Willing but not very able!

I was reminded yesterday of this stinging double edged rebuke in my school report from the Art Teacher. I cannot draw or paint anything properly. Yesterday the Times carried a very good article from Trevor Phillips who used to chair the UK Equality Commission. He told readers of a similar but even more pointed remark that his teacher had entered about him in his school report when he was six years old!

“Your son has a lot to say and says it often. He also has a very loud voice”

Not bad for a lad of six who went on to lead the Commission and elected office for the Labour Party in the London Assembly!

Philips then drilled down into what had helped to make him the man he became. Two words

“Extracurricular activities”

He gave examples of school excursions to various museums, art galleries and Madam Tussauds. All these and more he said, “expanded his horizons and changed his life”. Later he talked about school debates, drama clubs and out of school musical instrument practice.

His article then took readers into a recent policy declaration from the Labour Party’s education spokesperson who has expanded the two words “Extracurricular activities” to say:

“Every child should have experienced ten specified extracurricular activities by the age of ten”

I think this is simply a good idea. We rightly talk about the transferable skills which adult volunteers acquire for both the world of paid work and their own personal development but rarely seem to think about active citizenship in the early and teen years. The number of times I scream at the TV when in a quiz programme contestants cannot answer the most basic questions about civic and political life!

Although I was willing and not very able in the art department, I did have the benefit of some extracurricular activities at Primary and High School. Not ten but enough to make me think of how they got me to this stage of my life, beyond an ability to field TV quiz questions! Specifically, I

·????????Was asked at the age of 10 to be junior “co-manager” of my primary school’s newspaper shed – for recycling although I spent more time reading them and pasting extracts in scrapbooks!

·????????Volunteered to look after my high schools Stevenson Screen which is like a beehive. It contains weather instruments like a hygrometer and an anemometer measuring humidity and windspeed respectively. Out of this activity I produced a weather report each week for the notice boards – “Billy’s weekly liar” some unkind readers said having been told (again) it was not going to rain!

·????????Secured election as Chairman (title in those days) of the Explorers Club. We went all over the place in Lancashire on our bicycles to ancient halls, exhibitions, the power station, and a nature reserve. I once led my team into a field adorned on all sides with red ribbons. We got chased out and rebuked next day by the Head! But under the umbrella of Explorers, I helped set up what we called departments in Astronomy, Chess and Geology. And my weather stuff.

·????????And all the sixth form were allocated in pairs to be “home helps” for a day in various houses of elderly people in a part of Preston for which years later I became an elected councillor one old lady said, you always said you would be Prime Minister Billy, tha’s made a good start now lad”. Hmm

So, I can really identify with the new idea of ten from the Labour Party

What extracurricular activities did your schooling provide and what did you acquire by way of new skills and knowledge?