This one came out of nowhere. A reader of the blog, and a complete stranger, sent me their “poem”, The Teacher of Bray, apparently composed during a not-so-thrilling PD. It is a reworking of the The Vicar of Bray, a famous and very funny satirical song from the early 18th Century. (I had not heard of the song previously.)
Below, with the author’s kind permission, is The Teacher of Bray. For those who wish to know the melody in order to sing along, and it is worth it, here is a good version of The Vicar of Bray.
The Teacher of Bray
“N. M.”
I. Explicit Teaching in Closed Rooms
In good CSF’s golden days.
(The nineties — doors all shuttered),
Explicit teaching earned me praise,
And “fad” was all I muttered.
I photocopied, chalked and drilled
From masters worn to tatters,
And any “group work” talk I killed
With “Content solely matters.”
Chorus
And this is law, I will maintain
Until my long-service day, Sir;
That whatsoever scheme shall reign,
I’ll still be the Teacher of Bray, Sir!
II. The Age of Inquiry
When VELS was crowned in two-oh-six,
And inquiry was in season,
I burned my drills as heretics,
And wonder outranked reason.
“Why teach them facts?” I cried with scorn,
“They’ll Google what they’re missing!”
And teachers hoarding facts, forlorn,
I dobbed for reminiscing!
(Chorus)
III. The Age of Open Space
When BER in two-thousand-nine
Declared the walls oppressive,
I hailed the open-space design
I led the tours for VIPs
Past beanbags to children hiding
“They’ll Google what they’re missing!”
“Observe the agile learners, please:
The screams are all self-guiding.”
(Chorus)
IV. The Closed Space Restoration
But when the twenties brought the proof
The open plan was tragic,
I found, beneath the selfsame roof,
That drywall works like magic.
The firm we’d paid to fill each wall
We paid to build them slicker;
I chaired both panels, great and small,
And never felt a flicker.
(Chorus)
V. Explicit Teaching Restored
Two-thousand-twenty-four’s decree
Made teaching all explicit;
“Inquiry” I scrubbed on my CV
And swore I’d ne’er been “with it”.
Now Rosenshine adorns my wall
Where Dewey lately faded,
And through the network PD hall
My slides, re-skinned, paraded.
(Chorus)
VI. The Age to Come
From open space to closed and back,
From telling to inquiring,
My PD log records the track
And never finds me tiring.
And when the next decree comes down
From Treasury Place’s tower,
My keynote’s drafted (cap and gown)
At fifteen hundred an hour.
(FInal Chorus)
And this is law, I will maintain
Until my long-service day, Sir;
That whatsoever scheme shall reign,
I’ll still be the Teacher of Bray, Sir!
[For Finn C.]
Lovely!
The reference to “drywall” had me thinking this was from the USA. But reading “Treasury Place” brings in back to home?
A local, I believe.
Melbourne born and raised!
This is, of course, Marty, quite brilliant.
I know the “Vicar of Bray”, the folksong celebrating the simple parish priest who changes his theological doctrine according to the current fashion (Roman Catholic, Church of England, Puritan/Calvinist …).
The more it changes, the more it stays the same.
There is an original French version of this:
Proverb: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”: “the more things change, the more they stay the same”.
Vraiment.
I suspect verse III is slightly wobbly, without the expected end-rhymes.
And some of the jargon references (BER?) elude me.
BUT, I can add that when, around 1983, I was teaching How-to-teach-reading and Remedial Literacy, and I mentioned in one breath or two, a “Language Experience” approach (that taught children to read using the words they spoke spontaneously in talking about life) and “John and Betty” (a starting-to-read-scheme I knew in my own Primary school beginning — 1954 — on of my confident mature-age students told me that “John and Betty” included “Language Experience Approach” methods.
And she brought me her original copy of the “John and Betty Teacher Manual that PROVED this.
Not, however, that I remember my own “John and Betty” teacher (1954) doin anything that felt at all like using the students’ (me, us) own vocabulary.
More recently, my wife, working in a Primary school regularly reported the latest Professional Development “craze”, phonics or whatever else, and her experienced colleagues quietly murmuring, “Well, or course we used to do that twenty years ago, and it worked, until the next fad came along.”
Meanwhile, it still helps some students to memorise multiplication tables.
Thanks, John. Like a stopped watch being correct twice a day, I guess a simple harmonic motion watch has also got to be correct some of the time.
Building the Education Revolution – during Rudd’s time [2007-10].
What else “snared” or “got” you?
And the “agile” learners come from Turnbull.
But it doesn’t mention AI in the Age to come verse!
Well, any time NM wants to add another verse …