Compare the characters of Mrs Kay and Mr Briggs

Calum Postlethwaite 11w2

From Willy Russell’s ‘Our Day Out’

‘Our Day Out’ is a play written in the 1970’s by a Liverpoolian called Willy Russell. Willy Russell left school without any qualifications when he was fifteen but furthered his education in the 1970’s as he enrolled on a one year ‘A’ level course.

The play ‘Our Day Out’ was written to raise many issues. Some of these issues include highlighting the poverty and social deprivation surrounding the city of Liverpool at the time. This includes the education of under-privileged, inner city school children. Yet by adding humour he ensured he attracted a wider audience. To get his message across to the audience he uses two totally different characters that both have totally different styles of teaching. Mrs. Kay’s style of teaching involves a much deeper emotional relationship to the progress class children however Mr. Briggs uses a strict, professional approach to the remedial kids, not letting them connect on a personal level. In the play Willy Russell describes a trip to Conway castle which allows the audience to see how the two teachers react to the different situation the children put them in.

In Willy Russell’s play ‘Our Day Out’ there are two main teachers, Mrs. Kay and Mr. Briggs who both have very different teaching methods .Mrs. Kay is very relaxed with the children and takes everything in her stride. The remedial kids prefer her teaching method opposed to that of Mr. Briggs. We know this because one pupil says “you’re ace miss.” However, even though the kids prefer Mrs. Kay, some of the teachers see her as a ‘joke’ and don’t believe she takes the job seriously. Mr. Briggs and the headmaster talk about this before the trip goes ahead and the headmaster says. “I get the impression she sees education as one long game” to which Mr. Briggs replies “she always reminds me of a mother hen rather than a teacher”. This is in some ways correct as Mrs. Kay does act towards the children on a much more personal level and shows a deeper understanding of the problems the kids have. A good example of the friendship she has with the children is on the coach. “Mrs. Kay has taken off her shoes and has her stockinged feet curled up under her. 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”. As Mrs. Kay has interacted with the children individually and more personally she feels sympathetic towards the children and wants them to have as much fun as they can before entering the real world. “There’s no pint in pretending that a day out to Wales is going to furnish them with the education they should have had long ago. It’s to late for them…cant we just try and give them a good day out? At least we could try and do that.” Although we can see where Mrs. Kay is coming from, it is obvious that if the children don’t get the teaching they need now they will most definitely turn out to be failures. This is why I believe Mr. Briggs professional approach would be better for the remedial children

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Mr. Briggs is your typical teacher, strict, professional and doesn’t ever let the children get to know him on a personal level. As seen here “sit down now, come on, move!” Although the children of the progress class may think he doesn’t care, this is un true as Mr. Briggs wants to get the most out of them and therefore feels the need to be extremely strict. However the kids don’t know this and this leaves Mr. Briggs very unpopular with the pupils at the school. He also comes across arrogant to the general public. One person (the lolly pop man) says “arrogant get, that one is”. Although Mr. Briggs doesn’t know the children on a personal and doesn’t understand what their going through, I would put this down to the fact that he hasn’t spent much time with the children. Another teaching method that Mr. Briggs likes to use is the use of rules and tries to enforce them through out the day. However Mrs. Kay gives out one rule “that’s the only rule we have today: think of yourselves, but think of others as well.” We also find out that Mrs. Kay doesn’t even take her own rules seriously (as shown in the stage directions). “Mrs. Kay, glaring in mock seriousness, comes after him. He is laughing. He breaks and runs. She chases him, skirts trailing in the water, with the other kids shouting and urging her to catch him…” This also shows that she can have a laugh with children, although I believe that if she is going to make a rule the rule should be enforced and carried out.

In this paragraph I intend to explore both teachers’ opinions about discipline. Now, Mrs. Kay has got hardly any disciplinary motives for the children and trusts them immensely. This is a consistently bad judgement of the kids on Mrs. Kay’s part. This is because even though she puts all her trust in them they continuously manage to disappoint her, but she doesn’t seem to care. On the other hand Mr. Briggs feels as though the children should earn his trust and not expect it. This is a much better way to manage the children as it teaches them respect other people and keeps them from miss behaving. Having said this after a while Mr. Briggs places his trust in the children’s hands, showing us the audience that his character can be reasonable. However the children break his trust and he decides that “trust is something you people don’t understand.” I agree with this statement.

Here I am going to look at Mrs. Kay’s and Mr. Briggs opinions about the point of school trips. It is obvious through out the film that Mrs. Kay wants the children to just have fun and has no intensions of educating them on the trip and tells Mr. Briggs “I’m not going to let you prevent the kids from having some fun.” She also refers to the castle as “a crumbling pile of bricks and mortar” this again indicating that she has no intensions of an educational visit. But then in total contrast to that is Mr. Briggs opinion of the school trip. He believes “If they’re going to have a good and stimulating day then it’s got to be planned and executed better than this.” He likes to keep on schedule, keep the kids in line and over all have a well organised trip. However he refers to the trip as being “a shambles, the whole, ill-organised affair.” As Mr. Briggs starts to get to know the children better he starts to realise why Mrs. Kay wants the children to let their hair down and have some fun. He thought again about what Mrs. Kay said earlier “We’re not going to solve anything today. Can’t we just try and give them a good day out?” And then later decides “you cant come all the way to the sea-side and not pay a visit to the fair.” When they are all at the fair Mr. Briggs starts to open up to the children and starts to have a laugh with them. “Briggs is snapped eating candy floss, then again at the highest point of the big wheel.”

Finally I intend to discuss Mrs. Kay’s and Mr. Briggs teaching styles. Mrs. Kay tries to treat the children equally and as friends rather than Mr. Briggs professional approach. Mrs. Kay says “You wont educate them because no-one wants them educating…There’s nothing for them to do, any of them; most of them were born for factory fodder but the factories have closed down.” Mrs. Kay says this not because she thinks their all stupid but because she is realistic about their capabilities and their futures. I believe this hurts Mr. Briggs as he thinks they deserve an equal opportunity and that the progress children shouldn’t be given up on. I again agree with him here as he doesn’t care if they like him or not. He knows that in the long run he will be able to create better opportunities for the children. “I think you have to risk being disliked if you’re going to do anything good for these types of kids.”

Mrs. Kay is my favourite character out of the two teachers because she is the kind of teacher every pupil wants. She’s funny, kind, easy, relaxed and even when you do something wrong she will still stick up for you, like a real friend (only in your teacher). However looking at the best interests for the children Mr. Briggs teaching style along with Mrs. Kay’s supportive help figure would be best for the remedial kids of the progress class. This is because the children need to learn otherwise they will go no where in life but they also need a help in hand where Mrs. Kay’s emotional mother figure would help.

Miss Ward