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

“I think you have to risk being disliked if you are going to do any good for these type of kids.”-I think that this quote shows that Mr. Briggs treats the kids as if they are inferior to him, an he also thinks that he is doing them good by giving them a highly disciplined school life. “But a lot of you haven’t   been on a school trip before so you won’t know how to behave. So I’ll show you.”-I think that this shows that Briggs understands that a lot of these kids can’t afford to 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. I think the statement-“Mr. Briggs believes that teachers can never be friendly with students” is true because in paragraph seven he says “I think you have to risk being disliked if you are going to do any good for these type of  kids.” I think that teachers shouldn’t merely educate their students because by being their students friends within their educations the students will respect their teachers more making it easier to educate them. I agree with Mrs. Kay’s teaching methods because she gives her students respect and is kind to them,  I disagree with some of Mrs. Kay’s teaching methods because she lets her students get away with too much which means that they will not be prepared for what it will be like in the real world. I agree with some of Mr. Briggs teaching methods because he wants to try and teach the children academically and is willing to be firm, but I also disagree with some of his teaching methods because he is unfair in his firmness such as when he says “You act like animals, animals!...I’ve learned that trust is something you people don’t understand.” I think that this is unfair as I believe that the children did not think that they were doing anything wrong by taking the animals, and he has no respect for the children. I think that the perfect teacher should have a combination of Mrs. Kay’s good qualities and Mr. Brigg’s good qualities.

Mr. Briggs thinks that children go on school trips to be educated where as Mrs. Kay thinks that children go on school trips to have fun. Mrs. Kay wanted the children to go on the school trip to have fun, and for the children to have a look at how other people live their lives. Mr. Briggs thinks that the reason behind the school trip is for the children to bee educated in the history and architecture of castles. 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.