00:18:48.640I don't think it's the end of the world and I think we'll be okay.
00:18:51.580Your full great outdoors comedy festival lineup is here on September 11th
00:18:56.58013th at Arendelle Park. Three nights, five shows, huge laughs. September 11th through 13th. Buy
00:19:03.600tickets now at GreatOutdoorsComedyFestival.com. Hello and welcome to Palacio Orgasmo, aka my
00:19:14.400bedroom. Actually guys, just a little joke for you there. I'm self-isolating, so I am actually
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00:20:47.140that. There are children who miss learning for all sorts of reasons. You know, they end up in
00:20:54.280hospital for six months because of something. They move away for six months. They go to some
00:20:59.220terrible school. I mean, what we all need to realize is that there are lots of children in
00:21:03.900the country in normal times who don't really access the best education. There are lots of
00:21:08.980schools that don't give them a good education so you know i i don't like the um the juxtaposition
00:21:17.560that we've got at the moment between as it was before the perfect scenario with brilliant schools
00:21:22.540that were always developing you know wonderful children who always worked hard and and the
00:21:27.620disadvantaged came up and always were able to compete for the best jobs and now because we've
00:21:32.980had a few weeks off school everything is destroyed i mean it's more complex than that yeah it is more
00:21:39.860complex now of course it is but captain how long do you think we realistically we can continue with
00:21:46.180the lockdown as it is now where you know there is it's okay before we start to get to a point where
00:21:53.480actually it starts to have a very serious deleterious long-term impact on on the kids and
00:21:58.740actually on the teachers on the schools and on society going forward as well as a result is how
00:22:03.980long can we how much more can we take yeah i have to be honest you say it's okay at the moment i
00:22:09.260actually have no idea i mean i'm not an economist i have i have no idea what kind of effect this is
00:22:14.520going to have on the economy and also what kind of effect it's going to have on people's souls
00:22:19.280you know i think about our families and families who whose jobs will be in jeopardy um you know we
00:22:26.320have a lot of families uh there'll be families who who were single moms who are cleaners well
00:22:32.280they'll have just been fired by the various people that they clean for how are they going
00:22:36.600to support their families you know like i they're they're i really worry about our families from that
00:22:42.280perspective um and i do think that teachers don't do enough worrying for those people what i mean
00:22:48.240is when the teachers are saying we're not going back until it's safe and that's that i i think
00:22:53.080that's unreasonable because that means you're not giving enough thought to those people whose
00:22:58.000salaries are not secure who's and it's not just the salary you know you might say oh but you're
00:23:02.940getting some money it's if you're running a little business and you were in the middle of growing it
00:23:07.740and now boom it's just stopped I don't know what kind of effect that's going to have on you and on
00:23:11.700your family and I'm not an economist I'm also not a virologist so I don't know about the risks that
00:23:17.640we're taking when we go back to school but I mean from an education point of view in terms of actually
00:23:22.500the schools the education system and also the learning of the kids how much longer can we have
00:23:27.960a situation where we are in the position that we're in before it starts to actually cause
00:23:33.220problems I mean it sounds like you you feel like right now it's not the end of the world it's not
00:23:37.640ideal but it's not the end of the world but how long until it starts to become actually a problem
00:23:42.240well I don't want to say it's not a problem it is a problem um I mean look if they're not in school
00:23:51.280they're not learning as much um now i do think lower down you know when it comes to children
00:23:57.220at four and five and so on if they're not learning how to read the impact is greater
00:24:01.280uh i'm at secondary school um if the children don't learn that chunk of history or that chunk
00:24:08.120of science well they don't learn that chunk of history or that chunk of science i mean
00:24:13.300uh i mean you could go on for a very long time like this you know they'll be okay i mean you
00:24:21.060know when people say you know i'm considering myself to be a traditionalist and then they're
00:24:27.240the people who i argue with who are considered to be the progressives and when the progressives
00:24:30.820say things like well you can learn so much from life and you know you don't necessarily need to
00:24:35.440read a shakespeare play well it's sort of true in the sense that you know you're not going to die
00:24:41.620if you haven't read shakespeare you're going to be okay i don't think your life is going to be as
00:24:45.940interesting. I think it would be a shame if you've never read Shakespeare. And so they are missing
00:24:51.420out on certain bits of learning, but they'll still learn when they come back. And what I would stress
00:24:57.460is that we mustn't assume that those children were all learning loads before. The children who
00:25:04.460come to school, the children who are not doing any work right now, their schools were always
00:25:10.800in a bit of a fight with them to get them to work, right? And depending on what kind of school you
00:25:15.620went to, if you went to a really good school, then they got you working. But if you went to a school
00:25:20.400that wasn't so great, those kids were never doing any work anyway. So, you know, they didn't read
00:25:26.240Shakespeare plays before. They didn't know much about history before. It's one of the things that
00:25:30.760I campaign about all the time, which is that we need to make education better. When people say,
00:25:36.240what are we going to do to fix this situation? The best thing, I mean, Wilshaw, Michael Wilshaw
00:25:41.760came out yesterday on Newsnight saying that what we need to do is have Saturday classes and holiday
00:25:47.140classes and the kids can catch up then. And I genuinely thought, have you forgotten what it's
00:25:51.600like to be in school, Mr. Wiltshire? What are you talking about? I mean, look, let's just assume
00:25:56.840that all the teachers are willing to do that in the first place. Now, that's going to be difficult
00:26:00.540anyway, but let's assume that they're all willing to come in on Saturdays and the holidays and so
00:26:04.040on and do that. And the reason why they might not, I don't think it's unreasonable for them not to be
00:26:07.960keen on that because they've been working through their Easter holidays. They'll be working through
00:26:11.140they may have term, they aren't working right now. So I don't think it would be unreasonable for them
00:26:15.600to say, wait a minute, I've got my own family. How am I going to have my own children looked
00:26:19.120after on a Saturday when I'm coming in and so on? I don't think that's unreasonable. But let's say
00:26:22.840they're all in there and they're willing to work. The kids who didn't do their work during lockdown
00:26:28.840are the same kids who won't show up that Saturday morning. They're not suddenly going to get
00:26:34.160inspired and say, I'm going to give up my Saturday and go in and work because I didn't do enough work
00:26:38.760during lockdown and their parents are not going to make them go in. So that is an absurd suggestion.
00:26:44.700I don't understand how it could ever be made. The fact is that all we can do when we go back
00:26:49.460to school is present them with excellent learning, teaching, excellent behavior in the school. That's
00:26:56.720what we need. Excellent behavior will allow you to social distance as much as you can because
00:27:01.340what the kids aren't going to do is run around whacking each other deliberately, you know,
00:27:06.100in order to cause chaos because they're used to behaving themselves um that that's the behavior
00:27:11.020then there's the idea of well how do you teach them obviously you want to teach them the best
00:27:15.040way possible and i'm a real traditionalist i believe the best way possible is to be at the
00:27:20.180front of the class leading the learning and imparting knowledge that's what we should be
00:27:24.600doing as teachers and more than ever i think uh we're going to have to do that when we get back
00:27:29.680to school and and i suspect lots of teachers across the country will be doing that but there's
00:27:34.500no outside fix. I know the government is under a lot of pressure to look like they're fixing. So
00:27:41.540what we'll do is we'll buy tablets. We'll buy tablets for all the disadvantaged children and
00:27:45.460give them tablets and then everything will be all right. No, it won't because they're going to use
00:27:48.640those tablets to get on Snapchat. So that is not a solution. Or they say, I know what we need to do.
00:27:54.460Let's get them in on Saturdays and on the holidays. And then there's an argument between
00:27:58.320those who think teachers are lazy. Ah, they just don't want to teach on Saturdays. And then there's
00:28:02.300the ones saying no no no we've got to get them in on Saturdays well is anybody showing up is my
00:28:06.600point you know if the kids aren't there then there's no point in having this conversation
00:28:09.900so it's it is complex it is difficult there is no particular solution apart from really good
00:28:17.340teaching when we come back really good thinking you know any of the leaders school leaders who
00:28:22.420are listening to this need to be thinking and I'm sure they are already they they need to be
00:28:26.680thinking how are we going to manage this when we get back to school to get the most that we can
00:28:32.440out of the kids and that is about giving them excellent behavior systems and excellent teaching
00:28:37.780um and then the children will be able to deliver i mean the the percentages they were coming out
00:28:43.080with last night on news night was that a 50 of children in the country are not doing work at
00:28:47.920home you know and that's what they know so if they know that 50 aren't doing it that means far more
00:28:53.040than 50% are doing it now I suspect at the better schools I mean we find over 80% of our kids are
00:28:58.060doing the work and we know it so and and we know it for certain you know I I'm not we're not being
00:29:03.100fooled and that's because we've thought about how they're going to fool us and we've got our
00:29:06.340spreadsheet we've got our phone calls and we've got everything happening so we know um but it's
00:29:11.100true that those ones who are not working uh I'm concerned about and uh it is a genuine worry uh
00:29:18.200having said that year sevens and eights I do think they'll catch up the ones the big ones to worry
00:29:22.540about the year 10s and the year 12s. Those are the big ones. And then the little ones down on the
00:29:26.760other end, who I don't teach because I'm at secondary, but those four and five-year-olds,
00:29:30.740six-year-olds who are learning how to read, learning how to write, that will have a big
00:29:35.160impact on them. But, you know, sometimes a kid ends up in hospital for six months and he misses
00:29:41.920school. That's what life is. You just have to pick up, pick yourself up and keep on going, you know?
00:29:47.720And Catherine, what do you think are going to be the long-term implications of the fact that we're
00:29:51.480not having A-levels this year. We're not having GCSEs. All these exams have been scrapped. These
00:29:57.220exams that kids have worked really hard for. Do you think that's going to have a long-term impact
00:30:02.580on these children, especially the children who, again, come from poorer backgrounds? It's all
00:30:08.420right if you go to an exclusive private school where you've got somebody who's going to be
00:30:12.840fighting your corner when it comes to university. Yeah, no, that's absolutely true. In fact,
00:30:20.440you know it's really interesting from my perspective the thing that they've lost out on
00:30:25.020is that build up and preparation towards a set of exams uh it really it teaches you so much about
00:30:31.740yourself about your working habits about how to learn what you're good at in terms of you know
00:30:36.800flashcards work for me or reciting works you know that sort of thing you learn how you the things
00:30:43.540that you like best when learning um you learn how to knuckle down and how to ignore all the
00:30:49.120distractions and how how to make best use of your time how to be efficient you learn how to go to
00:30:54.980that revision session that's going on even though it's not mandatory you know how to debug you learn
00:31:00.180how to buy into your life and how to own your life you know uh it's it's it's wonderful i mean
00:31:05.500people often in teaching don't like exams you know not all of us teachers are like that um but
00:31:11.060there are there are there are some teachers who are very critical of exams they feel it puts too
00:31:14.680much pressure on children and so on. I really believe in exams for all of the skills that
00:31:22.440they teach you in the run-up to those exams. And so these children haven't had that. And
00:31:28.700I mean, at least the year 13s had it at GCSE. So there is that. I'm particularly concerned
00:31:36.860about the year 11s who haven't had that GCSE experience. So when they then go on to do other
00:31:42.140exams whether that's b-tech or a level and so on later that'll be the first time that they're
00:31:46.920really coming across i mean i know they had their sats when they were in year six but that's
00:31:50.600ages ago they don't really remember that so they they've lost out on a whole load of skills there
00:31:56.060which um which is a shame uh and actually i'm not sure it matters whether you're poor or rich
00:32:01.700in that in that situation i think everybody's in a similar situation um and you know it's also
00:32:07.340interesting because uh you know i have a friend she works at a private one of the top private
00:32:11.420girls schools uh and you know it's highly selective and uh she was saying well you know
00:32:16.680they turn up to her zoo lessons and so on but she she's aware that they're on various apps when
00:32:22.320she's talking to them and you know they're up to nonsense because they're kids you know the key
00:32:28.500thing if you take one thing away from this interview it's for everyone to remember they
00:32:32.960are kids i feel like everyone it's forgotten what kids are like you know think back to what
00:32:38.540you were like as a child exemplary catherine i mean look they're lovely i love children that's
00:32:47.220why i'm a teacher i love them but come on they're naughty and they try and get away with stuff
00:32:52.960and the the further the distance to a school is from the child the less opportunity we have to
00:32:59.960make sure that they're on that right track and um i said it at the beginning actually when to all my
00:33:04.800teachers i said to them right well we've got 98 of them you know doing all the work that we want
00:33:10.780this is going to it's going to curtail they're gonna they're gonna start dropping off as time
00:33:15.780goes on there's something gonna start going yeah okay yeah miss rang but she's just gonna ring
00:33:20.540again next week and oh actually it doesn't matter so much anymore and so and of course that's
00:33:26.520exactly what's happened because they're children you know um you know the divide will it will
00:33:33.880exacerbate that divide but that's just that's life you know we just need to work hard when we get back
00:33:39.560hi guys and welcome to my bedroom or as it's otherwise called palacio orgasmo
00:33:48.160now this is a short video on behalf of the angel comedy club now you may not be aware but there is
00:33:54.400something on the planet right now called the corona virus which is putting a little bit of
00:33:59.800a spanner into the works of a lot of people, especially comedy clubs, in particular Angel
00:34:05.100Comedy Club, which is where we film our show. And Angel has been so supportive to us. They've been
00:34:09.780absolutely brilliant. And they now need your help because they can't have any shows. They can't run
00:34:16.520a bar. But the problem is they still have to pay rent. So if you think a comedy club which puts on
00:34:23.400acts like Stuart Lee, Eddie Izzard, Maria Bamford for a fiver and lets us film for free is something
00:34:29.380that should exist in the world, I personally think it should, then all you have to do is give a little
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00:34:41.160to the PayPal account. I will have links. There'll be links at the bottom in order for you to do that.
00:34:47.060Now, if you can't do that, no worries at all. We completely understand. But hopefully you'll be
00:34:52.000able to maybe pop down to Angel one day to see a live show from us or a whole host of other
00:34:56.180fabulous comedians. Stay safe and take care.
00:34:59.380and do you think there are any positives that come out of this for for teachers for kids for
00:35:07.080the education system is anything that we can learn from this that otherwise might not have
00:35:12.380happened uh any upsides at all that you see to to what's happened um i don't know that will be a no
00:35:19.880i don't think there are i mean look it's lovely people clapping and and and it brings a certain
00:35:28.360camaraderie and people pull together and so on but i mean it's devastating obviously what is
00:35:34.960happening and uh no i mean i i don't see many positives apart from the fact that the country
00:35:41.520is trying to pull together and i say the country is trying to pull together i'm disappointed by
00:35:47.360um the number of people just saying crazy things accusations of the government you know i'm not
00:35:53.880i'm not saying the government has done everything correctly obviously they're making mistakes they're
00:35:57.820in a very difficult situation um but i do think it's i i do worry about the press being uh so
00:36:07.460vicious in the way that some sometimes they can be uh when these are just ordinary men and women
00:36:13.300they get earned 67 000 pounds a year or whatever it is as a politician you know they're just people
00:36:18.660who are trying to help their country now you might want to say oh they've made certain mistakes
00:36:23.340All the accusations of Dominic Cummings, I mean, look, he's just a bit of a nerd who can't dress properly. I mean, I don't think he's this mastermind, you know, rubbing his hands together thinking, oh, how can I get everybody to do what I want?
00:37:09.800100 years every day you know yeah there's one exception to that rule and i actually tried to
00:37:15.720do a comedy routine about it that donald trump has not aged the day apparently the stresses of
00:37:20.360power are not affecting him quite as much but i actually it's a really important thing that you
00:37:25.600bring up because i think that you are someone who is in a position of leadership you have a lot of
00:37:29.900experience in that and i think one of the things that i see from a lot of the people who are in my
00:37:35.440opinion overly critical and i agree with you of some of the things the government is saying they
00:37:39.800just don't have any experience of being a leader i mean the first thing you learn when you lead
00:37:44.240anything whether it's you know a school football team or anything is that you make mistakes all
00:37:51.200the time and there is no getting away from it exactly that that is exactly right and uh you
00:37:56.660know friends of mine who are attacking the government and so on or or and i sort of think
00:38:01.560look you if you're not a leader it's true they don't have the experience uh journalists obviously
00:38:06.380are not leaders you know i mean obviously they are journalists and they're great what they do
00:38:10.200and i'm not being critical but they also have never uh built something up from the ground
00:38:15.920and let it and and when you've done that you know one how remember i spoke about trust at the
00:38:22.220beginning how important it is to have trust from your people because if you don't have that then
00:38:27.740everything just spins out of control the other thing that you learn is just how hard it is to
00:38:31.800be a leader and how hard it is to get it right and that when you are hit by things that you're
00:38:37.040not expecting you have to make quick decisions and sometimes you're going to get them wrong
00:38:41.840and that's okay because you're human and and you hope that you are surrounded by people
00:38:47.960who are kind enough to forgive you for those mistakes um and i know that i am with my staff
00:38:54.980I'm very lucky to have my staff because when I make mistakes, they forgive me and they help me pick up the pieces and we keep moving forward.
00:39:02.760And I feel that there aren't enough people helping the government with that.
00:39:06.440Now, that doesn't mean that they shouldn't put forward their alternative views.
00:39:09.480You know, Peter Hitchens is always going to take an alternative view and is very anti the lockdown.
00:39:13.320And that's fine. I just think that when we're being critical, we need to do it in a constructive way.
00:39:18.540we need to we need to make our arguments and we need to lay out our evidence and reasons why
00:39:25.140as opposed to just making these big pronouncements we're not going back until it's safe like well
00:39:29.820what does that mean so we're not going back for a year is that what we're suggesting you know
00:39:34.040it's it's um we have to be reasonable in in what we're saying and what we're accepting and i feel
00:39:42.140that i'm trying to be reasonable when i say look whatever the government tells me to do i will do
00:39:45.600um now and people are surprised by that because normally i get really annoyed about what we're
00:39:50.940told to do in education and that's because i'm an expert in education so i know what works in
00:39:56.920the classroom and so i'm very vocal about that i know for instance that social distancing cannot
00:40:01.760work in schools so i've been very vocal about that what i don't know is how to get the country
00:40:06.740moving again and how to save all those small businesses you know people assume that it's just
00:40:12.140uh the the virus that's killing people but you know there's all sorts of stats to show that
00:40:16.960there are more for instance uh battered women at home who have been killed in the last few weeks
00:40:21.920um they're all sorts of people people will be committing suicide because of their situation
00:40:27.320financial situations you know we mustn't just assume that the only thing that kills is the
00:40:31.920virus there are other things that kill too and um and i'm no expert so that's why i can't make
00:40:38.080a decision. I'm simply ringing alarm bells and saying, hey, look, everybody, we need to think
00:40:43.380about this stuff. And is it very, very difficult now to sort of plan a coherent strategy where you
00:40:49.860were talking about the culture war in education where you're on one side and you've got progressives
00:40:54.700on the other side? Can you actually formulate a coherent strategy when you've got those two sides
00:41:01.120bumping heads, essentially? And that's the point. That's exactly the point, which is that all that
00:41:06.780ends up happening is each side is shouting nobody's actually listening to each other
00:41:10.660and um it's it's really sad i just uh remembered that i didn't mention actually about ppe because
00:41:17.420uh um that's one thing that teachers say you know they need to have ppe and um and i that i don't
00:41:23.400think is an unreasonable thing for teachers to be provided with ppe while teaching uh that would
00:41:29.300certainly go a long way to gaining uh the trust of teachers so if government wanted to do something
00:41:35.620to make teachers feel at ease that would be something having said that ppe is difficult
00:41:41.740to get into the hospitals and obviously they need to be there first so um maybe that's not possible
00:41:49.480but uh not ppe for children that's silly and the reason why it's silly is because if you know kids
00:41:55.860they'll break it in two minutes exactly they'll lose it it'll be finished there's no point so
00:42:01.760the only people who should have PPE in schools would be the teachers uh you know I thought it
00:42:07.500was really clever the way in which the supermarkets almost immediately uh enacted you know they got
00:42:13.860a screen up it was within days that they had screens up and they had their stickers on the
00:42:18.880floor for two meters apart and they had a whole system they just changed everything instantly
00:42:23.460that sort of thing might be uh you know what I'm saying is that systems in schools and leaders in
00:42:30.300school this needs to be thinking well how can we make it so that we can protect our staff the best
00:42:34.620as possible the other thing i didn't mention actually in terms of running a school and how
00:42:38.260difficult it is the idea of going back is that we mustn't forget if they're telling you to send
00:42:43.100home everyone who has a cough and if they're telling you to send home everyone who has an
00:42:46.800underlying issue and that that includes everyone with asthma and everybody has asthma right
00:42:50.820you've got less than half your staff there and if you've got less than half your staff but you've
00:42:56.240got all the kids that's a disaster right so we've got we do have to think really carefully about how
00:43:02.400it's done um now you may just want to send home the staff who have um underlying issues because
00:43:07.520what i understand 50 of people uh carrying it wouldn't wouldn't show symptoms anyway so i you
00:43:15.660know what do you do you got five people with symptoms five people without symptoms who do
00:43:18.880you send you know it's very hard as a leader and we must think about people like me had teachers
00:43:24.520who are having to make difficult decisions
00:43:49.400Now we might disagree about how that best needs to be achieved.
00:43:52.380Even the scientists disagree with each other about the right way forward.
00:43:56.680So if even the scientists are disagreeing, then we need to recognize that there isn't obviously one clear route about what to do.
00:44:04.140Now, we do need to speak, you know, carefully.
00:44:07.700So you mentioned Donald Trump earlier, and I think that Donald Trump has been rather, you know, loose with his language and the things that he has been saying.
00:44:16.640And I think that that's poor leadership.
00:44:18.980leaders need to be very careful about what they say and how they say it especially when others
00:44:25.620are listening to you and then will go off and copy what you've said and and will have misunderstood
00:44:30.540what you've said um and it's easy to say well they're just stupid well you know the fact is
00:44:36.220people don't know and they're listening to you so you do have to be careful as a leader um there is
00:44:41.580a response we have a responsibility and i say we because i'm a leader we have a responsibility to
00:44:46.440think very carefully about the things that we're saying and what we're doing and our actions um
00:44:51.240and people have a responsibility i think to be kind in their judgment of us and there's a question
00:44:58.340that i wanted to ask you actually last episode catherine and we touched on this earlier in the
00:45:03.300interview which is teacher bashing teachers are one of the most important roles this country
00:45:10.080any society can have we all remember a great teacher we all remember a teacher that changed
00:45:15.880our lives that inspired our love of learning for for a particular subject why is it in this country
00:45:22.060we do not have respect for teachers because i was a teacher for 12 years and i saw it day in day out
00:45:27.800that's why i make because you were a teacher that's why we don't have respect for teachers
00:45:32.160they let people like you do it that's why absolutely well that's probably part of it but
00:45:37.820why do you think what i find it's been really interesting on twitter because um i've been
00:45:45.760able to have those conversations and hear what people say in a way that i in my own circle of
00:45:50.740friends and so on i wouldn't i wouldn't have heard these opinions because the people i know tend to
00:45:54.800like teachers um and what i hear is often i hear i had a teacher when i was in year seven who was
00:46:03.400mean to me and i hate him and they kept that anger because there was a teacher who once did x
00:46:10.940and they hold that against uh everyone um i remember diane abbott once talking about um
00:46:18.140a teacher of hers so this would have been in the 1980s and she'd written an excellent essay
00:46:21.960uh and it was brilliant but she was told that it was bad and she was stupid and so on and no doubt
00:46:26.960the teacher was racist and that was what was going on this was in the 1980s now she's taken
00:46:32.440that so to heart i feel that it informs her judgment of teacher it has informed her judgment
00:46:38.140of teachers since and she's been well known to be accusing schools of being all sorts of things
00:46:42.460you know in the past and uh and i think that that's because she can't let go of that particular
00:46:48.320experience i think that i find that with lots of my followers on twitter and so on that they are
00:46:53.880very angry about a particular teacher um they also have a certain way of they believe that the school
00:47:02.760ought to teach in a particular way and if the teacher if the teachers aren't doing that they
00:47:07.360get very angry about it and my my position on that is that look you're going to get a variety
00:47:13.020of different schools if you can have choice if you live in a big city great you've got choice
00:47:17.080try and choose a school that best matches your values um if you don't well sadly that's just
00:47:23.200the way that it is and you need to recognize that there is going to be a particular way in which
00:47:28.160that school leader that head teacher is going to leave that school and you know they might have a
00:47:33.680way of having the teachers all pull together and deliver teaching in a particular kind of way,
00:47:38.420or they might be a lot more free about it. They might let teachers just get up to whatever they
00:47:41.960want. There are different styles of schools. And it's just the way that it is. And you're not going
00:47:49.980to get a school, any school, you will never find a school which delivers exactly what you want.
00:47:56.440You as a parent, and this is key, and this is something that this pandemic is really
00:48:01.000demonstrating for me which is that parents have forgotten that part of their role is to teach
00:48:07.820their children okay it isn't just the role of teachers you as a parent before your child goes
00:48:14.480to school should be trying to teach them how to read you as a parent should be reading with them
00:48:19.940regularly every single day all of the time i would say right up to the age of 15 you know
00:48:25.280you as a parent should be encouraging them if you are able to afford it try and get them playing a
00:48:30.760musical instrument and if you can't afford it get them on get them doing chess online for instance
00:48:36.800right now you can go on chess kid.com and you can get free subscription in fact all the time you
00:48:41.880could have played chess kid you don't get a subscription but you could have done it for free
00:48:44.920online all the time where all the families sat around teaching their children how to play chess
00:48:49.160or sat around playing monopoly you know the fact is that parents have just farmed out that
00:48:55.660responsibility to schools and i do think that this happens because the state um has become all
00:49:02.100powerful in in our society and we are just used to uh looking to the state we are dependent on
00:49:09.040the state for everything tell me how to think tell me what to do tell me you know and so when
00:49:13.240it comes to our own children we do not recognize that our responsibility as parents is we are the
00:49:19.780first protocol in teaching them then you send them to school so yes they're going to be taught
00:49:25.340physics GCSE you might not know much physics they're going to be taught history GCSE maybe
00:49:29.360you're not an expert at that but there's loads certainly at primary level you should be there
00:49:35.000every step along the way and I think too many parents are not fulfilling their responsibility
00:49:39.120on that and then they like to just blame so they'll just blame the teacher it's because the
00:49:43.920teacher hasn't taught him well what have you taught him as a parent um so it it comes around
00:49:50.360there is also, I mean, look, I'm blaming parents, but there is also the unions. The unions are one
00:49:56.780of the big reasons why teachers are hated because they give us all a bad name. I'm constantly
00:50:01.160embarrassed, constantly humiliated by the things the unions are saying. I mean, I just, they make
00:50:06.360us look like we're lazy. That's what they make us look like. And what I would ask anybody, any
00:50:11.500non-educationalist listening to this, to listen to me and to believe me when I say the vast
00:50:17.620majority of teachers are not like them okay the unions speak supposedly for us but there are many
00:50:23.660teachers who they are not speaking for it's just that those teachers don't have a voice there are
00:50:28.200all sorts of teachers right now who um and i don't mean me because i do have a voice i mean
00:50:33.580we're giving a voice to the voiceless here in trigonometry catherine that's what we do
00:50:38.260there are famous teachers out there right now who are working like mad who are delivering wonderful
00:50:44.480lessons and videos and they're doing everything they're marketing their work as it's coming back
00:50:50.140to them on photos on google classroom and so on they're doing everything they can for their kids
00:50:54.800um and then the union say we don't want this we don't want that and then the parents think oh
00:50:59.960you're just a bunch of lazy teachers but they're not it's just that they don't have a voice and
00:51:03.820they're not able to tell you everything they're doing for your children teachers every teacher
00:51:07.720i've ever known all of them they all go into teaching because they love kids they go into
00:51:13.920teaching because they want to change the world. That's what they want to do. They want to have
00:51:18.340impact on the world. And they think that by teaching little children, by, you know, when I
00:51:22.860say little, they can be 15, but you know, by teaching children, you're able to have impact
00:51:27.280on the world. That's what you can do as a teacher. And that's why it's the most wonderful job.
00:51:31.580And every teacher goes into it for that reason. Now it's true that not every teacher comes out
00:51:36.300of it on the other side, still thinking that. And that is because the system can grind them down
00:51:42.300And it grinds them down for a whole variety of reasons.
00:51:44.580My other trigonometry interview that I've done with you
00:51:47.060explains some of the reasons why teachers get ground down
00:51:49.900because I believe that the system is better than it was.
00:51:54.400I was going to say it's broken, but it's better than it was 10 years ago.
00:51:58.380I feel we're on a trajectory moving upwards in this country
00:52:01.700and things are getting better all of the time.
00:52:03.300So I'm really positive about education at the moment and where we're going.
00:52:06.820But there's no question that teachers are under a lot of stress.
00:52:10.120it's really hard being a teacher and they give a lot to the the system and sometimes it can break
00:52:16.540them and so again i would ask families who are perhaps a bit too judgmental of teachers
00:52:20.720give them a break you know it's hard that doesn't mean every teacher is good you know and i do think
00:52:25.440the unions again the unions can often come in and defend teachers who are bad and you know insist on
00:52:29.880keeping them in the classroom um i i i do think the unions do us uh far fewer favors than you know
00:52:37.880I mean, they have a role to play. I'm not saying they shouldn't exist, but I do wish that they weren't as rabid as they are.
00:52:44.640That makes a lot of sense. Catherine, we've come to the end of our hour with you.
00:52:48.420It's always a pleasure speaking with you. It's such a passionate advocate for the things that you believe and you believe them based on your experience.
00:52:56.300And speaking of your experience, what is the one thing that you see right now that is not being talked about that you think we really should be talking about as a society?
00:53:05.080yeah well you know what i just said actually about the state i mean you know i i've said
00:53:12.540this before i think in the last interview you know we have got so used to depending on the state and
00:53:19.560i don't just mean people are on welfare okay i here's an example we just expect the schools to
00:53:25.260teach our children and we've forgotten about the responsibility that we have to our own children
00:53:28.700um we we expect the government to sort out this pandemic and you know if they haven't sorted it
00:54:02.300I had impact on the world you know that combination of duty and responsibility I think has been
00:54:09.080eroded over the last you know several decades and and I think sadly that has to do with the
00:54:15.300influence of the state when you take away too much from an individual in terms of what they need what
00:54:20.500they're responsible for um they they forget how to how to be how to be human how how to live you
00:54:27.360know and I say you want to be you want to live you don't want to just exist and that requires
00:54:31.260buying into those concepts of personal responsibility duty obligation um behaving
00:54:37.820in a decent manner uh kindness gratitude all of those which are all you know uh sentiments and
00:54:46.160ideas that we we try and instill in our children at michaela that sounds like a party political
00:54:51.640broadcast for the labor party no no that's a political broadcast for the conservative party
00:54:58.380personal responsibility but yeah I would say it isn't a party political broadcast for any party
00:55:05.360these days nobody talks you ever hear a politician talking about personal responsibility about duty
00:55:10.440about obligation never doesn't come out of their mouths it doesn't exist they don't we don't talk
00:55:14.760in that fashion anymore and um that is sad I think that in 2020 we just lost something and I think
00:55:22.600we need to get it back I think you're right Catherine it's so interesting the point that
00:55:26.120you make about people expecting the government to be able to just solve any problem i see so many
00:55:31.060people now going oh look look how many people have died and you're going yeah it's a pandemic
00:55:37.100people die in the pandemic that's what happens you know like the government can't just fix
00:55:42.600everything completely without any consequences it's extremely sad it's devastating families and
00:55:50.060so on um and people sadly always look to blame somebody it's the same with the teacher's point
00:55:56.300you know why do they hate teachers because they want an explanation for why their child can't do
00:56:00.000maths you know um you have to get out of that mentality what is my responsibility what can I
00:56:07.000do to change this that's what we should always be thinking and Catherine you mentioned there's a
00:56:12.380book that you're working on at the moment as well tell us about that before we let you go
00:56:15.800Yeah, we have got a book called The Power of Culture. It talks about all the ideas actually that I was just mentioning about duty and personal responsibility and so on and how we try and instill these values in the children at school and how important I think these values are to a school and to education.
00:56:33.160And I have to say this book, The Power of Culture, it's written by all of our teachers. Well, not all of them, but most of them. And we do say some very controversial things.
00:56:42.420I am a bit nervous about it because what we're saying, you're not really meant to think, let alone say, as a teacher.
00:56:48.700But I think it's important for us to to move to move the to move the conversation on from where it's at in education at the moment.
00:56:58.000So we're actually having a book launch, online book launch on Zoom at 6 p.m. on Wednesday next week on the 6th.
00:57:06.480So and everyone's invited. I've been tweeting out. Anyone can come.
00:57:09.840they just need to sign up and uh there's an interview with me and i'll be talking more about
00:57:14.440the book so you know your your viewers are very welcome to come along fantastic thanks so much
00:57:19.220and it sounds like uh you're going to trigger some people which is what we always approve of
00:57:23.240here at chicken obituary so uh thanks so much catherine and everybody for watching we'll see