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History, Technology, Education, Leadership

To Miss With Love review

Katharine Birbalsingh’s book To Miss With Love, a chronicle of secondary school life through the eyes of a teacher based in inner city London has caused uproar for a variety of reasons. Many have expressed doubts concerning the veracity of the story. Others have seen the author as blatant careerist and against the teaching profession. In my view, this book is part of a growing wider debate about education and as such it should be read, if nothing more than to have a wider appreciation of the issues at stake outside the experience of our own institutions/classrooms.

On its own merits, the book resonated with me on many levels, both professionally and personally. I grew up London and attended schools in Hackney and Tower Hamlets. I have also worked in four different schools (State and Independent) and I am fortunate to speak/engage with a wide range of educators across the UK and I readily recognise both the positive and negative aspects of Miss Snuffleupagus’ school. The tiredness. The moments of intense frustration. The ‘highs’ that you cling on to when the going is really tough were recognisable. As a result, I was gripped; I was saddened when Furious could not find the wherewithal to make a positive change, elated when Dopey achieved his ‘C’ grade in English and disturbed with Magical’s treatment by Ofsted. I certainly do not agree with all Miss Snuffleupagus’ conclusions (and have expressed my concerns to the author in private and nothing a healthy dose of Giddens, Marx and a visit to some of the History classrooms I have seen could not cure) but it does not mean that I cannot consider the book for what it is; a situated and substantive account/story of the problems within education. Charlie Caroll’s book ‘On The Edge’ highlights similar positives and negatives (sometimes in a more brutal fashion) of educational institutions across England. What they both indicate, in conjunction with the recently launched Purpos/ed movement, is that many educators feel that there is a something not quite right with education in our society and we should do something rather than just accepting the status quo. Ignoring this message on the basis of party/ideological/political posturing obscures what really matters and gets us no closer to helping young people like Furious achieve their potential.

  • http://www.alexblagona.co.uk Alex Blagona

    Good review, Nick. My issue with her and this book is that in this country we choose the schools we work in, some opt for inner city schools, others (like myself) opt for rural settings, and others opt for the independent sector. Each type of school is not without its own challenges. If you don’t like how a school is run, you can move on. I believe that the problems in the English education system are not as great as people like Birbalsingh make out, but these problems come to the fore by through the people that shout loudest. Her comments make great copy, but her experience is, like the rest of us, limited to her choice of school. I find it hard to sympathise with her when many other schools in the same position as her former school have been turned round by dynamic and effective management, and as a member of her school’s leadership team, she must take some responsibility for the failings of her school. Kids can have their lives changed by the right teacher, but it has to be the right teacher for the right school. Anyone can moan and rant. (As I have just proved!)

  • http://www.nickdennis.com Nick

    Alex, many thanks for the comment. It is true that we do have a choice and each school has its own challenges. From my own point of view, the job of leadership within a school is to do things better (and that is not just limited to the senior leadership team) and even in highly successful schools, there are things we can all do to improve. As a result, there is always work to do and this is where I think the book can help the debate about education that appears to be growing since the formation of the new government (www.purposed.org.uk is another example of the widening opinion).

    As I have said, I do have issues with some of the universalising press of the situated experience, but this sort of thing does appear to happen.

  • Carl

    Katherine Birbalsingh has some excellent points and it is wholly unfair to criticise someone speaking their mind as a ‘blatant careerist’.

    It is largely irrelevant that not all state schools conform to the description she provides. I have no doubt she knows that only too well. The point is that it is always a good tactic to focus on the worst excesses in order to make a more important general point; that the state system fails far too many of our young people, and in particular those who most need our support.

    However, might I offer her a different political description of her analysis. She is at heart commited to a society where talent can succeed and where the country can succeed because its makes the best use of its human resources. This is a left wing goal.

    In the 1980′s I trained in Brent and as a real working class white teacher I argued long and hard against the prelevant middle class left wing progressivsim of the time that they were betraying the very people they sought to support. It is very simple, working class people want the same as middle class people; tha chance to succeed. Instead the ‘false left’ burdened us with a patronising approach that told working class children that they were not capable of recieving what private schools offered.

    When Tony Blair arrived I celebrated the fact that here was a Labour politician who understood aspiration and was genuinely committed to providing it for all. To a large extent that was true but he was a little too scarred by the period of tory dominance to go quite far enough, for example by abolishing charitable status for the private sector so that state schools could enjoy a genuinely comprehensive intake again. The pressure from having so many more middle class children and parents would lead to exactly the kind of changes in state schools that she calls for.

    So her analysis is spot on and I support it wholeheartedly but her conclusion needs at least to be reviewed. We can certainly change the system and be radical. Don’t be defeated by the middle class ‘false left’ who have been responsible for the growing inequality and lack of social mobility which has bedevilled us in recent decades.

  • http://www.nickdennis.com Nick

    Carl, many thanks for the comment. I would like to invite you to post your thoughts once you have read the book.

  • http://www.oliverquinlan.com/blog Oliver Quinlan

    Interesting review Nick, thanks. I saw Katherine Birbalsingh talk at the Learning Without Frontiers conference, along with accompanying outrage on twitter that her speech provoked. I think you are right to say we need to hear all sides of the argument on education reform.

    It would be easy for those of us with more liberal views to end up just patting each other on the back for our ruminations on the future of education. If we are going to move forward we need to bring all sides of the debate into an open discussion.