In the coming weeks I am going to take some dialogue from my play along with extracts from the Prologue and Notes & Quotes, and explain the thinking behind them. I shall call these blogs “The needles in my haystack”. Once upon a time it was very difficult to find needles in a haystack. Today it is easy, if you are prepared to look for them.
Let me put it this way. A detox is the fashionable way to get toxins out of your system. These blogs are all about getting rid of the toxins in the body politic. There’s quite a bit of purging to be done, cleaning out some of the rubbish in the corridors of power. As school governor, Frank Jones says in the play “Some people have a hell of a lot of hoovering to do.”We shall explore together a new way of thinking and doing things, and clear away some innocent looking words that have made great mischief for years. Yes, some words we treasure are not as innocent as they look. They have imprisoned our thoughts for far too long. I think that you will find all of this quite liberating.
The “ratchet effect”
I have just been to the Royal Institute in Albemarle Street in London for the first time. I heard a learned discussion on how the human brain creates and appreciates Art. No-one has a clue how our brain does it! Only one of the panel – three eminent scientists and a sculptor – thought we would ever know. He was Dr. Colin Blakemore. So there is space for belief in a universal creator if you believe in such a thing, and the opportunity for individual humans to create if they want to. Everyone has that capacity even if they don’t use it.
More importantly in the context of these blogs, another panellist, Dr. Jonathan Miller introduced me to a new thought, worked out by Michael Tomasello of the University of Leipzig: one of the things that distinguishes humans from animals is their capacity to move on with a kind of “ratchet effect.”
Spiders are programmed to spin their intricate webs. Tiny termites build their nests, some 10 metres high; social animals, and they don’t just build their nests, they defend them. But that was all they could do, or had ever done; they had not advanced. Humans, on the other hand, had the capacity to move forward, and had done so. Of course some do have all the characteristics of the termite! Political and religious bigots, for instance. It’s never too late to change, however, because we are humans.
We need to move on
I am sure that this is just such a moment, for us to move on. We certainly need to evolve a new form of global capitalism as we work our way out of our financial crisis. And we will, because we have the capacity to do so. In the words of Barack Obama “We can.”
But make no mistake; the credit crunch is only one slice of a wormy apple.
We need to make some other changes as well to the way we do things, and to the way we think. The State has accumulated great power, and with Communism and Fascism absolute power. With the computer it accumulates a staggering amount of power by the day. It badly needs to learn how to shed some of it, not with well meaning clichés by well meaning people, but with quite precise measures. It also needs to check itself out on a regular basis. There needs to be an end to the culture of “I’ll watch your back and you will watch mine.” This is asking a lot; but far from impossible, and very necessary.
Scarcely a day passes without some scandalous bureaucratic cock-up, culminating in this quite unnecessary and terrible credit crunch. Due diligence today is just one more charade, and not just with bankers; and early warning systems have been put out of action.
We shall explore in some depth why one of the best laid plans has, at least for some, gone badly wrong and why some fine hopes may well have been dashed.
See one, see all.
Many people will try to defend their little empires, but in time they will be overwhelmed by those who want to create new and better ones.
Let me be precise. If some words fetter our thought processes, we need to change how we use them. I will tell you here four words that I for my part have in mind. You may have others. They are, in alphabetical order, “Equality”,” Inclusion”, “Outcomes”, and “Rights.” I would bin the word “Outcomes”. Separately I shall look at the word “Spirituality” in the context of music, not to change it or discard it, but to use it to bring people together who are now apart.
A small beginning
So let’s begin in a very small way to illustrate all of this.
Here are three quotes from my play. It is not just about whether Inclusion is – or is not – all that some would like it to be. That will come later. It is about the pressure that people are subjected to get them to do what they don’t want to do, or not do what they should. This is an even bigger question, and I shall follow it up in my next blog.
It is the pivotal issue in the play.
Act One, Scene 2
James Harrington is the mandarin from DFES; David Harding is the Director of Education in Westborough. They want the head teacher of Brighouse School to argue their case for the closure of her school to parents. She sees this as a betrayal of her school.
JAMES HARRINGTON The key is to get the Head teacher on side. You really must try to do that.
DAVID HARDING To get the egg to accept the frying pan. You’re right. The parents have got a lot of time for her. They trust her. If she argues the case for closure it will be much, much better than if we do. And the staff will go along with it too.
…..
JAMES HARRINGTON She must know that virtue has its reward but definitely not otherwise. She will need another school when the School is closed. You do write her references, after all.
DAVID HARDING Yes, we do. But that’s a trade secret. Governors might do it more knowledgeably, maybe more honestly. We do it more …er purposefully.
Act One, Scene 6
MARGARET WILLIAMSON It’s not surprising that I have migraine during the day and Insomnia at night. And pills as and when.
If I am a good girl, the LEA has promised me another headship after this school closes. They didn’t use the word promise, mind you. But they can work these things. They can work them both ways, of course. They write the references. And they help the other school read them.
Act Two, Scene 3
The pressure is too great. She submits. But she can’t look herself in the mirror, and tries to take her own life.
Joan Errington is the English teacher at Brighouse School
JOAN ERRINGTON I knew, of course. Margaret told me, before it all happened. She said she felt like a little lump of plasticine in the hands of the LEA.
Should the Chair of Governors be involved in writing the references for a head teacher? Surely no-one knows better – just a tiny change that could help to free up head teachers to be true to themselves and not slaves to a system. I hope that this helps you to see what I am getting at.
Can you think of any other small things that would help to empower people? Remember, a game of chess consists of many small moves, the largest wall many tiny bricks.
So keep visiting my “haystack”, and feel the sharp point to my “needles”.
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