A lesson freeze-framed

Reg from Croydon’s ruminations on “capital (sic) punishment” in schools (sick) rather did for me. On he roared. And on. Shut up Reg! Please! 

So let’s go instead to an actual classroom, to this rich tragicomic theatre, to the start of a 10th year English lesson of a February morning. And let’s freeze frame it, let’s look at a nanosecond of the 1,500 hours pupil-teacher contact time. There are 28 students, 12 languages, most classes and several, often fundamentalist, religions. They’re from hostel, hotel, cupboard, mansion, canal barge, fancy embassy and the odd mansion.

They’re about to “do” Carol Ann Duffy’s Valentine from the GCSE Anthology. Are they on message? Well, not quite. Theodora is worried about her father being sent back to Estonia and Lily is gripped by Carson McCullers, and Shaka is wondering what day it is, and Ronald Crumlin is wondering if Harold Redknapp knows what he’s doing. Me too.