A child-sized puppet is being used to teach school pupils to behave.That’s no way to describe a teacher..!
Oh, wait. It seems they mean a real puppet:
“Silver Boy” is part of a project at Whitehawk Primary School aimed at finding ways to improve behaviour, develop team building skills and learn how to work together.Given that the Whitehawk estate seems to be somewhat, ummm, notorious, I can see why that might be necessary. But not why it would take a puppet, in preference to a real, live human being…
The school has been working with artist Sharon Mee, of artists-led local charity Same Sky, on developing play skills with boys in Year 1.Oh. I see.
Well, if there’s artists on board, it’s no wonder the whole thing has gone to hell in a handcart, isn’t it?
The idea is that Silver Boy had just landed from space and needs to be shown how to play nicely and be kind to others.If it’s the Whitehawk estate, then any alien has more to fear from the inhabitants than they do from the aliens…
The project has worked so well that the school has been visited by the Latvian Minister of Education and Science, Tatjana Koke, who wanted to see it in action.I just bet she did. What is the Latvian for ‘crazy English teaching methods’, anyway?
7 comments:
Our masters would like us ALL to be puppets, doing as they direct without fail, all the time.
So starting young makes sense!
"... be kind to others."
Bloody schools enforcing Christian doctrine again.
"... be kind only to those of your own faith and hate everyone else" would be more in line with the most school diets.
Sadly the success of the puppet may be due to a phenomenon observed by a friend who is a teacher.
A large proportion of children coming into schools have spent so much of their early lives watching television that they are much happier interacting with a screen image or puppet than with a real person.
The phrase 'developing play skills' alone makes one's blood run cold.
The bloke I shared a university office with for 10 years used to fantasise about teaching with Sooty and Sweep glove puppets. I used to fantasise about having classes of undergraduates who could understand at that level, often having to explain what the jokes were in The Simpsons. This may all be a little advanced for toddlers! Harry Corbett introduced 'Jake the Snake' until the Beeb decided this was subversive - a much simpler model of what economics is based on than Lyotard's 'Libidinal Economy'.
Your sharp wit may need refining by educational theory AP. Education mean 'to make like a Duke', questions remaining on whether we are carving our little Pinoccios into the Duke of Edinburgh or that Italian chap once so popular until they hung him from piano wire.
Off topic this, but without a contact Julia button or link here I can't think of any other way. Julia, your last two comments at mine got trapped in Blogger's new spam purgatory and I couldn't publish them without the Intense Debate comments disappearing. I've copied and pasted them in your name in the Debate In Tents comments and replied to both as me. Of course it was afterwards when I realised that if you'd checked the email follow-up comments box you'll never get anything about the replies because Blogger won't know about it. D'oh! This was the only way I could think of to let you know.
As you were... and did anybody else read 'child sized puppet' and think of John Bercow?
School teacher Mr Garrison on the South Park cartoon show is never seen without his puppet, Mr Hat...
Nothing new under the sun.
"Our masters would like us ALL to be puppets, doing as they direct without fail, all the time.
So starting young makes sense!"
They seem to be well on the way...
"...that they are much happier interacting with a screen image or puppet than with a real person."
I don't subscribe to the 'TV is a bad influence' idea (it isn't, unless it isn't used correctly) but that's pretty chilling!
"...or that Italian chap once so popular until they hung him from piano wire."
They know how to do things with style on the continnent... ;)
"Off topic this, but without a contact Julia button or link here I can't think of any other way."
Oh, I did mean to do that! Must sort it out once the new PCs arrived.
Don't worry about the comment - it was perfectly fine.
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