Firstly, I am going to describe Mrs Kay and Mr Briggs's relationships with the pupils. Mrs Kay treats the children friendly and has a laugh and a joke with them “You are like an old woman come on then”. Mr Briggs is much more formal and is like a typical teacher. He shouts at them more than any thing else “(shouting) shut up lad! (Pause) Is it any wonder that people won't do any thing for you?”
Mrs Kay knows and understands the difficulties the kids in the progress class faces and she is sympathetic towards them, this has been shown in the play many times “it's a shame really isn't it, eh? We bring them to crumbling pile of bricks and mortar and they think they're in the fields of heavens”. Mr Briggs doesn't know or understands the difficulties the kids in the progress class faces and he isn't sympathetic towards them instead he is angry “(accusing) you are on their side aren't you?”
Mrs Kay doesn't have any rules apart from “That's the only rule we have today: think of yourselves, but think of others as well”. She believes the best way for the kids to enjoy themselves is not to have much rules in other words let them free. Mr Briggs enforces many rules he believes using rules is the best way to manage the kids “To enjoy a coach trip we sit in our seats. We don't wander up an down the aisle. We talk quietly to our neighbour, not shout at our mates four seats down”.
Secondly, I intend to explore both teachers' opinions about discipline. Mrs Kay believes the children should be allowed freedom, and allowed to do things on their own. For example when she let the kids go to the café unsupervised trusting them to behave. “Ooh…leaves them. They've been cooped up for over an hour. They'll want to stretch their legs and let off a bit of steam.”
Mr Briggs believes that the children shouldn't be trusted and should be supervised at all times for example In the Zoo, Conway Castle and in the beach he always tries to keeps an eye on them. As he said to Mrs Kay “Do you think it was wise just letting them all pour in there at once?”
In summary even though Mr. Briggs did show some underlying emotion towards the kids the audience would sympathies more with Mrs. Kay as she was loyal to herself, the kids and her teaching techniques. Where as Mr. Briggs seemed to use anyway possible to get the kids to do the right thing. For example one minute he would be "barking" at the kids and next he would be showing them the values of life such as when he is talking to Reilly about the docks.
It seems that Mr. Briggs came from a strict background where maybe teaching was of a higher standard and every child was expected to sit the same GCSE's. On the other hand Mrs. Kay's background would have been similar to those in the progress class as she seems to understand and relate to them a lot more than the other teachers in the play. This strong bond between Mrs. Kay and the kids may make the audience sympathies with her more.
Finally, I am going to give you my opinion on who is right, In my opinion Mrs Kay is right to trust the children since the children don’t have much hope in the feature. So letting them enjoy themselves is a good idea, at the
Same time I have to agree with Mr Briggs idea of not trusting kids who are capable of robbing shops and stealing animals.
