe, illustrated by Richard Holland, Walker Books
2012
Fantastic Mr Dahl, illustrated by Quentin Blake, Puffin
2012
Burping Bertha, Illustrated by Tony Ross, Andersen
2012
Bob the Bursting Bear, illustrated by Tony Ross, Andersen Press
2012
Blue, illustrated by Michael Foreman, Walker Books
2011
Even My Ears Are Smiling, illustrated by Babette Cole, Bloomsbury Publishing
2011
Dear Fairy Godmother, illustrated by Nick Sharratt, Walker Books
2011
Bananas in My Ears, illustrated by Quentin Blake (re-edition in one edition of Spollyollytiddlyiddlyities, Under the Bed, Smelly Jelly Smelly Fish, Hard-boiled Legs, Walker Books
2010
Tiny Little Fly, illustrated by Kevin Waldron, Walker Books
2010
Michael Rosen's Big Book of Bad Things, Puffin
2009
Red Ted and the Lost Things, illustrated by Joel Stewart, Walker Books
2009
Michael Rosen's A-Z: The Best Children's Poetry from Agard to Zephaniah, editor, Puffin
2009
I'm Number One, illustrated by Bob Graham, Walker Books
2009
Bear Flies High, illustrated by Adrian Reynolds, Bloomsbury
2009
All About Me, Collins Big Cat
2008
Something's Drastic, HarperCollins Education
2008
Dear Mother Goose, illustrated by Nick Sharratt, Walker Books
2007
What's So Special About Shakespeare?, reformatted and adapted 'Shakespeare, his life and work', 2001, Walker Books
2007
What's So Special About Dickens?, reformatted and adapted 'Dickens, his work and his world', 2005, Walker Books
2007
Shoo!, illustrated by Jonathan Langley, HarperCollins
2007
Selected Poems, Penguin
2007
Michael Rosen's Scrapbook, Oxford University Press
2007
Fighters for Life, Selected Political Poems, Bookmarks
2007
Bear in the Cave, illustrated by Adrian Reynolds, Bloomsbury
2006
Totally Wonderful Miss Plumberry, illustrated by Chinlun Lee, Walker Books
2006
Mustard, Custard, Grumble Belly and Gravy, illustrated by Quentin Blake, Bloomsbury
2005
You're Thinking about Doughnuts, Barn Owl
2005
You're Thinking About Tomatoes, illustrated by Quentin Blake, Barn Owl
2005
In the Colonie, Penguin
2005
Dickens, his work and his world, illustrated by Robert Ingpen, Walker Books
2004
William Shakespeare in his times, for our times, Redwords
2004
This Is Not My Nose, Penguin
2004
Michael Rosen's Sad Book, illustrated by Quentin Blake, Walker Books
2004
Howler, illustrated by Neal Layton, Bloomsbury
2004
Alphabet Poem, illustrated by Herve Tullet, Milet
2003
William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, illustrated by Jane Ray, Walker Books
2003
Oww!, illustrated by Jonathan Langley, HarperCollins
2003
No Breathing in Class, illustrated by Korky Paul, Puffin
2002
Ten of the Best: school stories with a difference, contributor, Collins Children's Books
2002
Lovely Old Roly, illustrated by Priscilla Lamont, Frances Lincoln
2002
Carrying the Elephant, Penguin
2001
Zoomababy: to the Rescue, illustrated by Caroline Holden, Pearson Educational
2001
Zoomababy: at the World Cup, illustrated by Caroline Holden, Pearson Educational
2001
Zoomababy: and the search for the lost dummy, illustrated by Caroline Holden, Pearson Educational
2001
Zoomababy: and the mission to Mars, illustrated by Caroline Holden, Pearson Educational
2001
Zoomababy: and the locked cage, illustrated by Caroline Holden, Pearson Educational
2001
Zoomababy: and the great dog chase, illustrated by Caroline Holden, Pearson Educational
2001
Uncle Billy Being Silly, illustrated by Korky Paul, Puffin
2001
Two European Tales, illustrated by Barry Wilkinson and Gwen Touret, Pearson Educational
2001
Shakespeare, his life and his work, illustrated by Robert Ingpen, Walker Books
2001
Poems are ... quiet, compiler, Pearson Educational
2001
Poems are ... public, compiler, Pearson Educational
2001
Poems are ... private, compiler, Pearson Educational
2001
Poems are ... pictures, compiler, Pearson Educational
2001
Poems are ... noisy, compiler, Pearson Educational
2001
Poems are ... crazy, compiler, Pearson Educational
2001
A Jewish Tale, illustrated by Simon Jacob, Pearson Educational
2000
Even More Nonsense, illustrated by Clare Mackie, Hodder Wayland
2000
Centrally Heated Knickers, illustrated by Harry Horse, Puffin
1999
Rover, illustrated by Arthur Robins, Walker Books
1999
Mission Ziffoid, illustrated by Arthur Robins, Walker Books
1999
Lunch Boxes Don't Fly, illustrated by Korky Paul, Puffin
1998
Snore!, illustrated by Jonathan Langley, HarperCollins
1998
Night-Night, Knight, and other poetry, editor and compiler; illustrated by Sue Heap, Walker Books
1998
Classic Poetry, an illustrated collection, editor and compiler; illustrated by Paul Howard, Walker Books
1997
The Secret Life of Schools, editor; illustrated by Sarah Dempsey, Channel 4 Learning
1997
The Michael Rosen Book of Nonsense, illustrated by Clare Mackie, Wayland Macdonald
1997
Tea in the Sugar Bowl, Potato in my Shoe, illustrated by Quentin Blake, Walker Books
1997
A Year with Poetry - Teachers Write About Teaching Poetry, co-editor and author with Myra Barrs, CLPE
1996
You Wait Till I'm Older Than You, illustrated by Shoo Rayner, Viking
1996
This Is Our House, illustrated by Bob Graham, Walker Books
1996
The Zoo at Night, illustrated by Bee Willey, Tradewind Books (Canada)
1996
The Skin of your Back, Five Leaves
1995
Walking the Bridge of Your Nose, editor; illustrated by Chloe Cheese, Kingfisher
1995
Stories for Five Year Olds, Walker Books
1995
Rap with Rosen, Longman
1995
Michael Rosen's ABC, illustrated by Bee Willey, Macdonald Young Books
1995
Just Kids, illustrated by Caroline Holden, John Murray
1995
Even Stevens F.C., with John Rogan, Collins
1995
Crow and Hawk, illustrated by John Clementson, Harcourt Brace
1994
The Penguin Book of Childhood, Penguin
1994
The Old Woman and the Pumpkin, illustrated by Bob Hewis, Learning by Design
1994
The Man with No Shadow, illustrated by Reg Cartwright, Longman
1994
Rude Rhymes II, compiler, Signet
1994
Pilly Soems, A & C Black
1994
Norma's Notebook, Longman
1994
Michael Rosen's Horribly Silly Stories, Kingfisher
1994
Michael Rosen's Arabian Frights and other stories, illustrated by Chris Fisher, Deutsch
1994
Lisa's Letter, illustrated by Tony Ross, Longman
1994
Figgy Roll, illustrated by Tony Ross, Longman
1994
Fantastically Funny Stories, illustrated by Mik Brown, Kingfisher
1994
Dad, illustrated by Tony Ross, Longman
1994
A Different Story; Poems from the Past, editor, The English and Media Centre
1993
You Are, Aren't You?, Mushroom Bookshop
1993
Treasure Islands 2, with Jill Burridge, BBC Books
1993
The First Giraffe, illustrated by John Clementson, Studio Editions
1993
Songbird Story, illustrated by J. Dow, Frances Lincoln
1993
Poems for the Very Young, editor; illustratd by Bob Graham, Kingfisher
1993
Nuts about Nuts, illustrated by S. Sweeten, HarperCollins
1993
Moving, illustrated by Sophy Williams, Viking
1993
Burping Bertha, illustrated by Tony Ross, Andersen Press
1993
Action Replay, editor; illustrated by Andrzej Krauze, Viking
1992
South and North, East and West, Walker Books
1992
Sonsense Nongs, editor: illustrated by Shoo Rayner, A & C Black
1992
Rude Rhymes, re-edited version of 'Rude Rhymes'; 'Dirty Ditties'; 'Vulgar Verses', Penguin
1992
Round About Six, contributor; book reprinted 2007, Frances Lincoln
1992
Mind the Gap, illustrated by Caroline Holden, Adlib
1992
Dirty Ditties, illustrated by Rina Duncan, Deutsch
1991
Who Drew on the Baby's Head?, illustrated by Riana Duncan, Deutsch
1991
Vulgar Verses, illustrated by Riana Duncan, Deutsch
1991
The Chatto Book of Dissent, editor with David Widgery, Chatto & Windus
1991
Mini Beasties, selector; illustrated by Alan Baker, Firefly
1991
How the Animals Got Their Colours, Studio Editions
1991
Goodies and Daddies; an A-Z Guide to Fatherhood, illustrated by Caroline Holden, John Murray
1991
Give Me Shelter, compiler, Bodley Head
1991
Funny Stories, compiler, Kingfisher
1991
Clever Cakes, illustrated by Caroline Holden, Walker Books
1991
A World of Poetry, editor, Kingfisher
1990
The Royal Huddle: The Royal Muddle, illustrated by Colin West, Macmillan Children's Books
1990
The Golem of Old Prague, illustrated by Val Biro, Deutsch
1990
Snow White, Firefly
1990
Sinbad, Firefly
1990
Never Mind!, illustrated by Mark Vyvyan-Jones, BBC/Longman
1990
Little Red Riding Hood, Firefly
1990
Little Rabbit Foo Foo, illustrated by Arthur Robins, Walker Books
1990
Hansel and Gretel, Firefly
1990
Freckly Feet and Itchy Knees, illustrated by Sumi Sweeten, Collins
1990
Culture Shock, editor; illustrated by Andrzej Krauze, Viking
1989
We're Going On a Bear Hunt, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, Walker Books
1989
The Wicked Tricks of Till Owlyglass, illustrated by Fritz Wegner, Walker Books
1989
The Tree: Imagination, Firefly
1989
The Three Little Pigs, Firefly
1989
The Oar: Friendship, Firefly
1989
The Nose: Lying, Firefly
1989
The Formula: Intelligence, Firefly
1989
The Deadman Tapes, Deutsch
1989
The Class Two Monster, illustrated by Maggie Ling, Superchamps
1989
The Attic: Fear, Firefly
1989
Rude Rhymes, illustrated by Riana Duncan, Deutsch
1989
Peter Pan, Firefly
1989
Isabel: Shyness, Firefly
1989
Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Firefly
1989
Did I Hear You Write?, cartoons by Tony Pinchuck, Deutsch
1989
Cinderella, Firefly
1989
Alice in Wonderland, Firefly
1989
Aladdin, Firefly
1988
The Kingfisher Book of Funny Stories, editor; illustrated by Tony Blundell, Kingfisher
1988
The Hypnotiser, illustrated by Andrew Tiffen, Deutsch
1988
Silly Stories, illustrated by Mik Brown, Kingfisher
1988
Norma and the Washing Machine, Deutsch
1988
Jokes and Verses 1 and 2, BBC
1988
Beep beep! Here come the Horribles, Illustrated by John Watson, Walker Books
1987
You're Thinking about Doughnuts, illustrated by Tony Pinchuck, Deutsch
1987
Spollyollydiddlytiddlyitis, illustrated by Quentin Blake, Walker Books
1987
Hard-Boiled Legs, illustrated by Quentin Blake, Walker Books
1987
A Spider Bought a Bicycle, selector; illustrated by Inga Moore, Kingfisher
1986
When Did You Last Wash Your Feet?, illustrated by Tony Pinchuck, Deutsch
1986
Under the Bed, illustrated by Quentin Blake, Walker Books
1986
Smelly Jelly Smelly Fish, illustrated by Quentin Blake, Walker Books
1985
The Kingfisher Book of Children's Poetry, editor; illustrated by Alice Englander, Kingfisher
1985
That'd Be Telling!, compiler with Joan Griffiths, Oxford University Press
1985
Hairy Tales and Nursery Crimes, illustrated by Alan Baker, Deutsch
1985
Don't Put Mustard in the Custard, Deutsch
1984
Speaking To You, editor with David Jackson, Macmillan Education
1984
Nasty, revised and extended edition of 'Nasty' (1982), Puffin
1984
Bloody L.I.A.R.S, illustrated by Alan Gilbey, LIARS
1983
Quick Let's Get Out of Here, illustrated by Quentin Blake, Deutsch
1982
Nasty!, illustrated by Amanda Macphail, Longman
1982
Inky Pinky Ponky, collected with Susanna Steele; illustrated by Dan Jones, Granada Publications Ltd.
1982
Everybody Here, compiler, Bodley Head
1982
A Cat and Mouse Story, illustrated by William Rushton, Deutsch
1981
You Can't Catch Me!, illustrated by Quentin Blake, Deutsch
1981
I See A Voice, Thames
1979
You Tell Me, with Roger McGough; illustrated by Sara Midda, Kestrel
1979
The Bakerloo Flea, illustrated by Quentin Blake, Longman
1978
She Even Called Me Garibaldi: Listening and Reading 2, BBC
1977
Wouldn't You Like to Know, illustrated by Quentin Blake, Deutsch
1976
Once there was a king who promised he would never chop anyone's head off, ilustrated by Kathy Henderson, Deutsch
1974
Mind Your Own Business, illustrated by Quentin Blake, Deutsch
1973
Sam on Boff's Island, contributor; from TV series written by author, BBC
1968
Backbone, play, Faber and Faber

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Saturday 27 February 2016

The 'good for Britain' argument in relation to the referendum


I keep hearing justifications both for staying in Europe and getting out expressed in national terms. IN brief, many of the reasons being put forwards for both positions are in terms of why it's 'good for Britain'. Occasionally, some people say being in Europe is 'good for Europe' as if this is a more left wing thing to say. 
Both these positions concede too much to the ruling order. The nation state is withdrawing more and more from being of assistance to working people. 'Good for Britain' now means more than ever, good British capitalism....other than that it's pretty difficult to disentangle 'British capitalism' from the international capitalism that happens to trade in and around the UK.
So the considerations being made by the ruling orders of our time are about what suits the major capitalist powers of the moment - most of which are above the nation state, they are global enterprises. 
The problem for the left is that neither position (in or out) is really much good for us because the left is not in power or anywhere near it. We are at best arguing about which of the two positions is likely to screw working people the less and/or which of the two might enable the left to do well.
I am deeply suspicious and/or cautious of any left position that argues from the point of view of 'good for Britain'. This just plays into ideas that 'we' should be competing everyone else. It may sound terribly abstract, but a truly left position is about, is it good for the world?! There are no 'British' solutions to climate change, war, migration or poverty. 
I say, 'abstract' but when it comes to the production and circulation of wealth, we are now more global than ever before. There has never been a time when working people are in fact employed at the point of production by global capital. The circulation of products is global and the price of money itself is global. With this in mind, some of the things that politicians say about 'Britain' are either pure demagogic crap and/or lies. Then, when politicians talk of 'co-operation' in Europe, that's really no better, because it's about creating a European bloc competing with the rest of the world, and/or putting up barriers to the rest of the world wanting to migrate. 
I doubt whether I'll vote in the referendum. I hope that some time over the next few years, trade unionists working for international companies will emerge more and more out of the shadows co-operaing with each other across national borders, across power bloc borders...
Finally: an observation of who we are as people. Over the last 100 years, my family has been international, living in the US, South Africa and all over Europe and further east in to what is now Ukraine or Russia. This kind of international family-living applies to millions of people. We are not defined by 'nation'. So when I hear 'good for Britain' against other parts of the world, or against peoples in other parts of the world, this feels like an attack on some part of me. Perhaps the left can help focus on this kind of personal internationalism too.
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Brendan O'Neill feeding myth-making about Shakespeare on Question Time


I see that the bloke who was on 'Any Questions' last night, Brendan O'Neill, is part of the group who came out of 'Living Marxism'. His line last night was that there has been a long term effort to cheat working class people of high status stuff like Shakespeare. So far, apparently radical. But what mechanism did he claim was causing this? Apparently, the left. 
Some problems with this:
1. The Labour Party in power under Blair and, in education, under Blunkett, was hardly 'Left'. The Literacy and Numeracy strategies that they brought in were of course justified on the basis of helping 'equality', but it was hardly welcomed by the Left. People suspected it was an attempt to steal the Tories' thunder by being even more controlling than the Tories were at the time, and it was full of very dull, repetitive, detailed stuff that left teachers and professional associations with hardly any input. In so far as there was any 'dumbing down' going on under these strategies, it applied to everyone. 
2. Under the present dispensation - Gove and post-Gove, they have stuffed the curriculum full of the stuff that O'Neill claimed was not being taught. So, why the BBC let's ignorant people spout about what is supposedly going on in schools, I have no idea. So, if O'Neill wants Shakespeare, there it is in the curriculum. (Why it's there is another matter.) However, the dumbing down (if it takes place) is because the way the curriculum is devised is that it guarantees failure in the high stakes testing. That's what it's for. 
3. O'Neill's other point was the usual crap about a golden age. He gave the example of his father learning Shakespeare 'in a bog' in Ireland - presumably some time in the 1950s and 60s. Did city working class and rural working class children in the 50s and 60s get more high status cultural education than English children of the last few decades? The key thing here, though, is the 'narrative of decline'. As far as England is concerned, if you took a snapshot of which school students were reading Shakespeare in schools in the 1950s and 60s, then again, no one was in hand to correct the picture. 
It worked like this: 3/4 of children at 11 went to Sec Mods, most of whom left school at 15 with no qualifications. Very, very few of these would have read Shakespeare. Perhaps some top streams did being coached for entry to grammar schools in the sixth forms. In grammar schools, some students also left school at 15 before studying whole Shakespeare plays. Then - this is the bit that's often missed, the 'O-level' English exam did not include any set texts of literature! That was a separate O-level option called 'English Literature' - done by a minority of students. 
So, there is no mythical time of the past in England when all, or even a majority, of school students studied whole Shakespeare plays - least of all in the 1950s and 60s. It's purely imaginary.
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Thursday 25 February 2016

Poem: They learn they are better than everyone else

They pay for an education
that teaches them that they are
better than everyone else.
They live in enclaves
that separate them off from
everyone else.
They buy health treatment
so that they don't have to be
in waiting rooms and hospitals
with everyone else.
They are driven about in cars
so that they don't have to travel
with everyone else.
They arrive in Parliament
to rule over
everyone else.
They sit in rows baying and jeering
at PMQs
at the letters sent in by
everyone else.
They sit in rows baying and jeering
at PMQs
at the kinds of clothes worn
by everyone else.
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Monday 22 February 2016

Contradiction and ideology (children's books)


One important aspect around interpretation is contradiction. We see in literature again and again that characters appear to say the opposite of each other; one scene may well appear to have an outcome that contradicts another. You might even say that it's a measure of complexity of a given text. Very young children might well be less able to cope with or understand a text where characters or scenes contradict each other. 
But where do these contradictions come from? Sometimes, it's clear that the author 'intended' them. However, several writers have made the claim that a work contains contradictions that writer may not have been aware of. There is, say some, a political unconsciousness that reveals a contradiction between, say, the evident outlook of a text and what underlies it. I've made the observation that Hans Christian Andersen appears to represent contradictory views towards the aristocracy in 'The Tinder Box'. On the one hand the chief character is in love with a representative of the ruling order, on the other hand it requires their destruction. The two viewpoints co-exist within the story. And that's fine. Perhaps these co-existing contradictions can serve as examples of Keats's 'negative capability'.
Other contradictions might appear around how a problem is overcome. Traditionally in fiction, problems are overcome by individuals. This is itself problematic if the problem can in real life only be overcome collectively. Or, the way the individual overcomes the problem in the end is through the intervention of an agent who themselves is not really interested in fundamentally changing anything other than we should all be a bit nicer to each other. This is the case where the social problem is solved through the intervention of one lone good authority figure and not through any collective action on the part of those of those experiencing the 'problem'. 
Marx talked of contradictions within capitalism, and one of particular significance to writers and readers is the one about individuals and collectivities. In brief, this is an observation that in a capitalist society, everything is ultimately made (or it is possible to make it) private. Money is the means by which we can do this because it makes everything 'equivalent'. Everything has its price. In particular, the process of producing the things we need and use and want ends up with the owners making 'private' a great chunk of the value of the work that people (workers) put into making these things. In other words, the owners take the 'labour power' (hand and brain) and ultimately convert it into money which they pocket. 
However, to do this, owners and rulers have devised systems of production which bring people to act together to make things. Consider how even freelancers and the 'self-employed' (like me) still have to act together with others to get anything made, and 'out there' being sold. Marx argued that the collectivity of production ran in contradiction to the process of making everything we see and use private. And - here's the important bit - in the consciousness (or ideology) of doing things collectively - especially when we struggle or fight or campaign collectively - we envisage another way of doing things. But this 'envisaging', this ideology may well be in contradiction, co-existing with the view that we want or need or have to behave privately or as 'individuals'. 
This contradiction may well play out inside individual characters, scenes, whole books, in a variety of ways. We should also remember that in one key part of where consciousness is produced 'education' this contradiction plays out ever day. Teachers and pupils are brought together in large collectivities in order to privatise knowledge itself in the form of tests and test scores. Given that schools are a great subject for children's books, this then can be an interesting prism through which to view what we write and read and think about in relation to the 'school story'. 
Just to be clear, this is not an essay 'against' contradiction. It's a note on the fact that it exists, and we co-exist in it, and with it.
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Ideology doesn't just float free of who we are and what we want...

There is a tendency for many of us, me included, to talk about ideology anywhere (but I'm talking about children's books here), as if it just exists for its own ends. A given ideology (racism, let's say) we might describe as 'doing' x or y. We might write in many ways as if 'ideology' operates by itself as if it has some kind of human power.

I may well done this myself when taking my eye off the ball. It's easily done.

It ultimately collapses as a way of talking or writing because a) ideology can't 'do' anything. People perceive the text that is 'ideologically' doing the work; they (we) read it, or hear it and in so doing go through the processes of trying to understand it, reflect on it, make it part of our thought - in other words we 'do' the ideology!  and b) ideology is not separate from those who express it. Ultimately ideologies are the viewpoint(s) of social groups, power groups, powerless groups, and classes in society.

The moment we accept this (b), we might then ask what kind of purpose or function then does this or that ideology appear to be serving in society? Unfortunately, it's quite easy to discuss an ideology as if it is separate from these questions of purpose and function. (Purpose and function may be separate from 'aim' in that what appears to be the 'aim' or a speaker or writer, may well not neatly overlap with what it's ultimate function is.)

This notion of ideology being connected to people was expressed in schematic form by Marx when he said that social consciousness is determined by social being. In other words our awareness, our ideas, our ideologies are born out of how we exist as social beings - how we derive a living, what our position is in the processes of deriving a living, the times we live in,  how we live with the people we choose to live with or have to live with, our social groups for leisure, our places of living and so on. Marx thought that the first three on this little list were the real fate-changers or 'determinants' and everything flowed from these.

Even if people don't accept the full Marxist package here, there is still the challenge of what any ideology (let's say expressed in a Beatrix Potter book, or a 'The Hunger Games') is for. Where does it come from, who is expressing it, why, and what purpose or function does it have?

As I said in the previous blog, this is complicated by the fact that any given ideological position or expression may be 'explicit', 'implied' or 'hidden' and many positions in between. And we as readers may well resist whatever appears to be being said to us...


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Explicit, implied and hidden ideology in children's books

People interested in how 'hidden ideology' works in children's books, might like to look at the chapter on 'Captain Underpants' in "Boys in Children's Literature and Popular Culture: Masculinity, Abjection, and the Fictional Child" (New York: Routledge, 2007) by Annette Wannamaker.

Loosely speaking, we might say that there is 'explicit ideology' where authors appear to be stating what readers should believe. (Whether readers end up believing these things is another matter altogether, for the simple reason that there is no ideal 'reader' who follows meekly what appear to be the 'messages' or 'teachings' of a text.)

What's more, what might appear to be 'explicit' might possibly be 'ironic' and doing a bit of 'reverse psychology' on us. As with Jonathan Swift or books with 'unreliable narrators'.

Then people talk of 'implied' or 'implicit ideology'. This might be linked to the concept of the 'implied author'. This concept is that we never know what the author intended - and according to this theory, neither does the author. The only thing we know is the text. If we as readers or critics analyse and re-assemble the text, is it possible to see what this text 'implies'? If we think an author assembles a text then the 'person' doing that is the 'implied author'.

Then again, people talk of ideology that you or me or a lot of people or most people 'don't notice'. Indeed, some argue that the ideology you don't notice is the one that does the most work. So, if, let's say, I love a story and think I've spotted what it's got to say, but haven't 'noticed' the race hierarchy implied by the way in which different kinds of people are represented, then it's played along with my assumptions (if I have any)  that race hierarchy is OK. To take this argument further, you might say that all texts have hidden ideologies - they may well be hidden from the author - and that that is the crucial part of how what Chomsky called 'manufacturing consent' works.

Some of this challenges 'ideological criticism' from the left as much as anyone. Looking back to criticism of children's books by someone like Bob Dixon, 'Catching Them Young' (1977), at the time it was a powerful challenge to many of the assumptions that many of us in the children's book world, parenting, editing, teaching etc made. So far so good. However, what he wrote rather assumed that there is a process that runs: "author writes ideology - reader believes it; leftwing critic resists it, most other people don't." He didn't ask the question, 'if I resist it, why can't or don't others?' He didn't ask the question, 'If a text appears to be stating an unpleasant view or ideology, why can't people respond to that by finding that repulsive?' He didn't make clear distinctions between the author, the implied author, the different 'positions' taken up by characters in texts who offer different perspectives on actions, which in turn offer different readers different ways to look at the book...(that's a lot of differences, but so be it!).

So, back to Annette Wannamaker, if any of this interests you, then the chapter in her book, makes for a very interesting and challenging read.


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Sunday 21 February 2016

Imagine if 6 Labour ministers voted against a Labour govt policy....



Let's pause awhile and do some imagining. Let's imagine a Labour government of any kind, and a major policy decision was taken by the prime minister. At this point, 6 cabinet ministers announce that they are going to vote against this.

Now let's imagine the reaction of the major press, TV and radio outlets. Let's just imagine the chorus of screaming headlines and interviewers saying e.g. 'the prime minister's position is surely untenable', 'the markets will react to this surely', 'the country can't tolerate divided government, surely', 'remember Churchill surely,' [they always do that, whether it's relevant or not]...and a whole stream of superannuated back bench MPs, discredited tossers, constitutional 'experts', tax dodgers and assorted billionaires would be wheeled out on TV to stare at us balefully from our screens warning us that this is what you get with socialists in power (whether of course it's right wing nut jobs like Blair or a contorted presbyterian like Brown or whoever whichever not particularly socialist person was in power)...


Oh yes, we have a headline saying the government is 'split' at the moment, (Telegraph today) but none of the united force of 'Fleet Street' and the BBC driving in the tanks to destroy the lot of them....

In fact, the opposite: the combined force of print and TV will do all they can to enjoy the tittle tattle of dissent whilst doing all they can to shore up the cracked edifice. The main function of that in the short term of course is to keep out Corbyn. After all, he's in favour of a fully public NHS, the bastard.
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Thursday 11 February 2016

Jeremy Hunt says, Collected Vol 3

Jeremy Hunt says doctors are the middle man between life and death and he's just trying to cut out the middle man.

Jeremy Hunt says if you have a pint of water in 5 bottles, then put the pint into 7 bottles, the pint becomes more than a pint.

Jeremy Hunt says if the Junior Doctors don't accept the deal he'll get unemployed school leavers do their job.
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For the NHS; for the Junior Doctors

As ever - for the NHS and today for the Junior Doctors in support and solidarity with your action:

These are the hands
That touch us first
Feel your head
Find the pulse
And make your bed.


These are the hands
That tap your back
Test the skin
Hold your arm
Wheel the bin

Change the bulb
Fix the drip
Pour the jug
Replace your hip

These are the hands
That fill the bath
Mop the floor
Flick the switch
Soothe the sore

Burn the swabs
Give us a jab
Throw out sharps
Design the lab.

And these are the hands
That stop the leaks
Empty the pan
Wipe the pipes
Carry the can
Clamp the veins
Make the cast
Log the dose
And touch us last.
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