'Our day out' - Whose style of teaching do you think is the best for the progress class?

Whose style of teaching do you think is the best for the progress class?

In “Our Day Out” The progress class is a class for those with reading and writing problems. In an inner city Liverpool school. The play is set in the 1970’s.

Introduction

Mrs Kay their teacher is a motherly figure towards the kids. She is on the children’s side, she prefers the children to have fun rather than focus on their education. She also has a low expectation of the kids. There is proof of this when she says, “its to late for them. Most of them were rejects on the day they were born.”

Mr Briggs who is very much stricter was sent along to go on the trip by the headmaster, to try and keep things in some sort of order. He does not show a liking towards the children. He is a dedicated teacher, very much the opposite of Mrs Kay (education comes first). The kids think they dislike him until the point with Carol, where he starts to talk. I think he uses a type of mask to conceal his true feelings, but when passion is shown towards him he shows passion out.

Firstly I am going to describe Mrs Kay’s and Mr Briggs relationship with the kids

Mrs Kay treats the children with kindness and passion. The children think of her as more of a friend, a motherly figure rather than a teacher. She tried to enforce this idea to the kids by telling them to call her by her first name (Helen). She compels the children to just have fun, but introducing only one rule which is “think of yourselves, but think of others as well.” This freedom maximises her popularity with the pupils, such as when Reilly says towards Mrs Kay, “your ace miss.” Mrs Kay has a particular relationship with Carol. This is shown in the stage directions on the coach, “carol has her arm linked through Mrs Kay’s and is snuggled up to her they look more like mother and daughter than teacher and pupil.”

Mr Briggs is much more formal and like a cliché of a typical teacher. He is shows himself to be strict and powerful in front of the children. He makes threatening remarks such as “count yourself lucky you’re not a lad.” He also does this through his movements “[leaning in close, threatening]” he also shows that he has a caring side “listen, why don’t you promise yourself that you’ll give up smoking. You must realise it is bad for your health.” His first conversation is with Andrews when he says “how long have u been smoking, Andrews?” this shows that he is quite interested in the children because he asks the question to Andrews. In this is the same conversation Andrews shows fear and respect towards Mr Briggs by saying ”sir” in each sentence at least once.

Mrs Kay understands the difficulties of these children in the progress class, she knows they come from a difficult background and knows they have no fun. She tries to make the trip as enjoyable as possible. She knows that most of them have never been outside Liverpool, “many of them have had hard lives, and can we try and make this trip as enjoyable, can we try please?”

Mr Briggs does not understand the lives of this kids lead. There is proof of this when he is speaking to Andrews about smoking. He believes Andrews father goes to ...

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Mr Briggs does not understand the lives of this kids lead. There is proof of this when he is speaking to Andrews about smoking. He believes Andrews father goes to sea, he also thinks that he is beaten for smoking when Andrews means the opposite “sir, sir, me mum says nottin about it but when me dad comes home, sir, sir, he belts me.”

Briggs: “Because you smoke?”

Andrews “No sir because I wont give him one.” This is a perfect example of the idea Briggs has of the pupil’s lives.

Mrs Kay’s rules are not many her only rule for the trip which was “that’s the only rule we have today: think of yourselves but think of others as well.” Unfortunately these rules are rather lax when Carol ventured up onto the cliffs, which was a safety problem. This was a very unprofessional idea to give the children this freedom and for her not to be looking after them and making sure they are safe at all times.

Mr Briggs has the opposite ideas to Mrs Kay. He is very bad tempered and strict. This comes through when he is speaking to Linda for wearing her normal clothing. He disagrees with this so much, but Linda just refers back to Mrs Kay for safety “well, Mrs Kay never said nott’in about it.” I think this statement left Briggs surprised and taken back. Another example of his power is when he first enters the coach when he told all the children just how to behave and to act while on a trip. But this also backfires on him, when the coach leaves all the kids do exactly the opposite to what Mr Briggs had just said.

Secondly, I intend to explore both teachers’ opinions about discipline

Mrs Kay believes the children should be allowed their freedom, and allowed to do things because she realises that using force will not work on the children because they have grown up to not know discipline, it is better for them to be allowed to do what they want like when Mrs Kay says “Ooh…leave them… They’ll want to stretch their legs and let off a bit of steam.” She concentrates on the best things about them so she feels as though they would never do anything and when they do it just does not bother her.

Mr Briggs does not agree with the same idea as Mrs Kay about discipline and rules, he feels they should be under constant watch because they cannot be trusted with anything. In a way Mr Briggs realises that the kids do get in trouble but he does not see the good things about them and so is always ordering them about. A quote showing this entrustment is when they are at the café and he says “do you think it wise just letting them all pour in there a once?”

There is only a couple of times when what Mr Briggs says about the children is true. One of these is after the zoo when the pupils take the animals as pets under their coats and Mr Briggs replies with “You act like animals, animals! … I’ve learnt that trust is something you people don’t understand.” I think Mrs Kay is also right to let the children have their freedom and to trust them because it gives them a chance to explore for them selves, with their own rules and to do what they want.

Thirdly, I am going to look at Mrs Kay’s and Mr Briggs’ opinions about the point of school trips.

Mrs Kay’s opinion about the point of this school trip for the children in the progress class is to get them out of the restraints of the inner city life and let them be free, to run about and to let them have fun. Mrs Kay knows what kind of life and background these children are from and she wants them to see what else is out there other than the cramped city centre. There is a point where Mrs Kay stands up for what she believes, when she says to Mr Briggs’ “I’m not going to let you prevent the kids from having some fun.” This shows just how much this school trip means to her and the children.

Mr Briggs’ idea of a school trip however is the opposite. His idea of a school trip is for it to be and organised, educational class trip. He, unlike Mrs Kay does not know about the kids background has shown this throughout the play. In a way he wants to help them and get the children stimulated and leaning towards education. Mr Briggs throughout this scene at Conwy Castle is reminding Mrs Kay of what shambles the trip is, such as “…if they are going to have a good and stimulating day then its got to be planned and executed better than this.” And “It’s a shambles, the whole, ill-organised affair.”

Mr Briggs’ concept of a school trip changes dramatically, when he realises how difficult life is for these children. From the point with Carol he starts to relate with the children. And think more of how they feel and act than what how thinks they should be able to behave and act. For the first time he shows he good side to the rest of the class, by saying “Anyway, you can’t come all the way to the seaside and not pay a visit to the fair.” This comment surprises the children because they have never seen this side of him. Mr Briggs’ stage directions show him “Briggs is snapped eating candy-floss, then again at the highest point of the bigwheel.”

Finally, I intend to discuss Mrs Kay’s and Mr Briggs’ teaching styles.

Near the end of the play we see a different side to Mr Briggs. He sees how desperate Carol becomes when she threatens to throw herself over the side of the cliff because she doesn’t want to go home. She wants life to always be happy.

She says, “Why can’t I live in one of them nice white houses and do the garden an’ that?”

Mr Briggs finally realises what the reality of Carol’s life will be, and after managing to prevent her falling, wraps his arms around her.

Once back on the coach Mr Briggs surprises everyone by saying they can’t come “All the way to the seaside and not visit the fair.”

However once the coach is back at the school he destroys the film that shows him singing with the children. We have to presume that he will revert to his old ways once normal school routine restarts.

I believe that Mrs Kay’s teaching is more effective because ultimately it gets better results from the class. She is very realistic about the capabilities of her class and the bleakness of their futures, but wants them to have nice memories of school. She has an excellent relationship with all of the children.

However, Mr Briggs does not have the imagination to realise how hopeless it is to try and educate the children. He finds it impossible to understand why Mrs Kay is friendly with the kids, and is probably ambitious to further his career. He knows the headmaster does not approve of Mrs Kay’s methods, and so he does not allow himself to relax and keep the new relationship with the children, which would have been much more rewarding for both himself and the children.