The good old days...

In our book, The Art of Being Brilliant, we consider the possibility that there may have once been a halcyon time, where kids skipped into school clutching rosey red apples to place on their teacher's desk, before dancing to their seat to devour the latest challenges of quadratic equations. At the end of the day they'd zip home and dive into their homework with huge enthusiasm, always ensuring it was done to the highest standard and handed in on time. There'd be no larking about, no gossip, no bullying or fallings out with friends. This was the good old days and between tabloids, taxi drivers, barbers and politicians, we seem to be constantly told that it's not like that any more. Oddly, every now and again we hear it from a teacher, who tells us that schools are not as good as they used to be.

Is that true?

One head teacher gave a classic example of just how much things have changed since he was on teaching practice in 1980. Can you imagine how much hell would break loose in the press if the following event happened in a modern classroom?

“I walked into the workshop to find a boy spread-eagled across the workbench. His hands had been firmly gripped in metalworking vices each side of him and his feet held in the same manner below. The teacher, a fearsome sight, was circling the boy, berating him for his poor behaviour. The lesson started and the class worked around the unfortunate student for nearly an hour before he was released and allowed to leave with the others.”

An interesting approach eh? Although we do accept that some might sigh wistfully and hark back to ‘the good old days’ when this kind of discipline and horseplay was the norm, we are fairly sure that there are more practical and humane methods of managing your classroom.

We want every teacher to be brilliant, to be an inspiring force in the classroom and to generate the best learners they possibly can. While we’re not naive enough to believe this book will magically transform teachers into 3rd Dan grand masters of pupil engagement, we have aimed to decant into it the thoughts and collected wisdom of a range of outstanding performers we’ve met over three decades. All of the advice and guidance we give has been used and is still used by high level practitioners or more simply “brilliant teachers”, as we like to call them, in classrooms around the country. 

In 30 years, the likelihood is that you’ll look back on your current life as ‘the good old days’. So, why wait 30 years to enjoy today? Quit waiting! Our advice is to learn to enjoy today, today.

Inspired by, The Art of Being a Brilliant Teacher, Toward, Cope and Henley.