Mr Briggs is like a typical strict teacher, always shouting. He finds something to shout at in everyone. In scene 6 Mr Briggs is lecturing Reilly (one of the children) and then he instantly turns round and says to another child (Linda) “what sort of outfit is that for a school visit”. He also ends up arguing with Mrs Kay over the children quite a lot. I think this shows he likes to be in control and when he’s shouting at people he thinks he’s doing a good job. Mrs Kay tries to explain to Mr Briggs that the kids need some fun in their lives while Mr Briggs threatens to send them home.
Mrs Kay understands the difficulties the progress class go through and is very sympathetic towards them. Mr Briggs on the other hand doesn’t understand the difficult lives the children in the progress class lead. He treats them like they’re worthless, the way he speaks to them for example “sit down now, come on, move!” he also says “a lot of you haven’t been on a school trip before so I’ll tell you how to behave”. He likes to tell the children what to do and he seems like he has already stopped the kids from having fun. Mrs Kay sets one rule for the trip “think of yourselves, but think of others as well”. That rule seems reasonable to me whereas Mr Briggs enforces several rules for the trip. “Speak quietly to the person next to you”, “look nicely at the scenery outside” and many more. This also shows how the two teachers believe the progress class should behave, it is difficult to decide which is more effective but they are completely different styles of teaching.
Mrs Kay believes the children in the progress class should be allowed freedom to do things on their own. Mr Briggs attempts to keep the kids in order and follow the plan for the day whereas Mrs Kay wants the kids to enjoy themselves, even if that means bending the rules for the trip. Mrs Kay persuades Mr Briggs to let the kids have fun, she says “ooh…. leave them…. They’ll want to stretch their legs and let off a bit of steam.” Mrs Kay treats the progress class the same as smarter kids whereas Mr Briggs treats them differently, this has caused the two teachers to clash a number of times. Mr Briggs doesn’t believe the kids should be trusted unlike Mrs Kay. This time Mr Briggs was proved right as he let Mrs Kay persuade him to trust the children while they went to the zoo. The children ended up stealing the animals and taking them on board the coach. I don’t think trust is something Mr Briggs would give to these children without being persuaded.
I think it’s good to have some trust on the trip but too much or too little and it could go wrong. If Mr Briggs had is way the children wouldn’t enjoy themselves and probably wouldn’t learn anything. If Mrs Kay had her way then the children would enjoy themselves and have lots of fun but they would cause chaos and give the school a bad reputation. If I was a teacher I wouldn’t treat the people from the progress class any different than another class and I would give them some trust. Although I agreed with Mrs Kay I still think if the children break the trust then they shouldn’t get another chance. So in my view they are both right in what they are saying but if they work together and not against each other the trip would be a success.
The school trip was to take the children to see Conway castle and come back, that is exactly what Mr Briggs intended on doing. Mrs Kay’s opinion about the point of a school trip for the progress class was to let them have fun and enjoy themselves. Mr Briggs believes the point of a school trip for the progress class is that the children follow the trip plan, have a quiet coach trip and behave well without having fun. He says to Mrs Kay “if they’re going to have a good stimulating day then it’s got to be planned and executed better than this”. I agree with both teachers as I believe the trip did need to be planned and executed better but the children need to enjoy the trip.
When Mrs Kay decided to take the kids to the zoo Mr Briggs says “I thought this trip was organized to go and see Conway Castle”. I think Mr Briggs is right to question her as he is following the instructions given to him by the headmaster. Mrs Kay knows the children will have more fun at the zoo than the castle but if something was to go wrong it would be her fault. I think Mrs Kay’s style of teaching here is wrong, it would please the children but as a teacher it is her responsibility to have a safe trip.
Towards the end of the play, Mr Briggs changes his views on the children, he said “it’s a shambles the whole ill-organized affair” but soon after he said “anyway, you can’t come to the seaside and not pay a visit to the fair”. Mr Briggs was not told to take the children to the fair but I think he realised he needed to let the kids have fun and enjoy themselves. So Mr Briggs was slightly changing his style of teaching and started to agree with Mrs Kay. The strict teacher decided to have some fun himself as the stage directions quote “Briggs is snapped eating candy-floss, then again at the highest point on the big wheel”. I think Mrs Kay’s decision to take the children to the zoo changed Mr Briggs as that was when he first started to connect with the children.
Mr Briggs thinks that Mrs Kay is too soft for a teacher. He says “she always reminds me of a mother hen rather than a teacher”. In other words she is too kind and caring to be a teacher, he thinks the kids walk all over her. He also says to her “there are times when I think your on there side”. So Mr Briggs thinks everyone’s against him and he believes his style of teaching is more appropriate for the progress class. Mrs Kay might be soft towards the kids but she says it’s not worth teaching them. She tells Mr Briggs “you won’t educate these children because no one wants them educating” also “there’s nothing for them to do, any of them; most of them were born for factory fodder but the factories have closed now”. After hearing that Mr Briggs offered to help out, this sounds like Mr Briggs cares more about the children than Mrs Kay. Mrs Kay might be the one to let them have fun but if she really cared about them she would educate them. Mr Briggs believes the opposite he believes teachers should concentrate on educating them rather than be there friends. Mr Briggs explains to Mrs Kay “I think you have to risk being disliked if your going to do any good for these type of kids”. I agree with Mr Briggs’s style of teaching because if the children are scared of how strict the teacher is then they will listen more. Mr Briggs gets his happiness from knowing he has done the best he can do for the children whether that means being liked or disliked. If Mrs Kay is saying she isn’t teaching any one that nobody wants teaching then I believe that’s wrong; Mr Briggs is right it’s her job to teach not make friends.
I like Mrs Kay the best because I think her teaching style suits and child. Every child wants Mrs Kay as a teacher but it’s not realistic, in the long run I agree with Mr Briggs’s style of teaching. Mr Briggs doesn’t really change at the end but he learns that having fun is a one off and he should let the children play. I do think Mr Briggs should trust them on little things but he was right when he didn’t want them to go to the zoo. The children from the progress class need some trust. On the whole I think Mr Briggs’s teaching style worked best with the progress class and although he would probably educate them better than Mrs Kay would, he would still teach an enjoyable lesson. To make the class perfect I think Mrs Kay should help out as long as the two teachers don’t clash.
