ARTICLES
FREEDOM BOOKSHOP AND MAGAZINE
Published in the Freedom Centenary Issue, 1986, this essay forms the second part of a pamphlet I wrote that summer, entitled ‘We Can Change The System!’ (The first part was called ‘Government Is Chaos!’)
ANARCHY IS ORDER!
Before going on to suggest what those changes might be which could create a better society, i.e. one that has been organised along sound anarchist principles, one or two comments need first to be made about the word ‘Anarchy’ itself for it is obvious from the way people react when this noble concept is being put forward to them as a possible alternative way of organising our lives that this is a term which is not fully understood. Just mention the word to most people from ‘conventional backgrounds’ and either they will look disturbed and afraid, as visions of chaos and disorder accompanied by violence are conjured up in their minds or they will nervously laugh, a well-known but annoying response to anything which is unknown.
But perhaps such reactions to the mention of the word ‘Anarchy’, even in serious discussion, are not really so surprising. After all most people (especially those from the present generation amongst whom must be counted many of today’s leaders), while being made to learn lists of Kings and Queens at school, have only been fed the sensational and outrageous concerning its past, a small and insignificant part of its history by comparison with the death and destruction wreaked by imposed government. And then, after school, they have probably only ever heard the word used in its negative sense, e.g. in newspaper headlines such as ‘Fear of Anarchy in Lebanon!’ or on TV ‘comedy’ shows such as ‘The Young Ones.’ Nowhere in their formal education have they been given access to a full and objective account of the anarchist movement and ideas. Never in everyday language and conversations have they heard the constructive side of its meaning emphasised.
And the main reason why there is this almost deliberate lack of information about the anarchist ideal is not hard to find. The ideas of people such as Godwin, Kropotkin and Goodman (to name but a few) are not promoted because those who do the telling and holding-in-place – the politicians, bosses and priests, the ‘leaders’ of this world – know that, if they were, they would be in danger of losing their own positions of power and control. Hence this prejudice concerning ‘Anarchy’ is allowed to continue, hence this conspiracy of silence is actively maintained by those ‘in authority.’
For too long ‘Anarchy’ has been receiving a bad Press. For too long has only the destructive side of its meaning been given prominence while its positive aspects have been virtually neglected. But this misinformation, this lack of understanding, this ignorance must be removed before it is too late, before the authoritarian (and liberal) dictators who at present rule our world, at their very least, reduce the quality of life still further or, at their very worst, consign us all to a barren wasteland, the inevitable aftermath of a nuclear explosion.
Then, what does ‘Anarchy’ really mean? In order to gain a clearer picture we must first look at the derivation of the word itself. ‘Anarchy’ is a combination of two Greek words – a or an (the alpha privative) meaning no, without or lack of and archos meaning a ruler, some person or body who rules or governs. The literal meaning of the word ‘Anarchy’, therefore, is ‘without a ruler.’ But even this does not tell us much because what we are really interested in is that state of affairs which would exist if there are no rulers, i.e. Anarchism.
Now, there is no doubt in my mind, such is the present state of human nature behaviour, the product of living for too long in a hierarchically organised society in which most people are constantly being told what to say, what to do, what to think, that, if all the people who rule were suddenly removed from our midst, the immediate result would be chaos and disorder perhaps accompanied by violence and destruction. A kind of chaotic free-for-all would reign for a while but eventually order would have to be re-imposed from above. Order would have to be re-imposed from above because the majority of ‘ordinary’ people would not know how to behave under such circumstances. They do not know because they have never been educated for such freedom, i.e. freedom from always being told what to say, what to do, what to think; freedom to make decisions for themselves, organise their own lives, control their own destinies. But even if they had, this freedom would not last long because nowhere in society has there ever existed a framework by which it could be sustained – a fact which has been borne out by history. For, even though under the ‘right’ conditions it has been shown that people are quite capable of organising themselves, if only for a short while and in order to meet basic needs, e.g. during the Paris Commune 1871, the Makhnovista in the Ukraine 1918-21 and the Spanish Civil War 1936-39, the danger has always been and still is that without the appropriate and far-ranging social structures built into the environment, sooner or later some interfering busybody of one race, creed, religion or another will come along to impose their own kind of order instead of letting it emerge naturally. And, of course, they do.
The social revolution never has and never will be secured by this method alone, i.e. the removal usually by force of those who govern, those who rule. For when this is done all that is left is a vacuum, a space in which the absence of suitable previous experience on the part of everyone everywhere and an appropriate arrangement of their surroundings locally, regionally and globally can only be filled by yet more people who govern and rule – because they are still necessary.
True Anarchism – that ideal state of affairs where no rulers exist because they are not necessary – will only be achieved when not only have those who govern and rule been removed, preferably by persuasion, but also adequate preparations have been made to fill the gap they have left behind. Such preparations, therefore, must include the wholesale reorganisation of our education system and the provision of a framework within which a society organised along sound anarchist principles can be maintained and flourish. In particular, society must be ‘re-schooled’ and ‘the community’ re-established. For the way to introduce ‘Anarchy’ such as this throughout the land is not by ‘waiting for the moment’ – the creation of a healthier, more desirable society will not happen spontaneously – but by making deliberate and radical changes to the fabric of present-day society now.
Such changes to the way we are educated, such changes to the way we are organised are possible. All they require are imagination, courage and the will. Once accepted, they have only to be put into universal practice. Then we will see the transformation of society from one which is perverted by the rules of imposed government to one which prospers through the use of sound anarchist principles, i.e. from one which represses, fragments and destroys personal growth to one which liberates, encourages and integrates all-round human development; from one which reveres the maximisation of profit and economic growth to one which respects the needs of all people and the planet; from one in which everything has a price to one in which everything is ‘free’; from one which is alien, impersonal and uniform to one which is warm, human and varied; from one which based on unhealthy competition, forced organisation and dependency to one which is arranged around the methods of mutual aid, voluntary association and self-management; from one which is dominated by centralised bureaucracies, pryramidical hierarchies and the State to one which is organised around decentralised federations, flexible networks and the community.
Then we shall see the Old World Order of imposed government by the few replaced gradually, peacefully and successfully replaced by the New World Order of Anarchy for Everyone.
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EDUCATION CLUBS
I then worked out how we could eventually replace all schools with Education Clubs for which I make no excuses, given where I was coming from and the experiences I had encountered.
However, although still holding these views, I would now be much more realistic, e.g. existing Primary schools would probably be converted into Education Clubs and not used as Community Centres.
EDUCATION NOW
This article was published by Education Now in November, 1988
Editor’s Note
This very rational approach towards the provision of education in the community for the 21st century has all the ingredients of a successful proposal. It is simple, needs less finance, gives power to the participants, suits a high-tech society, is respectful of the environment and makes good use of existing plant for new purposes. It is perhaps only the lack of confidence within our society, itself a product of our deskilling school system, which prevents it happening immediately.
RESCHOOLING
Introduction
The ideas contained within this article were developed over a period of ten years following my disillusionment with both our current education system (schooling) and the available alternatives (deschooling). In order to assist the exposition of these ideas, they have been put forward almost as a ‘fait accompli’ but, of course, they are not intended to be dogmatic. Rather, their purpose is to promote discussion. For, as well as raising many questions which are left unanswered, they obviously invite comment and/or some kind of reaction. Any response they might engender will be more then welcome as a stimulus for further debate.
New Educational Arrangements
Re-schooling, the replacement of all schools everywhere by more suitable educational arrangements, is, of course, part of something larger, being just one area of human activity amongst many which will have to undergo fundamental and radical change once “the transformation of society” has begun. But Re-schooling, the provision by “the community” of the necessary resources for ensuring the all-round personal development of each of its (future) members, will be the first to be introduced.
Essentially, it will involve giving children (and, then, later on, young people and adults) access to educational facilities positioned in locations other than a building called a school. (The main reason why the school as a place of learning will be abandoned is that, as these and other “ideas of change” become more desirable and acceptable, it will be recognised that the root cause of all the faults and defects of our present education system is the institution of the school itself and that the “job of educating” can be performed much better elsewhere, i.e. under very different conditions!)
The Education Club
The most important component in this new system will be the “Education Club”, voluntary associations established in suitable premises for the purpose of “educating the whole person”. Thus the main aim of each club will be to assist all those who attend to grow naturally and to develop fully in each of the following areas: the head – intellectually, the heart - emotionally, the hands – creatively, the body – physically and, while moving amongst and relating to others having a similar need for all-round development, socially, and discovering right from wrong, truth and honesty, - morally.
Since the needs, interests and abilities of children differ at different ages and stages of development, there will be several kinds of Education Club, e.g. a Nursery Club for the 2/3 to 4/5 year olds, an Infant Club for the 4/5 to 7/8 year olds and a Junior Club for the 7/8 to 12/13 year olds. To begin with these can be created out of existing houses situated within the catchment area of the former Primary/Middle school – as and where required. However, after the transformation, the main object of which will be to enable all people everywhere to organise their own affairs for and by themselves, they could be purpose-built, i.e. in new communities.
Thus, in place of schools, there will be sufficient clubs, housed in a variety of distinct and separate locations within the “boundaries” of each community, to cater for all of the children, including the handicapped and “difficult”, who live there. But, of course, should the number of those aged between 2/3 and 12/13 fall or increase in one area, clubs could easily be closed (and the building returned to its original, or put to a different, use) or opened (and new ones built) accordingly.
Already, therefore, it can be seen that, apart from its greater intrinsic value, this kind of provision would have considerable advantages over the present monolithic, unwieldy and impersonal system. For such a network of educational facilities, based on the “homely” surroundings of human-sized buildings would be much more flexible (and, thus, healthy), much more able to cope with changing circumstances, much more responsive to the needs of “the community”.
Club Tutors
As soon as it has been decided by “the community” in which house or houses (i.e. joined together) each club is to be established, the building(s) and its grounds can be suitably arranged in order to achieve the main aim of all-round personal development.
Thus each club (Nursery, Infant and Junior) will need to have enough accommodation to make possible all of the different activities which will take place there, such as Art and Craft, music making and the 3Rs, adequate storage space for all the materials and equipment (including computer and information systems which will be required and as much room and furniture as is necessary for all those children and their adult helpers who will want to attend.
The number of children “registered” at each club will, it is suggested, be no more than 28 and the number of adults permanently entrusted with their care 4. Such an adult/child ratio may at first sight appear “generous” and “expensive” but when it is learnt that these four people, called Tutors, will be responsible (on a collective basis) for everything that goes on in “their” club, both educationally and administratively, (and that the clubs will be available all year round), then such staffing levels will seem quite normal and fair. Indeed, such an arrangement, as well as giving those employed in education more direct control over their working lives and environment, will ensure much better, more efficient use of resources (both human and material) than is presently the case.
The Tutors, many of whom might choose to live in that part of “the community” where “their” club is situated - some, perhaps, “over the shop” - will have an important role to play.
Ideally, there will be appointed to each club an equal number of men and women having complementary skills. In addition to be being able to teach the 3Rs, one could be a musician, one a craftsperson/artist, one a sports/drama person and one a scientist/technologist. There would also be a good mix of ages and experience.
Their main concern would be to bring about a broad, varied and interesting programme of activities for every child who comes to “their” club and to ensure the smooth running of their own premises (buildings and grounds) in all its fine detail, e.g. stock, meals, cleaning, maintenance and decoration. But the way in which all these matters are organised will be for each club, in conjunction with “the home” and “the community”, to decide. For apart from the installation of this initial framework, there can be no set blue-print for the working of a better system. Each club must be allowed – within the commonly agreed guidelines – to develop its own identity, as and how all those involved with its use think fit.
Club Managers/Advisers
One way in which “commonly agreed guide-lines” could be established and an “education for freedom” maintained for all would be to create a network of “co-ordinators” within and between each community, whose main task, in practice, would be to ensure that each club has all it needs and to provide support and advice for its educational activities.
They would be responsible, inter alia, for the balanced allocation of staff and children to each club within their area in order to make the best possible use of the places available, the arranging of formal/informal meetings between clubs for the exchange of ideas and for personal refreshment. They would also be responsible for the proper employment of facilities held outside the clubs but within each community, such as the large hall, swimming pool and mini-bus (located at the former Primary/Middle school), the skills register (whereby other people from “the community” can be called upon to assist the education of their young), and the resource centre containing toys, games, computer programmes, science equipment and other more valuable items such as books, records and tapes, so that all the community’s assets are made readily and equally available. Such people would be called Managers or Advisors.
But these positions – essential though they will be to the successful operation of these new arrangements and despite the fact that the holder in active participation in the work of the clubs – must remain temporary appointments, being merely secondary to the job in hand. For it will be an overriding principle of this system that the most important person in the provision of an education service is she or he who comes in regular, daily contact with children and not the administrator or the adviser. Those who take up these posts will thus fulfil their duties for a fixed period of time after which they can return, having gained considerably from this experience, to “their own” club as a Tutor.
Making “the institution” fit the needs of the child
The Tutors, therefore, will be given a great deal of responsible freedom for the way in which the new arrangements are run. For example, they will be able to decide how best their own time can be spent and on which administrative and educational activity, for which days of the year and for how much of each day “their” club should stay open, and when and how volunteers can be most profitably used.
Consequently, the size of the group each Tutor is responsible for at any one time could vary from 1:1 to 1:28, depending on the requirements of the moment. The club could be made available for most of the year and staff absences, in-service courses and sabbaticals could be organised with the minimum of disturbance to the service being provided. Such adaptability is being designed, of course, not for the convenience of the adult but so that all the needs of every child who attends can be met in the best possible ways.
Each child, therefore, having spent the first two years of life at home brought up by father and/or mother along with the help of their parents and/or that of “the community”, will be able to make use of an Education Club as and when required at any time after their second birthday. Ideally this will be the one most suitable one nearest his/her home and for as much of the day as is thought necessary by all those concerned. Transfer between each type of club will then occur at or around the appropriate age whenever it is considered right for each boy or girl. Graduation into “the big, wide world outside – for that period of experimentation (allowed between the ages of 13/14 and 17/18?) before more definite decisions about the direction of an individual’s might take are made – would take place whenever the young person is ready.
Education for Self-Regulation
The emphasis of the Nursery/Infant Clubs will be on laying good foundations in all the six areas of development by making available suitable activities and experiences. The emphasis of the Junior Club (while continuing to build on these basic skills) will be on self-regulation, i.e. the ability to make decisions for oneself, be responsible for one’s own actions and generally exercise self-control. This will be done by providing appropriate opportunities, supported by the right kind of adult material and help.
Each child, especially under these “ideal” conditions at the Nursery/ Infant stage, will be able to progress with happiness and success at his/her own pace. The natural desire to learn, instead of being squashed, as it so often is by today’s authoritarian methods of force-feeding and imposed control, is allowed to flourish – especially at the Junior stage, not least because attendance at all of these clubs will be voluntary.
Thus, a “self-regulatory” system of education will have been established for all. But this, of course, is only a start. For now that the school has been emptied of its pupils, this building can itself be put to a different, more worthwhile use. In particular, it can be used as a “Centre”, having all the necessary equipment, resources and facilities for enabling all those who live within its catchment area to manage their own community for and by themselves. Once this is done, i.e. the gradual, orderly and peaceful handing over of all the powers and functions of “local” and central government to these newly created “neighbourhood units”, then the “transformation of society” will really have begun.
The article then finished with a short biopic which included a photograph me sorting some farm animals with a Special School pupil.
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THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF GREAT BRITAIN
This article was published, during my exclusively political, very anti-capitalist days, in January 1995, for the monthly journal of the above organisation which I have long since left behind as being ‘reactionary, regressive, divisive and reformist’, having discovered, not long afterwards, the spiritual aspects of life. (N.B. Spirituality has nothing to do with religion – except to invite it to brings itself up-to-date in the light its new and re-discovered findings.)
A DAY IN SCHOOL
The telephone rings. It’s eight o’clock in the morning. I am already up, dressed and have taken the dog for a walk.
I take the call. It’s the Head of a local primary school.
“Can you come in to do a day’s work?” he asks.
“Yes, of course,” I answer, trying to sound as enthusiastic as I can while my heart sinks in dismay, although I like being with children & “in-teracting with them in an educational manner”, I don’t like schools – for moral, pedagogical & political reasons which I hope will soon become clear.
I arrive just in time and make for the office. As I walk through the grounds and enter the building, I am immediately assaulted by the sights, sounds and smells of the institution of school – where adults cease being “normal” human beings and become bossy teachers and children cease being independent, free-thinking individuals and become managed pupils – and instinctively react against its authoritarian ethos. But I keep these thoughts and feelings to myself.
After the usual pleasantries I am taken by the well-meaning but misguided and officious Deputy Head along tired, impersonal corridors to “my” classroom. I enter the room and quickly take stock of the situation: a collection of battered, old desks with lift-up lids surrounded by the usual uninspiring paraphernalia of second-hand learning. This will be mine and the children’s cell for most of the rest of the day.
After warning me that this is a “difficult” class, he leaves the room.
Regimentation Begins
The first thing I do is find some chalk and write my name on the black-board. While I am doing this, the bell goes. The regimentation has begun! The children, thirty-five boys and girls, aged between 8 and 9, start to wander in, depressingly dressed in their homogenising and boring school uniforms.
I greet them with a warm smile, as they enter, but, when I see that they are not settling down too well – I am the second replacement they have had this term – but are in fact making “too much noise”, I tell them in a firm but friendly voice to stop talking and sit down quietly, while I take the register. Thus I start acting like a Teacher – a role that is forced upon me and all my colleagues in similar classrooms throughout the land – by the demands of the situation, where large numbers of poorly motivated pupils are confined by law within an unsuitable space for long periods of the day.
Having completed this task, I then send them off to their maths groups – to be labelled, some inaccurately, “Good”, “Average” and “Poor” (for the rest of their lives?) I will be having the “top set” in this room.
I manage the class reasonably well during the course of the next fifty minutes in as pleasant a manner as possible and they do, I suppose, learn something but, once again, I am left with the opinion, at the end of this period, that these are not the best conditions in which to encourage logical thought and numerical ability (or, indeed, any other aspect of all-round, personal growth and development). For, apart from all the various distractions, uninvited interruptions and lack of adequate resources and facilities, there are far too many children to give them all the appropriate help and attention they require as and when it is needed.
But do not imagine for one moment the way to solve this problem is simply to reduce the number of pupils per teacher in a classroom. For such a liberal reform could never get rid of one of the main faults of our present school-based system: the need/desire for the adult to be authoritarian. Only a radically different environment in which a healthier, more natural, i.e. ”libertarian”, approach on the part of the adult is made possible will achieve that goal.
Learning to respect Authority
The bell goes again. Everybody goes back to where they came from. (More time-wasting and disturbance.) The children in “my” class line up for assembly – alphabetically! I get them all quiet and facing the right way and, when I am sure they will not show me up in public by any displays of “inappropriate” behaviour – a powerful weapon in the armoury of the institution for ensuring that all teachers behave towards the children in the same, disciplinarian manner – we move off to the school hall in silent crocodile lines for this daily dose of learning how to respect authority, be a “better person” and become part of “the crowd”.
At the door they are each given a hymn book. They then proceed to it down in their customary places on the hard, bare floor while a piece of classical music is played. When all the children in the school are assembled, the Head begins by saying “Good Morning to everyone. “The masses” – for this is what they are now practising to become members of – chant back their reply as if they were one. He then announces the number of the hymn and everybody starts singing. He follows this with a story from the bible and a prayer. (I start to squirm on my seat.)
When this over, he gives out several notices, puts down one or two children who – surprise, surprise – are not paying attention, then finally reveals the number of points which each house has scored (for good work and behaviour) during the previous week and the winning captain comes out to receive the cup which he may keep for the week in his classroom. (“Get me out of here!” a voice is now screaming in my head, as phrases like “No Gods, No Masters” comes to mind and I begin to wonder if people like Godwin, Tolstoy, Ferrer and Goodman all lived in vain.)
Fortunately the music starts to play again and I begin to relax a little as this offensive and immoral occasion for religious indoctrination, further imposed control and forced “cultural” improvement at last draws to a close. The children file out of the hall, again in silence, and go straight out into the playground – for a welcome but limited moment of “freedom” and an opportunity to let off some steam – while I go off to the staffroom for a well earned cup of tea.
Ten not very stimulating minutes later, I return to “my” classroom. On the way I pass children who have been told to stand in the corridor and face the wall as punishment for some “terrible” crime they have committed, while others are seated in the dining area carrying on with their work because they have not done “enough” during lesson time. (More fear, coercion and repression which will adversely affect their future development.) Then, as I walk through the building, I hear the clamour and uproar from the playground, where all that pent-up energy – and for some, hate and aggression, the origin of much bullying – is now being expelled.
We can do better than this” I think to myself as I re-enter “my” area of this kiddie-farm and hear the bell signify the end of playtime.
Sticks and Carrots
The children start coming back in, some in a fairly high state of excitement. I settle them all down again, and, when I am sure they are all paying attention, “entertain” them with an English lesson on expressions, e.g. feeling “sad”, “happy”, cross, etc. In order to make the exercise more real and interesting, I get them to make faces demonstrating various emotions and, after we have “discussed” them – but how can there be a proper discussion amongst so many children? – they draw on A4 paper folded into quarters and then write why the person whose face they have drawn is looking that way.
Ten to fifteen minutes later those who have finished start bringing out their work. One whose drawings and reasons are very good asks if she can have a house point.
“No, I don’t believe in them.” The words are out of my mouth before I realise what I have said.
“Why?” she asks.
“Because I believe you should only do things because you want to – not because you have been bribed.” (Or frightened I could have added.)
She accepts this answer, a bit disappointed but without too much complaint, and sits down, repeating what I have just said to her friend, while I think about how well school with its method of behaviour modi-fication based on a sticks-and-carrots, threats and artificial incentives approach corrupts the emotions and provides an excellent training ground for life after school in a capitalist society.
“What shall I do next?” another one asks who has successfully completed this first task.
Once again, as in all the schools I have taught in during my long and varied acquaintance with life in the classroom, I am confronted by the appalling lack of initiative and independence that is the result of an education system which is based on continual direction and imposed control, but a good thing for a society which requires a constant flow of uncritical producers and consumers who are ready to accept everything they are told by those in authority, i.e. “the boss, the priest and the politician”, as soon as they have left school.
Forced, therefore, into spoon-feeding those who have finished this first exercise with further, suitable activities (instead of being able in this authoritarian environment to encourage them to think and act for themselves) I keep the class “constructively occupied” until lunchtime and, when the bell goes at mid-day, I send the children out to play and/or dinner.
I immediately leave the building and go to a local park where I eat my sandwiches, walk around in its open spaces and breathe in some fresh air – away from all that compulsory attendance, repressed energy and unnatural growth, all that imposed discipline, open/hidden indoctrination and lack of freedom.
Built-in Level of Failure
I return to the classroom with just enough time to get ready for the afternoon session and look at their writing which they did in the morning. As with their maths, I find many mistakes and errors. This leaves me once again with the feeling that this system has deliberately built into it a certain level of failure, especially for those who come from a “working class” background. (And for good reason. For who else would fill the lower echelons of its hierarchies, if everyone was educated to the same “high standard of performance?”)
The bell goes and the children start coming back in after the long lunch-time break but, before I can start the afternoon session, I have to settle a number of arguments which have spilled over into the classroom from the playground (where, in its bleak and barren spaces, the “law of the jungle” often seems to prevail.)
After resolving most of these problems (or, at least, sweeping them under the carpet), I ask for and obtain the necessary peace and quiet in which to take the register, following which I tell them all to read a book in silence for the next twenty to thirty minutes, as is required of them every day at this time by that wretched timetable.
I follow this calming-down period with a Science lesson on Water, a topic prescribed for these children at this stage in their schooling - whether they like it or not – by that strait-jacket of free thought and human development, the National Curriculum.
Thus, instead of involving the children in a topic in which both I and they are interested – if ever that were possible with such large numbers – I embark upon a lesson which has something to do with Water and fits in with their previous work. I choose “the inhabitants of the seas”.
Competitive Individualism
To begin with I keep the lesson fairly formal but after a while I decide to make the exercise more creative by getting everyone to draw, decorate and cut out their own underwater creatures. These they are then encouraged to stick, without too much direction from me, onto a large piece of blue paper which I have fixed to one of the classroom walls and a reasonable underwater collage begins to emerge. But it is obvious from the result that they require much more practice at this kind of art-work. For their efforts are not very inventive and their choice of materials limited. Also their behaviour while this activity is in progress and the arrangement of their creatures on the paper reflect exactly what their experiences both in and outside the school are leading them to become, i.e. unimaginative, disconnected, competitive individuals who know very little of self-control and social cooperation.
Soon the afternoon session is drawing to a close and, so, after clearing up, I read them a story. I have brought with me The Twits by Roald Dahl. I like reading this book to children because not only does its “weird and wonderful” contents immediately grab their attention but its title, I feel, is particularly apt in these very unsuitable surroundings (for, surely, such a label must apply to those who are responsible for providing – and delivering? – this adult-imposed, keep-me-occupied-and-under-control education.)
I am half-way through a chapter when the bell goes for the end of school. I find a convenient point at which to stop, get the children to put their chairs on their desks and then release them gradually and gently from their chains.
