“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.”

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

“…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

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

@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.

@sjhannam

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

@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

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).

He 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.

“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.

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.

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.