Some things sadden me. Some things appal me. All have driven me to write Death of a Nightingale and to continue writing Posts for this Blog.

Visit the comments on my last Post.

Crina wrote “But I believe the point I failed to make was that excellence will always be a minority, because most people are not interested in promoting it.” This saddens me. It should worry you.

David Gale wrote “The words of our local Director of Children’s Services still ring in my ears, “Gifted children are excluded from our Inclusion Strategy”. This appals me.

Visit Post 51. I quote Chris Woodhead in his weekly column in the Sunday Times “Earlier this year ministers decided to stop funding the gifted and talented programme in order to divert funds to the ‘disadvantaged.” This also appals me.

Do these thingsappal you? They should.

Recently a retired teacher said to me that one reason why girls were doing better than boys today was that boys ridiculed those in their class who were “swots”.

The following was a part of OFSTED’s glowing report on the special school that I was a governor of for many years. “a good school with many outstanding features… pupils in the school are highly motivated, eager to learn and responsive to the high expectations of their teachers…. the School’s ethos is very positive.” Note all those words about a special school! It didn’t stop the local authority wanting to close it. The parents successfully fought to keep it open.

But over a 100 special schools were closed, many of them I am sure just as excellent.

Some people actually begrudge excellence, are jealous of it. They label it as elitism when it is nothing of the sort.

This post is written for the benefit of all those who think that the pursuit of excellence is either a complete waste of time or positively wrong because it makes society less equal.

I invite them to open their eyes and their ears, and keep their mouths tightly shut until they have done so.

Look at Britain when it was really great. Visit the Railway museums in Manchester and York. See the magnificent steam engines. Hear about the Mahogany Men, the best of all the railway men who were on the footplate of the Mallard, in 1938 and still today at 126 mph, the fastest steam locomotive in the world, “Mahogany Men” because they could afford luxury mahogany furniture in their homes. Look at the mahogany furniture itself made by a once-upon-a-time great UK industry trading off names like Chippendale, Hepplewhite and Sheraton. Look at St. Pancras Station, the wonder of architect Sir George Gilbert Scott now being lovingly restored for Eurostar. Look at its brickwork and its ornamentation.

Those were the days when excellence was a byword for British craftsmanship and engineering, the thing that gave people their pride. Yes, a “Land of Hope and Glory.” A little pomp and a lot of circumstance. It resonates to this day in the “Last Night of the Proms.”

Don’t think that this all has to be past tense.

It is part of my world now, living in Newcastle.

The illuminated multi-coloured band of light across the Tyne that is the Gateshead Millennium Bridge at night. The nearby Sage Music Centre where its world famous architect Sir Norman Foster aspired to excellence in its acoustic properties, and is universally acclaimed as having achieved it. I am lucky enough to enjoy both on a regular basis, as are countless others from all walks of life.

I see it in the Care Home that I chair. It has been awarded the top 3 Star rating for the excellence of its care due to its caring and highly professional management ably supported by a willing and caring staff. Allof them rejoice in that excellence, as do the residents.

You look at your world.

Look outside the UK. Look at Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airlines – no, don’t look at British Airlines. Look at the way the Chinese opened their Olympic Games. Look at the newest linear accelerator from the receiving end of the latest form of cancer treatment and those who programme it. If you suffer from Prostate cancer, and if you have been diagnosed early enough, you appreciate this. I know.

As I have said, look at El Sistema, the orchestra from the back streets of Caracas and its now world famous conductor Gustavo Dudamel.( Visit Post 17 Channel 4 -The World’s Greatest Prodigies.) Listen to our young musicians in the recent BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition held in Cardiff. Look at the railway system in Switzerland, its timetable more religiously adhered to than the Bible itself.

Don’t tell me that you can’t see evidence of excellence around you, not least the whole wonderful world of IT that we wouldn’t even have dreamed of twenty or thirty years ago.

Shock Treatment!

Come on, you moaning Minnies, you negative noodle heads, you cynical cesspits. Wake yourselves up. Get real, as they say in work-a-day English. Understand that while you certainly have to be mindful of the “have-nots” in your midst, remember that it is the “haves” that come up with the ideas, go out and compete in this fiercely competitive world, generate the jobs and pay the taxes.

Never mind the Coalition’s mantra “Freedom, Fairness and Responsibility” the good, solid and reliable words that they are. What is needed is a word that has the capacity to excite and, equally importantly, generate pride and self esteem. “Excellence” is just such a word.

What we need is a society that is not afraid to aspire to excellence, not one just cringing and whingeing in a corner, demanding more of their “rights”, believing that all you have to do to get them, is to go on strike.

What on earth is value of the right to a minimum wage, when you’ve just lost your job? What on earth is the value of the right to mainstream education if, when you get there, you have third rate teaching and you are bullied? What on earth is benefit of the right to a University education if you are saddled with debt at the end of it and a degree that doesn’t provide a job? (Visit Post 43 “Buttercups and daisies …”)

Today you can see more clearly than ever that “rights” are much more a hope to be worked for than an expectation waiting to drop into your hands. At the same time recognise that one person’s legitimate hope maynot always be compatible with the legitimate hopes of other people. That’s where fair play comes into it. Equality here is a non-starter.

Next question. What is the true worth of being an accountant, a lawyer or an academic when standards of professional excellence are often ignored and, yes, betrayed? I have seen it. We have all seen it.

The Labour Party wants to know why it lost the last election. It might dwell on these questions. The Coalition wants to dig the country out of the hole the Labour Government left the country in. They need to think about these questions too.

It is not just a question of power to the people. It has to be more than that if all they do with it is to handle it in a well meaning but amateurish way.

The country needs to rediscover the horizon that it once had, but has since lost sight of as it looked for the quick buck, the short cut, the easy life, the feather bed and, yes, the very greasy pole.

Remember society always has a choice. It can either allow the bad to drive out the good or it can ensure that the good drives out the bad. It is a matter of management, uninspiring or inspiring, and the peer group pressure that it generates … or tolerates. It is a good moment to realise this. Remember, too, the old saying: Fish rot from the head.

Read Death of a Nightingale and you will understand what I am saying:

Act Two Scene 3

Eileen Winterton, chair of governors, badly wanted to understand why Margaret Williamson, head teacher, had tried to take her own life. She thought Joan Errington English teacher and her partner would be the best person to tell her. She invited her to a local coffee house for a chat.

JOAN ERRINGTON It makes me so sick at times, especially now. When terrible things like this happen – you know I’m very, very close to Margaret – you really start to think. I’ll give you a strange thought. The word ‘Equality’ is a lot of the problem. It’s mucked up, fucked up education for years. We are not all equal.

EILEEN WINTERTON No, that’s heresy. Surely there’s got to be equality of opportunity?

JOAN ERRINGTON What does that actually mean? What does it mean? Don’t you see? All kids are different, very different, our kids especially, and they need different kinds of opportunity. Fair play is what they all want, not equality. The needs of gifted and talented youngsters are every bit as important as the needs of kids in our school, from the country’s point of view maybe even more important. Those that trumpet equality don’t begin to understand that. If kids are not given the opportunity that’s right for them – and they’re all different – they’ll never meet the challenge of the times.

EILEEN WINTERTON Then, of course, they’ll never be included in it.

JOAN ERRINGTON Yes and this country needs them to be.

EILEEN WINTERTON I’ve always thought that another word for Equality is mediocrity.

JOAN ERRINGTON And what’s even worse, for many people the quest for Equality is simply built on envy.

EILEEN WINTERTON Or guilt. Well, the opposite of envy is ambition. Envy somehow diminishes you. Ambition enlarges you.

JOAN ERRINGTON Interesting you should put it that way. Emma – she’s for ever quoting the Bible – she keeps saying there’s no sin in ownin’, but there is a sin in covetin’.

EILEEN WINTERTON It’s not surprising that, a lot of kids have lost their way.

JOAN ERRINGTON They’ve never been shown it, Eileen – you know, the way to live that’s right for them – that’s what education should be about. What these kids want is not equality of opportunity. It’s just, well, opportunity.

EILEEN WINTERTON It certainly is a rat race these days and a different kind of rat race from any before.

JOAN ERRINGTON But a rat race you can’t run away from. It has got its good side, if you know where to find it. I’m sure none of this sadness would have happened to Margaret if people realised like we do that all kids have very different needs.

Let me round off this post with the tale from Africa told by the music teacher Emma Kirk in Act One Scene 4 of Death of a Nightingale:

“Every morning a gazelle wakes up. It knows that it must run faster than the fastest lion, or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows that it must run faster than the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn’t matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle. When the sun comes up, you better start runnin’.”

Yes, all you moaning Minnies, you negative noodle heads, you cynical cesspits, only when you have seen the urgent need to assert the pursuit of Excellence, only then do I say it is safe for you to open your mouths.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 25th, 2010 at 1:35 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.