Posted By Site Administrator at 17/02/2010 10:46:35
For a French graduate I warm to the phrase ‘Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose’ and certainly teachers as they steadily nudge their way towards retirement, are used to seeing ideas, initiatives, cunning plans and jolly wheezes come round several times in their careers. Since the unleashing of the manic in the 1985 Education Reform Act the gap between such recurring events has become smaller and smaller.
So it was comforting the other week at the beginning of February, watching part two of David Dimbleby’s Seven Ages of Britain to see a theme which is still causing angst and plus ça changeness after about twelve hundred years.
One wonders how headteachers and the NAHT itself would have responded to the lamentations of the then new King of Wessex, Alfred the Great which echo so well those of modern Prime Ministers, heirs to the throne and Secretaries of State. Had there been a Wessex Office of Ofsted, Alfred would certainly have unleashed a plethora of inspectors on an unsuspecting populace.
Under Alfred’s leadership the Viking threat was contained. But peace could only be preserved if people were prepared to learn from the past. How true, one wonders, is this today? Alfred may have saved his kingdom but he was in despair about the state in which it had fallen.
And this is where the plus ça change bit comes in. He was particularly worried that learning had gone into complete decline. And no doubt if any children of Wessex proved to be successful in examinations, it could only be because the questions had got too easy. Alfred said that in the old days people used to read Latin. Which people? Those who went to Wessex College or Wessex Academy or Wessex Grammar School? In the good old days said Alfred, people could understand the important books which, in his words: ‘were needful for people to know.’ Thankfully not too many books had been written otherwise Alfred might have found himself assailed on all sides with lists and counter lists of hefty ‘needful to know’ books. Luckily for him he did not need to determine whether Shakespeare ought to feature, and if so, which play?
Nevertheless, faced with this decline in standards, Alfred was determined to do something about it and he took radical action.
We know all this because one of the artefacts in the Dimbleby programme was the oldest book in the English (Anglo- Saxon) language, a translation by Alfred himself of a book written by Pope Gregory called ‘Pastoral Care.’
It is a sort of tract about leadership. It explains how, if you are a leader, you should behave, how you should deal with problems, how you shouldn’t be arrogant, how you should be humble and all sorts of other important matters. He was very worried that people in the past had had wisdom and somehow it had got lost.
This seems to me to be an essential book for School Leader Courses and I am a little surprised that it does not feature more highly, in either the Latin or Anglo-Saxon versions, in the list of essential reading for Head teachers.
It starts it with this introduction: ‘I want this distributed to all the bishops and I want it read to the people. I want people to learn and understand.’
Today, no doubt, Alfred would want it posted on the wwww (Wessex world wide web) complete with targets. Those at the top of the tables would receive one of those beautiful jewelled tokens which he gave to people who were prepared to remain loyal to him.
