“We are such stuff as dreams are made on...” (The Tempest: William Shakespeare)

I can still vividly remember when I was about 13, about fifty five years ago, sitting, at school, reading a book. I was totally engrossed in the story – so much so that I think I got told off by the teacher for not putting the book down when told to. As I sat there I little knew  that the book would become an integral part of my life and my career. All this came flooding back to me a few days ago.

The book that started it!

Let me explain. The school that I went to was a humble affair – today it would be unquestionably described as a “sink” school – a pretty tough secondary modern school in Preston where I grew up. The occasional “knifing” on the school playground or field was not uncommon and even then, as young teenagers, we were well aware of the kids who were already going off the rails and becoming involved with the police. It was not unusual for police cars to arrive at school. Secondary modern schools – although the title sounds grand – were for those, like me, who had failed to jump the 11+plus test hurdle. The overwhelming majority of the pupils at schools like mine would go to work in the factories of the industrial north of England. The school had no great aspirations other than to turn out "factory fodder". There was nothing wrong in that, it was what society demanded of the secondary modern. The school and the teachers were as much victims of circumstance as were the pupils. But, then, when I was about 13 we had a new head teacher – Dr McEwan - perhaps anticipating the coming of Bob Dylan in the early 60s "the educational times they were a changing"! In a few years (1963) the Newsom Report Half our Future)  would be published which recognised that the future wealth and social fabric of the country would increasingly depend upon the better education of over half the population – the average and below average - and that included me. The country, said the report, was actively wasting the talents of most of its young by casting them aside at 11 and it laid the foundation stone for a comprehensive system of education. Today, our current Education Secretary, Michael Gove, is doing his best to turn the clock back.

But back to me and my book! Dr McEwan (“Batman” we called him because he always wore his academic gown as he walked around school!) was clearly an early convert to the new doctrines and on his arrival in the late 50s he immediately set about changing the school and one of the first things he did was to convert one of the prefabricated classrooms into a small library. There were a few shelves with books, a few tables and chairs and that was it. We didn’t have a librarian  and were only allowed in there with a teacher – but it was a start. Each week, once the room was up and running, we had one of our weekly English lessons in the library. We would be shown how to use it and understand the Dewey numbering system, given tasks to find information and set other book related work.........and, best of all, for half the lesson be allowed to choose a book to quietly read. Books could not be taken out of the library so one had to read quickly!

The Globe

On one of my first visits I selected a book which looked mildly interesting – a historical adventure story – Cue for Treason  by Geoffrey Trease. It is a children’s story of adventure, dastardly deeds, spying, good guy overcomes bad guy and the rest – and it all takes place in Elizabethan England. It had been written by Trease in 1940 and became one of his most famous publications. Great literature it was not, but like all good stories – especially for children - it had that knack of always wanting you to read on.  Each chapter ended at an exciting point – you just had to read the next chapter! And that was why I got told off – I began reading the book and was hooked and over the next few visits to the library I hurriedly sought out my book so that I could carry on with the tale.

When I left school, I suppose that I forgot about it until ten or more years later I when began teaching. I was working  by then at a school (Lady Bay Junior School in Nottingham) with a long corridor and along the entire length of the corridor were bookshelves filled with books. One day, as I leafed through these, I came across Cue for Treason  – and suddenly the story from my own school days  flooded back. I re-read the tale and was again transported back to Elizabethan England – to Queen Elizabeth, William Shakespeare, the Spanish Armada and plots to kill the Queen. This was no angst filled novel of the sort pushed at teenagers today to reflect their lives and support them in their teenage years – it was unashamed exciting adventure and swashbuckling fun taking the young readers to another age and another life. And, as I had enjoyed it so much, I read it to the class I was teaching. They loved it and each afternoon as the end of the school day approached and I got to the end of a chapter they always wanted to hear then next one – just as I had done all those years before. For the rest of my teaching career I read the book regularly and never once did it let me or the children down. I can still quote great chunks of it so many times I have spoken its words! Not only was it a good story but a great way to teach history and the great names of England’s past – Shakespeare, Raleigh, Drake and the rest – all in a fictional setting but hopefully it aroused an interest, awareness and a love of the nation’s past.

Yes - we bought cushions

I thought about that book on Thursday as I walked out of Southwark Underground Station in London.  Pat and I had booked tickets to see Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream at the wonderful Globe Theatre in Southwark. As we left the station a sign gave directions to the Globe. The Globe, constructed some years ago to replicate the theatre that Shakespeare knew is a wonderful place. Open air, as it would have been in Shakespeare’s day, audience standing in front of the stage and the “better off” sitting in the galleries looking down on the stage. It is built close to where the original Globe stood – and of course as well as putting on Shakespeare’s plays is simply a place of pilgrimage and homage to the great writer.

As we walked out of the station and followed (as the signpost instructed us) the orange lampposts I thought about Cue for Treason. In the story, the two heroes Peter & Kit (Kate) become actors in a group of travelling players, they eventually arrive at the Globe and perform there. They become friends with the young Shakespeare and the great Richard Burbage, one of the great Elizabethan actors of the day, and as the story develops they become embroiled in spying, high treason, the coming of the Spanish Armada and plots to kill the Queen. As we walked along the London streets to reach the theatre I remembered in the book reading that in Shakespeare’s day all the theatres were on the south side of the Thames – actors and theatre goers were classed as a rather unsavoury lot and had to perform outside the city walls – hence the Globe being on the far side of the river Thames from the city of London! And when we got to the Globe and eventually took our seats in the balcony, looking down on the stage and the “poor people” standing at the foot of the stage I could just picture what it might have been like in Shakespeare’s day. In Cue for Treason one part describes how Peter paid a penny to sit on a stool near the stage and paid another penny to have a cushion. We, too, had cushions to sit on – but paid £3.00 each! In another part of the tale when Peter and Kit (playing the part of girls and women, for in Shakespeare’s day women were not allowed to act) are acting on the stage they have to put up with the smoke from the pipes of the gentlemen sitting close to them -  all smoking the new weed brought back from the New World by Raleigh and Drake! And in my mind’s eye as I sat on my cushion looking at the empty stage and the rapidly filling space before it I could picture it all – it was my much loved and many times read book leaping into life before my very eyes.

Our view of the stage - with the "poor people" standing!

At the interval we ate our ice cream – standing in the courtyard looking across the river at the dome of St Pauls. I don’t suppose ice cream was around in Elizabethan times but we could have bought a burger – and that, too, reminded me of the book. In the story, at one point, we are told that members of the audience bought hot meat to eat. We gazed across the Thames at St Paul's and I recalled the words of instruction allegedly attributed to Charles II after the Great Fire of London when he told Christopher Wren, the architect, to "fill the sky of London with the new cathedral". Wren certainly succeeded – even today his great dome still stands out for all to see. I have to say however, that as I looked along the Thames towards the financial centre of the City – “the square mile” - and saw the towering office blocks soaring upwards I did (in grumpy mode!) reflect that maybe that says much about our 21^st century society. The financial skyscrapers now tower above St Paul's and in doing so maybe reflect our worship of Mammon. In Elizabethan and Stuart times church spires and domes soared to heaven to be nearer to God and to remind all of the pathway for eternal life. Today, it is the Shard and the Gherkin and the other London skyscrapers that seek to dominate the skyline and remind us mortals that salvation is rather more materialistic and is gained via banks, insurance companies and pension funds rather than devout faith and belief!

Titania & Bottom

But back to the magical play – A Midsummer Night’s Dream  - my favourite Shakespeare play – silly, magical and with wonderful language. A feel good factor and happy ending. I sat (as I think did every other person in the audience) entranced. And to think that half a millennia ago Londoners might too have stood or sat on the rough benches as we did, swigging their ale and gnawing at their hot meat -  laughing at Bottom and his friends as they performed their “play”, watching mesmerised at the antics of the fairies Oberon and Titania and Puck or got caught  up in the tale of the four lovers as they roamed the woodland and fell asleep beneath the trees. It must have been magical and mysterious for those Elizabethan Londoners – it was still so for us, even today in our very clever modern, technology filled world. So often that afternoon I found myself sitting with my mouth open as I watched. So often I heard myself quietly speaking some of the great words as the actors spoke:

“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:

There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,

Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight...... “

(Can there be any more lovely words in the English language than these?)

or

“Lord, what fools these mortals be”

or

“The course of true love never did run smooth!

or

Now until the break of day,

Through this house each fairy stray.

To the best bride bed will we,

Which by us shall blessèd be.

And the issue there create

Ever shall be fortunate.”

or

“If we shadows have offended,
Know but this and all is mended.
That you have but slumbered here,
While these visions did appear,
And this weak and idle theme,
No more yielding, but a dream.”

And as we gazed down on the standing audience below us, or looked along the rows of seats in the galleries where we perched on our benches we noticed the many groups of school children all enjoying the play, all, hopefully, learning to love Shakespeare. We looked, too, at the many tourists – Americans, Japanese all too enjoying this essential bit of England. When we struggled through the crowds exiting the theatre down the narrow staircase at the end of the performance I got caught up in a group of American teenagers – all  laughing and talking excitedly of what they had just seen. Shakespeare still has a message for today - for all nations and all ages.

We were reminded of this “message” when we went into the gift shop at the interval. I managed to resist the temptation to buy - although I could have spent many pounds! One item took my eye – I wish now I had bought it for my office. A large poster of the words by Bernard Levin the English journalist and broadcaster. Levin wrote a piece to remind us all of the many words and phrases from Shakespeare that have become part and parcel of our vocabulary.

“If you cannot understand my argument, and declare ``It's Greek to me'', you are quoting Shakespeare; if you claim to be more sinned against than sinning, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you recall your salad days, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you act more in sorrow than in anger; if your wish is farther to the thought; if your lost property has vanished into thin air, you are quoting Shakespeare; if you have ever refused to budge an inch or suffered from green-eyed jealousy, if you have played fast and loose, if you have been tongue-tied, a tower of strength, hoodwinked or in a pickle, if you have knitted your brows, made a virtue of necessity, insisted on fair play, slept not one wink, stood on ceremony, danced attendance (on your lord and master), laughed yourself into stitches, had short shrift, cold comfort or too much of a good thing, if you have seen better days or lived in a fool's paradise -why, be that as it may, the more fool you , for it is a foregone conclusion that you are (as good luck would have it) quoting Shakespeare; if you think it is early days and clear out bag and baggage, if you think it is high time and that that is the long and short of it, if you believe that the game is up and that truth will out even if it involves your own flesh and blood, if you lie low till the crack of doom because you suspect foul play, if you have your teeth set on edge (at one fell swoop) without rhyme or reason, then - to give the devil his due - if the truth were known (for surely you have a tongue in your head) you are quoting Shakespeare; even if you bid me good riddance and send me packing, if you wish I was dead as a door-nail, if you think I am an eyesore, a laughing stock, the devil incarnate, a stony-hearted villain, bloody-minded or a blinking idiot, then - by Jove! O Lord! Tut tut! For goodness' sake! What the dickens! But me no buts! - it is all one to me, for you are quoting Shakespeare.”

Need one say more!

A final enchore

And as we sat on the train returning home I thought about the book that I had first read over 50 years ago and how my own experience of seeing Shakespeare came later in life – I was almost 20 before I saw a Shakespeare play so to speak "in the flesh". By that time I was at Blackpool Technical College and hoping to become a teacher. The College’s dramatic society performed Othello in the round in Blackpool Tower Circus ring. When I went to the performance I had no idea what I would see or indeed what it was all about.  I had never read any Shakespeare or been exposed to it at school.  All I knew, as I sat there, was that I was watching something a bit special. It was the start of my love of Shakespeare. Little did I think that winter's night in Blackpool in 1964 that I would one day sit in the Globe or go, as I have many times, to the Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford on Avon. And I thought, too, of that little library at my school and the doors that it opened up for me. I thought of that book that I read there, not then knowing then that I would later use it to give pleasure and maybe a little understanding to many hundreds of children and that it would became part of my own education and indeed part of me. Cue for Treason had been my very first experience of Shakespeare - I read about him in the story, I read the little extracts from his plays that were part of the story, I pictured in my minds eye how he might have sat in some tavern writing the words. I didn't "know" any Shakespeare, but in reading the tale a tiny seed had been sown. I thought, too, how lucky those youngsters on their school trips had been to have experienced what I had just seen. Certainly more useful than an afternoon spent in a classroom and, just maybe, being the spark to a lifelong love of language, the theatre and above all Shakespeare. Not through studying a text or answering questions in an exam, not through analysing or learning great tracts of verse, but by simply enjoying and responding with a laugh or a tear or an awareness of beautifully spoken words and a clever plot. For that, I thought, is what education is about – “lighting a fire in the mind and not filling a bucket with watery facts”.  I wonder how many exam points will be awarded by Mr Gove for laughing out loud when Bottom turned into an ass. Will his examiners nod approvingly when all the children giggle in embarrassment at the occasional “rude bits” in the play and then after the play talk excitedly about these "naughty bits"? Will the exam have a way of measuring what goes on in each child's mind when they hear strange and unfamiliar words made real and understandable from the mouth of a great actor and within the context of the play? Will Mr Gove be able to recognise and assess when a child suddenly thinks - "this is for me" Will they get a merit in Mr Gove’s world when after the play ends they rush to the theatre gift shop to buy a copy of the play or a “Midsummer Night’s Dream” T shirt. Will they get a distinction when they return home a little bit more aware and excitedly tell mum and dad of what they have seen and what it might have been like to go to the theatre at the time of Shakespeare. No they won’t – because exams cannot and do not measure these things. The exam orientated treadmills that Michael Gove extols are underpinned by his notion of the 3Rs based upon a curriculum that is based upon the philosophy – “read, remember [or recite], regurgitate” rather than “read, reflect, respond”.  For me that afternoon spent at the Globe was infinitely more useful to young people than studying a text or doing an exam. Virginia Woolf famously said, in a lecture she gave at Girton College, Cambridge: “I do not believe that gifts, whether of mind or character, can be weighted like sugar or butter.”  She was right. 

I should have bought the T shirt
but would Mr Gove have approved?

In the end education is about making dreams and ambitions a reality. Yes, it is about the tools and the skills,  but it is  much more importantly about providing the opportunities, the experiences, and the understandings to raise our awareness; to make things happen and to fulfil our dreams and our aspirations and our potential. It’s not just about taking exams it's about awakening interests, developing life long loves, giving us things to cling onto in the hurly burly of life and reminding us of what it is to be human. In short as Shakespeare reminded us in The Tempest:

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on...,”

And I’m not sure how you measure or test dreams!