Mrs. Kay and Mr. Briggs represent two different dramatic portrayals of teaching . Discuss these two characters and their two styles deciding upon which is the better suited to the children in
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Introduction
Mrs. Kay and Mr. Briggs represent two different dramatic portrayals of teaching . Discuss these two characters and their two styles deciding upon which is the better suited to the children in "Our Day Out". The author Willy Russell wrote our day out. Willy Russell sets a lot of his plays in Liverpool and bases them around the theme of education e.g. "Educating Rita". Other plays that Willy Russell has written are "Blood Brothers", "Stags and Hens" and "Shirley Valentine". Mr. Briggs is a disciplinarian who believes that the only way to control children is to keep a firm restriction on what he will allow them to do, this is shown when he says, "I've learned that trust is something you people don't understand. Now, I'm warning you, all of you, don't expect any more trust from me!" The children see Mr. Briggs as a monotonous teacher that they are unable to have fun with, this is shown within the stage directions stating, "At the back the kids are all stifled and bored by Briggs's presence." Les thinks that Mr. Briggs is an arrogant git, this is shown when Les says "Arrogant get, that one is". ...read more.
Middle
go on school trips, but in this he talks to them as if they are rogues that have no idea of how to behave. Mr. Briggs has lots of rules because he believes that you can only educate children if you keep them disciplined and give them no leeway to misbehave. "well I don't know if these people can be trusted on their own Mrs. Kay."-This quote shows that Mr. Briggs does not trust the children in the same way that Mrs. Kay does. I think that this play proves Briggs to have been wrong in his approach towards children because when he was relaxed with them at the zoo they respected him more, although they did take the animals but I think that they saw it is getting pets or something similar rather than stealing. The children also respected Briggs at the fair when he was beginning to gain an understanding with them. "She always reminds me of a mother hen rather than a teacher."-This quotation shows that he does not take Mrs. Kay or her teaching methods seriously. "You won't educate them because no one wants them educating."-This quotation shows that Mrs. Kay has lost faith in the ability to educate the children academically so she attempts to educate them in the ways of life instead. ...read more.
Conclusion
At the end of the play Briggs alters by letting out his fun side at the fair after getting caught by reality at the beach when Carol threatens to jump of the cliff edge, but at the end of the school trip he attempts to destroy his fun side by destroying the photos that Mrs. Kay had taken. My opinion of Mr. Briggs changed at the end of the ply because he had shown that he was really a kind person trapped inside a hard shell. I have never encountered teaching styles like the ones in the play although a have encountered a lot of combinations of the two teaching styles. I am likely to prefer Mrs. Kay's teaching style because she is kind and friendly but it is likely that I would not learn much. My favourite character was Briggs because I found him interesting because there was a lot of depth to his character. I think that Mr. Briggs would have been better suited to the progress class because it is like ly that they need more discipline than perhaps other students would and it is obvious that he has more determination to educate than Mrs. Kay which was the point of the Progress Class. Luke Groves English Essay 01/05/2007 ...read more.
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