Michael Foot and A.S.Hornby, two kind and generous thinkers to whom we owe much

Diane Abbot MP on the death of Michael Foot

Diane Abbot MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington on the death of Michael Foot

“A lasting memory of Michael Foot came from his final months as a serving MP, then in his seventies. At the end of the day, MPs would cluster around the member’s entrance of the House of Commons – some to climb into government cars, others into their own big cars, and still others waiting for a taxi. But rain or shine, Michael Foot would politely refuse all offers of a lift and stomp off in a serviceable coat waving his stick – off to catch the No 24 bus to Hampstead. How politics could do with his integrity today.”


Michael Foot with Chilean refugees in Scotland in 1974

Michael Foot with Chilean refugees in Scotland in 1974

Responses of 5 ELT teachers and teacher trainers in Romania, Spain,Vietnam,Greece and Hungary to the death of Michael Foot, former leader of the British Labour Party

@adhockley

RIP Michael Foot

Andy Hockley in Romania

Andy Hockley in Romania

“…The top is greedy and mean and will always find a way to take care of themselves…(full quote here provided by Andy).” Michael Foot, RIP

We are here to provide for those who are weaker and hungrier, more battered and crippled than ourselves…That is our only certain good and great purpose on earth”

Andy was the first  person to comment on twitter about Michael Foot’s death amongst the ELT people who I follow.

@dudeneyge

Gavin Dudeney in Spain

Gavin Dudeney in Spain

RIP Michael Foot – one of the last good politicians..

BBC site is fulsome in tributes to Foot…. was a very popular old school politician – care and honour and all that…

@lauraponting

Laura Ponting in Vietnam

Laura Ponting in Vietnam

@dudeneye Goddammit!!! I  really rated Michael Foot. I worked with him when he was my Bleanau MP. He helped me with my MSc. Sad sad news.

Sara Hannam in Greece

Sara Hannam in Greece

@sjhannam

Paul Foot and Michael Foot both dead now. Both missed. RIP. The left is a lesser place without them

Me in Hungary

Me in Hungary

@marekandrews

One of my teachers,talking about another teacher+writer,colleague of my grandpa+lover of Dubrovnik who has just died http://tinyurl.com/yd2t5cv

On hearing the news

As I left my methodology class yesterday, my colleague Frank Prescott told me about the death of Michael Foot. It saddened me and a flood of memories came back of unemployment and anti-nuclear demonstrations in the 1980’s. I met Michael Foot once at Birmingham town hall, when we talked about  my recent time in the German Democratic Republic. At that time he came across to me as a very very decent human being. My grandfather, who was a Labour Member of Parliament for Wednesbury from 1945 to 1956, was a colleague of Michael Foot’s in Parliament, although I don’t  have any records of specific things they worked on together.

His Teamwork, Collegiality and Loyalty

Reading through his obituaries over the last 24 hours, I was reminded of the importance he attached to working together in teams and often putting the common good above his own individual concerns.

If he had been in an English staffroom I’m sure he would have been keen to develop collegial relationships with other teachers, without dividing  himself from other teachers in a “Dead Poets Society” fashion, despite his love of dead poets!

He was very loyal to his colleagues and was also both loved and appreciated by his politcal opponents.

His Internationalism

He campaigned tirelessly for nuclear disarmament and cared passionately about international issues  and would have been horrified at the rise of the radical right in Central Europe today.

I spent part of my summer of 1993 in an almost empty Dubrovnik, in the newly created state of Croatia,  and was delighted to watch a programme which Michael Foot and his wife Jill Craigie made about Dubrovnik and the  “Yugoslav” wars shortly afterwards.

There was one issue I found myself in strong disagreement with Michael Foot and that was his support for the Falklands war. I still believe today that if the Labour party had maintained a principled opposition to that war, they would have demonstrated  good leadership, a broader understanding of international politics and it may well helped to create the space for a peaceful resolution of the conflict, not to mention victory at the next election.  Tony Benn, a friend and colleague of his, had this to say about him yesterday

His Football Passion

Michael in his Plymouth Argyle scarf
Michael in his Plymouth Argyle scarf

Besides politics, another of his passions was Plymouth Argyle Football Club who  made him an honorary member of the team on his 90th birthday.  He once said how he would do his best not to, “conk-out” before seeing them promoted to the Premier League, a dream he sadly never came to realise. Finally, this was Brian Brivati’s piece on Michael Foot on his 92nd birthday. Brian Brivati was Michael Foot’s first editor.

ELT people no longer with us

I was thinking about more well-known people in our profession who have died and who have commanded much respect on their death. One person stands out for me, who I only got to know about in the mid 1980’s on my one year PGCE in TEFL (Diploma in the Teaching of English Overseas, as it was called then).

hornbyHe was Albert Sydney Hornby, who we can thank for the first learner dictionary in English which he was already working on in Japan in the late 1930’s. When he died he left half of his estate to the pursuit of ELT which many Hornby scholars benefit from around the world every year up to this day.

Albert Hornby as he used to sign his name
Albert Hornby as he used to sign his name

“A.S.Hornby was not just a name on the cover of a book.  He was warm human presence and a cultural mentor who wanted to share what he loved most…the English language.  He called him self a simple teacher but there was much more to him than that”.  (see the full story of A.S.Hornby here)  He had a passion for exploring not only the English language but also the world and in 1924 sailed off to Japan with his new bride Ida.

Hornby's work in Japan has given us what will soon be the eighth edition of the Advanced Learner's Dictionary
Hornby’s work in Japan has given us what will soon be the eighth edition of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

Japan would become a place that was massively influential in his life. On the British Council website there is a section on the Hornby Educational Trust where you can read the following:

“A. S. Hornby has had a profound and enduring influence on English Language Teaching, not only through his publications and ideas on teaching method but also through the A. S. Hornby Educational Trust, set up in 1961.

This was a far-sighted and generous initiative whereby a large proportion of Hornby’s income was set aside to improve the teaching and learning of English as a Foreign Language, chiefly by the provision of grants to enable teachers of English from overseas to come to Britain for professional training. Hornby’s aim was that the Trust’s money should be used for education and ‘go back to the countries from which it comes’.

Thanks to the Trust, hundreds of teachers have been able to develop their expertise through British Council ‘Schools’ – or workshops – and postgraduate courses in linguistics and ELT at British universities. Hornby’s generosity was part of a wider humanity. He was never a remote, dry-as-dust academic, but a man of broad sympathies and practical instincts who believed that the knowledge of the expert should be put to the service of the ordinary learner and teacher.”

Blogging is a relatively new medium in teacher training but I am enjoying experimenting with it and hope to use it as a way of  making interesting ideas available to ordinary teachers, in particular, in an easily digestible and engaging form which will be of use in some way or other. Hornby was a kind and generous man very much like Michael Foot. We have a lot to thank him for and it’s always good to acknowledge our influences and the sources of our energy and inspiration.

A.S. Hornby's Advanced Learner's Dictionary
A.S. Hornby’s Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

Anyway, it struck me that it would be interesting to hear who YOU would consider to be somebody in our profession who is no longer with us and to whom we owe much in terms of their contribution to our field and would welcome anybody, including  Hornby scholars and alumni,  to add their thoughts and comments here .

It would also be interesting to hear any stories from anybody who has benefited from Hornby’s legacy and estate.

“About me”: ways and means of introducing ourselves to the blogosphere

Have been blogging for three weeks now and have been thinking about how you introduce yourself to the blogosphere and whether it is any different from the way that you might introduce yourself in the staffroom of a new place that you start working in. Initiation into a community usually involves some sort of social get together with people where new colleagues can begin to understand you and see where you are coming from both literally and in the way in which you see yourself as a teacher and vice versa of course.

Without this, it is difficult to see how an atmosphere of collegiality can develop,  a pre-requisite for good co-operation and teamwork in general. collegialityMisunderstandings between colleagues usually happen because we don’t understand or try to understand what underlies other teachers’ motivations for doing what they are doing and I guess this is no different when you are online.

Over the last few weeks, in thinking how to organise the blog and what to focus on, I’ve spent some time looking at how people introduce themselves in the “About Me” section of the blog or whatever equivalent there might be on one’s home page. There you can often find personal  interests, people’s qualifications, the work people are involved in, what they are passionate about, the specific focus of the blog, if there is one, where they have worked and where they work now.

Some people use pictures and illustrations and some people also add their educational influences and approaches to education in general. Others don’t have anything at all there or very little or don’t create this page in the first place. Sometimes people introduce themselves as just “I” informally, others use their own name in a more official way.

One of the things that I really like in this growing online community is the way in which people retweet things, tweet-retweetgive people room to voice their opinions on their blogs and take the time to comment on other people’s work. Am still unsure about some of the etiquette of tweeting and blogging and am sure  I “make mistakes” with things but it’s a good learning curve to be on and to be on it with so many altogether decent people.  It’s also nice to see those who are more well-known in the ELT world, whether they are new to the blogosphere or not, giving encouragement to those people who are not.

One thing I have decided that I’d like to add to my “About me” bit is something about my own educational influences. I always enjoy reading what motivates people to do what they do and particulary like the way that Sara Hannam, Marisa Constantinides , love the pics Marisa, Barbara Sakamoto and Anne Hodgson introduce themsleves on their blogs.  Anne does it in German as well!.

On a more personal note, one thing I’ve realised more and more is how much my father influenced me and in some way I want to add a little bit of this to my “About Me” part of the blog.  This is also to say hallo to those in the blogosphere who I have already hooked up with in the last three weeks and an introduction to one of my major influences in becoming a teacher, my dear, kind father.

Me and Dad by the sea
Me and Dad by the sea

Dad worked as a teacher trainer too, but not in ELT. His first big break came at Wolverhampton Technical Teachers College which opened in 1964, a great time for experimentation in education in Britain.

The teacher training process involved regular visits, long distance travel up to North Wales and down to London to observe teachers and supervise student teaching placements. Teacher training staff all had teacher training qualifications. Wolverhampton, of all places, was chosen, due to its geographical central location, as the national centre for natural resources vocational education training in Britain.

So we are on the map for not only Slade, Robert Plant and pork scratchings and are not the fifth worst place in the world!  It was when we moved from Birmingham to Wolverhampton, for my sins, at the age of 7 that I became a Wolverhampton Wanderers supporter!

Looking back it was great that Dad was involved so much in vocational training, in the British Council projects  I worked on later in Eastern and Central Europe, vocational schools were very much neglected as sadly, they still are today.

Dad became head of Curriculum Studies in that teacher training college and was responsible for general pedagogy. Amongst the students he taught were car mechanics, hairdressers, flower arrangers, and farmers. His role was to help them teach the technical subject they were so knowledgeable in, but had never taught to groups of learners before.

I recall him travelling round the country going to observe teachers and our house was full of books devoted to education including all those wonderful Penguin Education Special issues which came out in the 1960’s.

penguin educational specials

After I had worked as a language assistant in Bavaria at the age of 18 and at the University of Rostock in the German Democratic Republic after studying Eastern European Studies, Dad encouraged me to do a 1 year full-time TEFL course at Manchester University. Without his constant nagging, I’d never have done it, he was similarly helpful with getting me to go to Lancaster to do the MA in ELT and when, in 1996, he saw an advert for a job in Budapest with the British Council as British Studies methodology adviser in the Guardian, he sent me the cutting of the job advert.

I didn’t really understand how much he must have influenced me until I put together a speech that I wrote for his funeral nearly 12 years ago which captured the educational values that were at the core of his teaching.  These were some of things I read out in the chapel.

“In the early fifites, Mike taught shorthand and typing before deciding to go to Bolton College to train as a Secondary School teacher where the Director had this to say about him.
“ He has a pleasant and friendly manner; he is confident and at ease in all  situations and he has a ready wit and sense of humour. He has justifiably  been popular with his colleagues, who elected him President of the Students’ Union, an office which he has held with great distinction and wholehearted endeavour.
MunsuYouStudentsUnionLogo
He speech is clear, his fluency is good and he expresses himself effectively. He is keen, thoughtful and has a freshness of outlook on educational problems.
He could be relied upon to stimulate discussions in tutorials and contribute sound ideas. He is undoubtedly fitted for responsibility in the work of a technical college where his sense of values and strong belief in the worthwhileness of technical education will be invaluable. He has outstanding qualities of  leadership and a firm sense of responsibility. His work in college has been consistently of a high standard; he writes well, in a free and lucid  style, and he has kept excellent notes of the lectures he has attended.
His practical teaching during two periods of practice in technical  colleges was regarded as excellent by his tutors and the university examiner. He received a distinction for his efforts; it was obvious that  he had a natural flair for teaching as well as having a high level of executive skill. His preparation was marked by thoroughness, his exposition was well ordered and lively, his illustrations apt, and his attention to the needs of his students showed that he was well aware of the need to treat them as individuals within a group.

Former colleagues had this to say about him:


Mr Farthing treating Billy Casper as an individual in the film "Kes" by Ken Loach (1967)
Mr Farthing treating Billy Casper as an individual in the film “Kes” by Ken Loach (1969)
“Mike was a great colleague, committed, and ever reliable with his quiet sense of humour who made life more tranquil for those around him. He was intellectually curious, a dedicated professional and always full of enthusiasm.”
At Harborne Hill Secondary Modern School he taught English, Games, History, Commerce and Commercial Arithmetic and spent the whole of 1958/9 with a third year remedial group, as it was called then!
I think that it was probably here that he developed his sense of justice  and the importance of treating everybody as individuals, always taking into account their personal circumstances. He always encouraged people in the real sense of giving them courage to try to achieve what they wanted to achieve.”
Not having enough money to go to university when he left school, it wasn’t until he was 30 that he got his chance. My mother’s father, who was a Labour Member of Parliament,  gave him the extra money he needed to support both of us, I was 3 at the time,
Auntie Nancy and Gran , me at 3 and Dad getting his MA degree! Birmingham University 1960
Dad getting his Masters degree in Education  at Birmingham University in 1964, I’m the little one!

and it was this that enabled him to study for a BA and an MA which led to him securing  a post as Lecturer in Education at Wolverhampton Technical Teachers College.”

He was always interested in my EFL work and recently I came across an old letter he sent to my sister when she was teaching English in India in an SOS children’s village after she left university. He ended the letter with this little question and answer technique.

Teaching tip from father to daughter: September 18th 1992. From Wolverhampton to Delhi
Teaching tip from father to daughter: September 18th 1992. From Wolverhampton to Delhi

If this is too small to read, click on the letter, or here it is typed out: ” Try and develop question and answer technique with your children. Try question – pause – name. In this way they all have to think.  If someone isn’t attending or is passive, use name – pause – question. Lots of love, Dad xxx”

Dad, me and Mum outside our Wolverhampton house
Dad, me and my sister Sally outside our Wolverhampton house

He came to see me in Budapest shortly before he died and always wanted to know why it was that the British Council only ever gave me one year or two year contracts and wanted to know what was going to happen to me in the future.  I wondered that too, and after 12 years with the BC I moved on to different things.

Father and son on the banks of the Danube
Father and son on the banks of the Danube

Thanks Dad for all your support, advice and encouragement. I hope your work lives on in the work that I do now and I’m sure that you would have got into the blogging community in some way or other long before I have!