A Reading Engagement!

A feature of any number of my blogs over the past year or two has been my love of books and reading - specifically my love of words and language. I don’t come to this as any kind of expert or authority but simply as someone who, over my personal life, has had a love of the written word and, in my professional life, have spent many thousands of hours listening to children read, reading stories and poems to children, marking and commenting upon the written work of children and advising children, parents and other teachers on matters concerned with the written word.

I could blog and rant long an hard about the current educational initiatives being promulgated by this and previous governments in relation to reading  but I will save you that doubtful pleasure!  I will, however, make just one comment – perhaps apposite, bearing in mind that our “esteemed” Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove has, in the past few days, made yet another pronouncement on the failings of schools and teachers by announcing a “return to basics”, the reciting of poetry by very young children and an increasingly prescriptive curriculum. At the time (the late 80s) when the National Curriculum was being   established in this country, teachers were being sent on endless courses to deliver the new regime, shelves in classrooms were being filled with hugely thick files filled the  prescriptive new curriculum and teachers were ticking sheet after sheet of endless tick boxes to fulfil the new requirements.  I was undertaking work at Nottingham University. I had the opportunity to   work with Keith Gardner -  a world respected authority on the teaching of  children’s reading. I can remember Gardner (who worked at the University with fellow world authorities, Eric Lunzer, Hunter Diack and John Daniels) commenting to me  that the new curriculum had no place for the simple enjoyment and pleasure of reading, no time in the day for story time, when children could listen to and be inspired by a story or poem. All the time was scheduled for “studying texts" – story time was dead. Reading  books simply for pleasure was increasingly under threat - there simply wasn't time in the school day, so many other important things had to be squashed in. The photocopied sheet of an extract from book was, however, alive and well - and to be "studied" - it could be fitted in neatly into the "Literacy Hour" - the time when we would all magically make all children literate!Gardner was adamant – and in my view correct – he felt this was a retrograde step which would adversely affect children’s reading and only become apparent over many years. Time, I believe, has proved him correct. The government is still, over twenty years later, still airing huge concerns about children’s reading and introducing ever more stringent and prescriptive answers – witness, this last week’s announcements by Michael Gove. They will fail – as all previous such initiatives have failed.  Books are there to be enjoyed and reading perceived as a pleasurable, useful, worthwhile, engaging and inspiring activity - not as some kind of literacy laboratory where specimens of the written word are analysed, dissected and practised. This outlook simply makes books and reading a literary obstacle race in which a  series of educational hurdles and fences must be jumped over and succeeded (or failed!) at. And, like the ultimate obstacle race, the Grand National, where at the end only a few horses finish, so too with reading, relatively few children end up as engaged, committed and discriminating adult readers - their engagement and love of the pursuit has been drained from them as they have scrambled  over each school based literacy obstacle. 

Michael Gove "inspiring" a class of
five year olds

But to return to my blog.

In the past week a couple of reading related items have caught my attention. Firstly I read the other day an article about type face fonts – not a thing that I know much, or indeed anything, about.  In the article an item of  research by Oppenheimer - “Fortune favours the Bold (and Italicised)":  - it was suggested that we absorb written information better when it is a little hard to read. Researchers found that students tested retained information better if they had read it in fonts less clear and easy to read -  a cramped line of type or a font with lots of curls and strokes forces us to hover more and  to thus engage with it more and this, it was argued,  aids learning and retention. Another comment on the same theme was that of novelist Jonathan Franzen who has suggested that e-books make for a less fulfilling reading experience because of their relative impermanence  and the “uncanny ease of moving the text into view”.  Words are presented effortlessly and thus require little or no effort on our part! I am a keen e-book reader, but on thinking about it I believe both Franzen and Oppenheimer might be on to something.  As the article (How Comic Sans Got Useful: Marth Gill: New Statesman 18.06.2012) commented “.....words presented to us with the effortlessness and clarity of motorway signs demand shallow engagement”. And, I might add, shallow engagement equals the potential for shallow understanding, retention or enjoyment.

Now I have no way of knowing if these theses are correct, but I certainly would subscribe to their general principle – that engagement, involvement and interaction  is key if one is to get the maximum from the written word.

And the second reading related item that has come my way in the past week or so?

I happened upon “reading list” for children quoted on my internet server last week. This was a list of book suggestions for children. Interested, I read the list and was ready to pour scorn – expecting the usual Harry Potter dross. In fact I was very pleasantly surprised – there was little I could disagree with and many of the suggestions were books that I had read to children or advised parents (when I was teaching) to obtain for their children in order to inspire and motivate them to read. Indeed, only that day I had received a text message, complete with photo, from my daughter and family  who were on holiday in France. It showed my grand-daughter, Sophie,  lying on the beach reading. She was reading one of the books that I had recently bought her.

A beach in France and Sophie
Johnson finishes off
"Mrs Frisby and the rats
 of NIMH"

Let me explain. A few months ago I bought my two grand-daughters – Sophie and Ellie -  a  raft of books which I had found, during my years in the classroom, to be books that children enjoyed, were inspired by, were worth reading – and, most importantly (for me), addressed issues that were what I will call about “growing up”:  humanity, understanding others, understanding the world, becoming a person, empathy, imagination, responsibility and the like. I am not qualified to make any great literary judgement on these titles – but I do know they “spoke” to children – and indeed myself. No matter how many times I read them to classes or discussed them with children I never tired of them – and copies of each still rest on my office shelves!  Many, many times over the years children would proudly arrive in class with their own copy of one of these titles or beg “Please, Mr Beale, can I borrow that book when you’ve finished reading it to the class” I wanted my own grandchildren to have the same experience with the books I have loved and shared with children in my class. 

I once read a quote about the awful Mrs Thatcher who, it was said, had little time for reading fiction. The writer suggested that Mrs Thatcher could not empathise with or understand others because she herself had no imagination – she could not imagine what it was like to be another person with their everyday problems, aspirations, fears, dreams and needs. These are the human qualities that reading (especially fiction) can give – a well written story can provide a peep into the life and mind of another person. Read Betsy Byers' "Eighteenth Emergency" and, in a humorous way, you can understand what it is like to be bullied - as is the hero, Mouse; read "The Silver Sword" and children can begin to understand what it must be like to go hungry, to lose your family or to live in  a war scarred country; read Jan Marks' "Thunder and Lightnings" and children will, in  a small way, learn about loneliness when you move house, start a new school and eventually begin to make new friends. Perhaps my list of titles went a little way, I hope, to developing these human qualities in children that I taught and now in my grand daughters.

Well, we met our daughter and family for lunch at the weekend. Sophie, as usual, quiet - she was immersed in her book as she devoured both her burger and  the words of her book!  But it was gratifying when she told me that she had  already read three of the books that I had given to her and that Ellie, her younger sister had enjoyed one of them.  Most are a bit “old” for Ellie at the moment – but she had enjoyed Betsy Byers’ wonderful “The Midnight Fox” – and was able to comment on it with maturity and understanding. Sophie had waded through the same book, but had also polished off “Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh” and Nina Bawden’s “Carrie’s War” – all books that, in their different ways, help children to understand emotions, feelings,  hopes, fears, sadness and joy. I got a real "buzz" out of that. Perhaps, in a tiny way, I had passed something on.

Sophie - book in hand - and Grampy 

So what are these books that were on my book list (not in any order – merely the way they are currently arranged on my shelf!):

’The Serial Garden’ a short story by Joan Aiken
‘I am David’ by Anne Fine
‘The Wheel on the School’ by Meindert DeJong
‘Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH’ by R.C O’Brien
‘The Goalkeeper’s Revenge’ by Bill Naughton
‘The Snow Goose’ by Paul Gallico
‘Carrie’s War’ by Nina Bawden
‘The Silver Sword’ by Ian Serrallier
'Nothing to be Afraid of' by Jan Mark
'Cue for Treason' by Geoffrey Trease
‘The Fib and other stories’ by George Layton
‘The Eighteenth Emergency’ by Betsy Byers
'The Midnight Fox’ by Betsy Byers
The Diary of Ann Frank 
'Smith' by Leon Garfield
‘How the Whale Became’ by Ted Hughes
‘Thunder and Lightnings’ by Jan Mark
‘The Ghost of Thomas Kemp’ by Penelope Lively
‘Elidor’ by Alan Garner
‘The Weirdstone of Brisingamen’ by Alan Garner

As I say, I could not comment on the great literary worth of these titles and clearly just as with the beauty contest, beauty is in the eye of the beholder – others will disagree and have their own list. I will accept that many may look a bit dated now - they reflect a lifetime in the classroom and a teacher who  began his classroom career in the early the sixties - but maybe that is a strength, they were  just as popular when I read them to classes in the year I retired 2004 as when I read them forty years before. In short they still spoke to children. For me (as I’m sure for many others) I could easily multiply this list many times over and substitute any number of other inspirational, engaging and important books for children (and adults!) to enjoy and profit from – but these are a start and my personal favourites.

Poems, too, can inspire and enthuse children – and indeed speak to them. Again, I am  not in any way an expert, but Allan Ahlberg’s “Billy McBone” is a case in point: “Billy McBone had a mind of his own, Which he mostly kept under his hat......’ – a wonderful poem which, as a teacher, I could relate to exactly and it had the kids in hoots of laughter. It was made even more real for me when  I recently visited a lovely school in Oadby, Leicester to support and assess a trainee teacher there. There, in the reception area, was this, and other  poems - all beautifully inscribed. They were done in recognition of their author, Allan Ahlberg, who, many years ago, had been the head teacher of that school before turning his hand to children's writing.  Or, what about ‘And did you know that every flake of snow, That forms so high in the grey winter sky..........’ – one of the many, many poems that I have rehearsed with children over many years of Christmas productions. 
And, John Betjeman's great Christmas poem is another that everyone - young and old should hear:

............And London shops on Christmas Eve

Are strung with silver bells and flowers

As hurrying clerks the City leave

To pigeon-haunted classic towers,

And marbled clouds go scudding by

The many-steepled London sky.

And girls in slacks remember Dad,

And oafish louts remember Mum,

And sleepless children's hearts are glad,

And Christmas morning bells say 'Come!'

Even to shining ones who dwell

Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.............

Children could relate to this and understand what it was saying - and it helped to make them understand a little more about what Christmas, and indeed the giving of gifts, is really about -not the turkey, not the false fun not the over indulgence of facile gifts. In short, it broadened their horizon - and that is what all education and literature must do - take you to places that are unknown. That was Mrs Thatcher's weakness - she lived in her own world , praising only what she knew rather than experiencing the life of others; education in general and reading in particular allow you to do that.

Or,  to continue, what about ‘The wind was a torrent of darkness upon the gusty trees, The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas........’ - it still brings shivers down my spine. I still remember the many, many times throughout my teaching career that  I read Alfred Noyes’ ‘The Highwayman’ to groups of 11 year olds. And each time was the same: as we got near the end class after class would be hanging onto every word. It is the ultimate poem that both boys and girls could relate to - and did. I can still hear the gasps and squeals when the girls suddenly realised what ‘Bess, the landlord’s black eyed daughter’ was going to do. I can still remember vividly a bright and wonderful 11 year old, Ruth Pike (never a girl to keep her emotions in check!), suddenly, wide eyed squealing in horror as she realised, from the back of the classroom, what was about to happen "Mr Beale, Mr Beale, Mr Beale........she's gonna kill herself isn't she!"......  And then it, too, dawned in the rest of the class that Ruth was right.  Hands were put to mouths and  eyes widened, all humanity displayed itself on the eleven year old faces in front of me, as the poem went on:

".....her finger moved in the moonlight

The musket shattered the moonlight

Shattered her breast in the moonlight

And warned him - with her death."

 And, I can still almost feel the heart beats of the boys and hear their cheers (yes, they sometimes  actually cheered!) in the class when the highwayman: 

‘spurred like a madman, shrieked a curse to the sky, 

With the white road smoking behind him 

And his rapier brandished high!’ 

I’m sure it’s not the greatest poem ever written but it always had the same result – it touched feelings for the kids and for me too. For those few minutes a class of children knew a little of what it was like to be a highwayman, or tied up by the soldiers, or to hatch a plan to kill yourself in order to save your lover. Maybe it's romantic stuff, probably most of those kids have now forgotten it - but, I would argue, that just for a few minutes Ruth Pike and her friends (and a hundred other classes too) moved into a different world - and maybe it has helped them to understand people and their actions more. And that must be what we should be passing on to children - widening their understanding of the world. I'd like to think so.

A few of my well loved titles that have engaged
me and many children over the years 

I loved using poetry at school and  it certainly brought some wonderful pieces of work from children. Like my selection of books I cannot comment on the literary worth of the poems that I like, I simply enjoy them. To quietly recite a few words or lines of a favourite poem is a real joy: ‘Listen, my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere........’ (“The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere” – Longfellow)– it immediately takes me to a magical far off world of brave soldiers and colourful historical characters. ‘There’s a breathless hush in the Close tonight, Ten to make and the match to win........’ (“Vitai Lampada” by Newbolt - often thought a bit old fashioned now but one of my favourite poems) talks of pride and doing the right thing, service and obligation – all the high ideals that we try and so often fail to live up to. Read the poem and I defy anyone not to be stirred and moved by its appeal to our highest instincts. Or what about a children's poem?: ‘One afternoon when grassy scents through the classroom crept, Bill Craddock laid his head on the desk and slept......’ (“The Bully Asleep” – John Walsh). Those opening words come and I can smell the classrooms in which I have worked for the past forty years and remember the children hanging on to every word – and then wanting to read it for themselves. At the end of the poem, after all the children have planned how they can play tricks and get their own back on the sleeping bully,  little Jane feels sorry for him and wants to comfort him:

......Not caring, not hearing

Bill Craddock he slept on;

Lips parted, eyes closed –

Their cruelty gone.

‘Stick him with pins!’ muttered Roger

‘Pour ink down his neck! said Jim.

But Jane tearful and foolish,

Wanted to comfort him.....

The poem speaks of how we react as humans and, I believe of forgiveness and the ability to understand why even the worst of us (the bully) acts as he does and can be understood. It's about teaching our humanity and our common heritage to children. And, as humans, this  surely is an most important lesson we must pass on. And finally, while on the serious side of poetry I have absolutely no doubts that anyone - adult or teenager - who has not read and thought about some of the Great War Poems - especially Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen - is missing part of their basic humanity. They are, quite simply, incomplete as human beings and cannot possibly comprehend the world in which we now live which has been so moulded and formed by terrible wars. The  great and terrible opening lines of Owen's famous poem  set the scene for the awful horror of war:

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind........

Read Owen's savage poem in full and I defy anyone to ever again cheer or vote for war. It is the very stuff of humanity. I cannot read this poem - and I do so every few weeks such is its moral power and outrage - without in the same breath thinking of the terrible and anguished last words of Shakespeare's mighty play King Lear. When, after three hours, the awful events of the play have unfolded before the audience, when man's raw inhumanity to man has been exposed for all the world to see and recoil at, the last words of the whole play, spoken by Edgar, remind us to:  "...... remember the gravity of this sad day. We should speak what we feel, not what we ought to say". This is the power of story and poem; to allow us to understand, speak of and think of the very things that make us most human and remind us of what we are all capable of - the great hurt and horror or the great love and aspiration of which we are all capable and which defines mankind. Ruth Pike and then, following Ruth's wisdom and maturity, her classmates recognised this when they realised the awful - but at the same time great loving act that Bess, the landlord's black eyed daughter was about to carry out. Bess was going to kill herself to save her lover, the Highwayman, and Ruth Pike did indeed "speak what she felt and not what she ought to say" when she squealed 'Mr Beale, Mr Beale, Mr Beale....she's gonna kill herself isn't she..." . That squeal of horror and recognition confirmed for all to see and hear  Ruth's humanity, her emotional maturity and her understanding of mankind - it displayed her empathy, sympathy, and understanding of what people feel and will do - all things that Michael Gove and the awful Mrs Thatcher never understood for one second. And yet, Ruth Pike, an 11 year old girl (and many others over the years) in my class had it in abundance!

And finally - fun and enjoyment! My copy of Michael Rosen poems - "Wouldn't you like to know" was always in demand for the sheer pleasure it gave and the fact that children could relate exactly to it - it was their world. "Read it again" class after class would ask when they heard "My Dad's thumb" or "I'm just going out for a moment". The boys especially loved "From a problem page" - they recognised exactly what it was about and loved writing their own versions. And "I am a wasp" - wonderful stuff - one to really make them think and imagine - and yes, in a strange way  imagine and empathise with the wasp's predicament. - which, of course, is what poems and tales of any kind should hopefully do.

And back to some of the books that I listed above; the wonderful chapter from “Thunder and Lightnings” called ‘Victor’ – a description of school that every teacher and pupil will recognise, or the hilarious chapter from Betsy Byers ‘Eighteenth Emergency’ – a book I have never known any ten year old not relate to when the hero, Mouse, who is constantly bullied, tries to be a bully himself and picks on a girl but it all goes wrong for him. He is punched by the girl, Viola Angotti: ’It was the hardest blow he had ever taken. Viola Angotti could be heavyweight champion of the world. As she walked past his crumpled body she said again ‘Nobody’s putting me in no garbage can.’ It had sounded like one of the world’s basic truths. The sun will rise. The tides will flow and nobody’s putting Viola Angotti in no garbage can’. And what about poor little Mrs Frisby, the field mouse as she struggles to protect her family and ill son Timothy in the face of the farmer's plans and the coming winter in O'Brien's "Mrs Frisby and the rats of NIMH".  This is a story that gives so much to children - yes it's about animals but like Orwell's "Animal Farm" it's about bigger things - friendship, love, endeavour, not giving in, hopes and fears. Or, moving on to Meidert DeJong’s wonderful “The Wheel on the School”. The introduction says:“This is one of the rare stories in which lie the beginnings of wisdom.......”. So true. It is one of the world’s very, very great books for the young (and the not so young!) - it should be made compulsory for everyone for it is about the very essence of humanity and whether you are 11 or 101 I guarantee that you will find it moving, relevant and thought provoking about the nature of man and woman kind. Oh, the young Margaret Thatcher should have read it – it would have opened her eyes to simple kindness, generosity, gentleness, wisdom and what real education is about (not what she, and now Michael Gove, think it is about!)! It would indeed have made her a better, more rounded person. And, something vastly differently? what about the sheer mystery, magic and fear inherent in Garner’s “Elidor” - a tale which makes Harry Potter novels look what they are - badly written, shallow and infinitely forgettable. Or – and this is true – I have seen children cry when reading or being read – parts of Anne Holm’s magnificent “I am David” – the story of a boy who has escaped from a concentration camp and another book, which in my view, should be compulsory reading as an aid to growing up. Anyone who has not read this book or has not been moved by it has a serious part of their  emotional chemistry missing. The chapter describing David’s growing relationship with the cruel farmer’s dog who he initially fears (because in the camp, all dogs were guard dogs with snapping teeth and to be much feared) but which provides him with friendship and warmth on cold nights and becomes his protector and companion when these two escape from the tyranny of the cruel farmer; or the confusion and incomprehension that David feels when he witnesses other children not eating up all their dinner; or the unmitigated joy when David receives a tablet of soap to wash with or an orange to eat all for himself are all salutary reminders of things that we take for granted and the fragile nature of the human condition. And finally – I could go on and on - who could not feel for poor old Mr Johansen in Joan Aiken’s humorous, magical and bitter sweet short story “The Serial Garden”. The hero of the story, Mark, makes a magic garden and palace from cut outs on the back of some old cereal packets. But when the packets of breakfast cereals are thrown away his music teacher Mr Johansen can no longer meet his love of many years before – Princess Sophia Maria Louisa of Saxe –Hoffenpoffen (what a wonderful name)! When I read this tale to children and got to the final paragraphs where Mark’s mother tidies his bedroom and unthinkingly  throws away the cereal packets that Mark has been saving (and in doing so condemns Princess Sophia Maria the dustbin), the children, as a body, would regularly exclaim 'Ohhhhhhhh – no!' And, when at the end, the distraught Mr Johansen puts adverts in 'The Times' in a feverish endeavour to track down any old packets of the cereal and so find a way back to his old love, thirty children would be wide eyed and want to know if he ever got any replies to his ads. I can remember one class where I sensed they were so upset that I actually changed the ending so that it ended happily!

A demolition site in Manchester - the basis of Garner's

magical and terrifying "Elidor" - a book of real

substance that makes Harry Potter look shallow.

Wonderful stuff all - and unless we provide opportunities for children to listen to, be read to, to simply enjoy, to read for themselves and get a feel for language, emotions, and characters and situations with whom they can relate and engage with then we are doing them a grave disservice. You can analyse, dissect and study text and "literature", but in the end you have to hear it, engage with it, laugh with it, cry with it – be friends with it and see it as good and worthwhile rather than a thing to be learned or assessed. Such is the power of books when we engage with them, enjoy them, laugh with them cry with them then they influence us and in doing so, perhaps change us as people!

Books and poems inspire, sadden, gladden, emotionally and intellectually challenge and stimulate. They speak of hopes and fears, of regrets and ambitions, of memories and of what is and what will be. They introduce the young to the breadth of human emotions and human joy and suffering and enable us to become better people and to understand others and their condition. That is the power of the written word – it’s not only about studying texts, understanding “good literature” or having great word recognition and phonic skills. No one would deny that these are important considerations. The worrying thing is, however, that successive governments and people like Michael Gove are interested only in the quantifiable and measurable aspects of reading – comprehension skills, word recognition scores, literary comment that can be assessed and marked. In my view, these tell only part of the story – and the least important part.

Whilst writing these last few sentences I was reminded of a letter to the Guardian several years ago ( I pinned the letter on the notice board in my school office - to remind me of what real education was about and to annoy any visiting inspectors who came!). It was from a farmer (I think from a small Gloucestershire village) who was also a governor of his local primary school. He complained bitterly about the amount of testing that children were being put through to "assess their progress" as the National Curriculum and OFSTED took hold. His point was simple and unarguable: "The government and school inspectors are not interested in children only in test results.  Let me tell them something. I raise pigs and no amount of weighing them makes them fatter and better for market.  It's a rich diet, plenty of grub and a happy environment that does that. Children are no different - it's not testing that does them any good - it's a rich  education that brings them on" . Give this man a job - he certainly knows more about education than Michael Gove, OFSTED and other politicians!

Reading for pleasure is part of that rich diet. My grand-daughter, Sophie, would get no marks in Michael Gove or Margaret Thatcher's literacy exams when she explained that she loved books so much that she read all the way through her dinner and got into trouble with mum because she often didn't answer when spoken to .......... . But, then again, I believe that it might just help her become a more aware and well rounded adult than either of these two political, humanitarian and emotional cripples. Maybe I'm an idealist, but I'll make no apology for that - if we are not idealists with dreams of the best we can be then how can we change and make ourselves and the world better? What can't be denied, however, is that books and reading have the power to change us as people and children need to be provided with the opportunity to be "changed" and to perceive reading and books and poems as pleasurable, useful, worthwhile, and inspiring. They are not simply things to study or to be tested upon or "comprehended" as modern politicians would have happen in every classroom throughout the land.  Children (and adults!) have to be allowed to be  “engaged” and be a party to the world that books and poems create - for that engagement will make them a more engaged, and engaging, member of the human race - more able to understand our fellow man or woman, more able to understand ourselves and more able to make the world a better place for our fellow humans.