Mr Briggs has different views of the trip. He thinks that it should be educational because he doesn’t understand the children’s backgrounds.
“Sir, sir me mam say nottin’ about it sir but when me dad gets home sir, sir he belts me.”
“Because you smoke.”
“Sir no, because I wont give him one.”
Mr Briggs walks up and down the coach looking for trouble and wants to find as many ways to criticise Mrs Kay’s way of teaching. He sees her more as a mother than as a teacher.
Mrs Kay understands the difficulties of the progress class and knows that there is no point in teaching the kids because it’s too late. She does her best to make the children to feel trusted for example on the bus the driver wont let the kids on the bus because of the chocolate and lemonade incident. Mrs Kay is prepared to lie so that the children have a good day out. “Lemonade never touches their lips.”
Mr Briggs doesn’t have much of a clue about the lives of the kids because he thinks that they are just a bunch of troublemakers. “You’ve got some real bright sparks in here Mrs Kay, a right bunch.” He doesn’t understand that the children’s parents are either in low paid jobs, unemployed or have left home.
Mrs Kay does not have many rules at all. (Only one!). “That’s the only rule we have today, think of others before yourself.” I think that Mrs Kay wants them to have the freedom to do what they want because if there were more rules then the day might become duller.
Mr Briggs on the other hand, has a very different idea about the rules. He walks up and down the coach trying his best to reinforce the rules to the fullest and sometimes he deals with problems unprofessionally. For example when he sees that Linda Croxley is not in school uniform he almost threatens her. I think that Mr Briggs tries to enforce the rules because he hasn’t got much of an imagination and doesn’t see what Mrs Kay’s see in them and he’s scared of losing face by being to soft with the children.
Secondly I intend to explore both teachers’ opinions about discipline.
Mrs Kay wants the children to have the freedom to explore their own environments by themselves and wants the children to feel trusted and responsible for themselves. For example at the zoo not only does she not supervise the children, she also tries to get Mr Briggs to stop supervising them. “I’m just going for a cup of coffee, do you want to join me?”
Mr Briggs does not trust the children because he thinks that if they are left alone they will find trouble. At the zoo, when he sees that the children are behaving well he give them a chance to be trusted.” All right Mrs Kay, ill give them a chance to act responsibly. When they let him down, he trusts them even less than before, and perhaps is even pleased to have his fears justified.
I think that by trusting the kids to do as they please Mrs Kay is achieving her goal to let the children have as much fun as possible. But Mr Briggs can’t trust them because when he does the children get into trouble and it ruins his and the schools reputation. I think that Willy Russell sometimes justifies the children’s poor behaviour, by balancing it with other adult’s poor behaviour-for example when the children steal sweets, the shop owners inflate the prices, so deserve to lose out.
Thirdly, I am going to look at Mrs Kays and Mr Briggs opinions about the point of the school trips.
In Mrs Kay opinion, the point of the school trip for the progress class was to have an enjoyable day out. She knows that after the kid’s have left school they are not going to have much of a life, so she arranges the trip so that the children will have a day to remember.
“Carol, love, we have to go home. It can’t be like this all the time.”
“Why not?”
(Looks at her and sighs) “I don’t know love”
In Mr Briggs opinion, the point of the school trip is to let the progress class have an educational, disciplined day out. “Now you can see these larger square holes, just below the battlements.”
Near the end of the play we see a different side to Mr Briggs. On the cliff he realises a more human side to Carol. He sees her as a person with feelings.
“You don’t care, do y?”
He realises how distressed Carol is and he understand how hard life is for her and how hopeless her future is likely to be. It’s the first time he sees the children as human beings, rather than just being a group of children he needs to control.
Finally, I intend to discuss Mrs Kays and Mr Briggs teaching styles.
Mr Briggs thinks that Mrs Kay is too soft to be a teacher and believes that she doesn’t enforce discipline enough and that the children see her as a soft touch.
Mrs Kay doesn’t think that there’s any good in teaching the children because they were “rejects” when they were born and the factory jobs that they are supposed to go are no longer available. She knows that they don’t have the intelligence to get them through to college.
Mr Briggs thinks that the children should be educated. He doesn’t agree with Mrs Kay that you should become their friends. “ It may look like love and kindness, but if you ask me I don’t think it does the children a scrap of good.”
Mrs Kay’s style of teaching is more effective because ultimately it gets better results from the class. Mrs Kay acts very much like a mother to the progress class and treats the children as if they were her own. I think that her teaching methods of being kind to the children help get the best of them and work much better that using discipline. However I do think that sometimes the children take advantage of her kindness.
Mr Briggs is a far more conventional teacher than Mrs Kay. Although his teaching style may work in a school from a more privileged area he has not got the foresight to realise that his methods may not work on children with poor prospects. He did show some understanding after his experience with Carol but he is quite ambitious and needs to revert to his old style in order to save face with the headmaster.
