Salt Dough Baskets

Progressive Birmingham

Mike Whitby, leader of Birmingham City Council, of "Global City, Local Heart" fame, calls the coalition with the Lib-Dems a progressive partnership - Something which has surprised many of the critics he calls 'Jeremiahs'.  Perhaps not such wise words for his critics - Jeremiah wrote the book of lamentations, a cheery tome, where he revealed the sins of the people and the coming consequences,^[10][11]and in typical prophetic style, got it spot on.  But in calling the leadership a 'progressive partnership' Mike Whitby shrewdly attempts to take the 'progressive' title from the left, while associating the partnership with Birmingham's tradition of 'progressiveness'.

'Birmingham Faces and Places' is a late nineteenth century publication celebrating the great and the good in Birmingham, people and places. I talked to Dr Andy Green about 'Faces and Places' and Birmingham in the late nineteenth century, when it was granted city status, and attempting to define itself as a modern, progressive city.  Like now, grandiose 'big city plans' were being brought to fruition under a Liberal Mayor, Joseph Chamberlain. He forcibly purchased Birmingham's gas, water, and much of the city centre for BCC proclaiming:

'We have not the slightest intention of making profit...We shall get our profit indirectly in the comfort of the town and in the health of the inhabitants'

Chamberlain was most certainly a progressive.  The original Faces and Places was being published during his lifetime, and attempted to manage and present a particular image of Birmingham, both in its editorial choice of 'great and good', and in it's objective - to present a 'progressive' city.  It was a respected reference for anyone looking to find our anything about Birmingham in the late nineteenth century, be it a local-based enquiry or relating to the 'global' reputation Birmingham was already shaping.  It was a masterpiece of political spin.

Connecting Histories 'faces and places' project invited everyone to contribute their own 'faces and places' - people and places we think have contribute to our great city.  This represents something quite different to the original 'faces and places', and offers exciting possibilities for considering our identity in Birmingham, as a city which belongs to all of us, not just 'the great and the good'.

The continuing challenge, to be a truly progressive city, is to give voice, represent and value everyone in Birmingham.

Useful links

Big City Plan - Whitby's Chamberlain moment

Birmingham's 'progressive partnership' on how to run a coalition 

Power Profiles No 10, Mike Whitby

Faces and Places

Thanks to Birmingham Archives and Heritage Team for images.

Rangoli Food Art

This week and last week we've been working on making art from food.  We talked about where food comes from - we used a range of fairtrade and locallly sourced foods for the artwork.

Strikes don't work, do they?

On way to work yesterday, my radio tuned itself onto BBC WM, where the topic for discussion was 'Do Strikes work?'  My first thought was of the 2005 film 'Made in Dagenham' - about the (successful) strike by car workers in 1968 demanding equal pay for men and women.  Then,  I was a little sad that in Birmingham, with such a proud history of protest and strikes that there should even be a question whether strikes work or not.

The papers are full of warnings - winter of discontent, expect UK's biggest strikes.  For the title of 'Britain's biggest strikes', the 1911 National Rail Strike is perhaps the biggest contender, where unions were fighting for their very existence, and the UK was brought to the verge of revolution. Churchill was, at that time, the Home Secretary under Asquith's Liberal Government.  There was bloodshed in Liverpool, the city usually identified with the national strike, but Birmingham also played it's role.  The usual note is of Birmingham Police sent to Liverpool, but food packages were also sent by our unions, quite apart from the rail strikes in our city.  It is also interesting to note the level of support for the 1911 strike across all unions and generations, with school children also playing a role.  I remember, with guilt, the student protests of 2010, portrayed by some media as a load of rich kids throwing their toys out of the pram.  I did nothing, and now what tuition fee system do we have?

Thomas Attwood, fenced off  for Christmas

Going back further into Brum's history you come across 'King Tom', Brum's first MP.  Yes, the very same shabby man with paperwork blowing around him on Chamberlain Square.

Hard to imagine the size of demonstrations in Birmingham for male Suffrage in September 18 31 and May 1832: The first, a reported 100,000 gathered on Newhall Hill, the second, 200,000, commemorated by 'the 'Gathering of the Unions', with 'King Tom', a dot in the middle holding his 'Reform Bill' aloft, which became law in June.

'The Gathering of the Unions, 1832' thanks to Bob Miles

I've borrowed a bit from Chris Upton and his fabulous 'A History of Birmingham' - he quotes the Union Hymn, sang on the day:

Shall honest labout toil in vain

While Plunder fattens on the land!

Still shall a tyrant faction's reign

People and King at once command?

No! it may not, shall not be,

For we must, we will be free!

It is as important now, as then, to demonstrate your support for causes important to you.  Strikes are always a last resort, but there is no question strikes demonstrate broad support for a cause and influence change.

Useful links:

The Gathering of the Unions

Student protest over fees turn violent

The Liverpool Transport Strike of 1911

Turnip Rail: The Forgotten National Railway Strike, 1911 - Part 1

Turnip Rail: The Forgotten National Railway Strike, 1911 - Part 2

School kids on strike! | 1911 Llanelli Railway Strike

Thomas Attwood statue fenced off row
Strikes - a selfish or selfless gesture?

Back to School

The 'perfect' teacher

It's the morning of the second day at school, and the excitement of meeting old friends is over.  The holidays are over.  It's back to work.

Arthur (our 8yr old) is awake early and we start talking about school:

'So what did you do yesterday?'

'We wrote about our holidays.  We always write about our holidays.  It's so boring.'

There's still a while to go before school, so we have a chat about it.  I can see the teachers will want to find out a bit about the children they will be working with, and that the most recent bit, their holidays, is probably a good place to start.  I put this to Arthur.  He agrees:

'But why do we have to write about it?'

On this, I think, he has a good point.  Writing is obviously a key skill children will learn in school, but it's not the most natural way your average 5, 6, 7, 8 yr old will express themselves.  If the teacher's objective is to find out more about a child, then I'm pretty sure most essays about 'what I did in the holiday' will tell you very little.  Except possibly how good at writing a child is.

It reminded me of Arthur's first meeting with his new teacher last term, where they were all warned, ''If you give me grief, then I'll give you grief, if you give me joy, then I won't give you grief...you'll get to like me."  The teacher very much setting out relationship boundaries.

Arthur goes on to tell me more about his first day.  At assembly they set 'ground rules, and reviewed the '10 Golden Rules'.  He got a star, for remembering one.  He remembered (and I was proud of him) that you've 'got to respect your teacher and the other children'.  The rules he remembered all were important.

I understand why so many teachers start with 'the rules', but how is reviewing the rules appreciating the wider objectives of education (developing confidence, ability for deep learning, reflection...) or indeed, the most immediate challenge to develop good relationships with the new children and their parents?  I know what my response to what appears to be a lecture on 'ground rules' would be.  As a parent with a mixed experience of school it does re-enforce all my poorer experiences and, I find myself quickly falling into the cynical trap of seeing school as a problem, something to be endured, and have to resist putting this across to Arthur

This is all my perspective, as a parent.  I'm also aware Arthur may say a very different thing about school tomorrow.  Also that the teacher may be overcoming  insecurities about their children and their relationship with children and parents, and things will get better as the year continues.  The school Arthur goes to is a good school.  He is very happy there, and throughout the last four years there have been many creative projects and topics which have engaged Arthur, in which he has expressed himself, reflected and learned.  I am sure soon we will think as highly of Arthur's new teacher as we (parents and children) do of his previous teachers.  The sort of open-ended projects, where children bring things (or people) into school, use of film, artwork, photographs to document and to provoke conversations - anything, that might be seen firstly as fun, and can develop a richer understanding of the children, their parents, their lives, will help the teacher find out more and to initiate more positive relationships.

It is interesting to see which teachers Arthur likes and respects, and why.  Without a doubt, those teachers that are seen as 'fun' are the 'best'.  'Fun' to Arthur, turns out to be enjoying learning with the children - the teacher who plays Ukele, is prepared to laugh at themselves, plays with the children, dances to Abba, who gets into the swimming pool with the children, is prepared to admit they don't know it all, wants to learn with the children, taking risks with them.

The teacher's role is not the same as a best friend, and I'm not suggesting all teachers should learn the Ukele (although would be fun), but that the best way to secure an effective learning environment, the starting point for any teaching, must be to develop good relationships with children and parents.

Useful links:

Overcoming 10 common barriers to parenting

Back to the wrong school

The PIP Award

Truly Humble

Relatives of those killed in Birmingham riots again appealed for calm.  Tariq and Abdul also talked about being 'truly humbled' by the response from people, nationally and internationally, writing to their families. It was moving and inspiring to hear them speak with such clarity so soon after his loss.

We're on holiday and have missed the riots in our home town of Birmingham. Here on the Isle of Skye we have experienced a different sort of 'humbling'. The weather has been pretty mixed, but whatever it's brought, together with the colossal landscape, we have felt humbled. Looking out to sea, across the glacial landscape, or up to the ever changing skies, we've felt pretty small.

Feeling humbled isn't just about feeling small. It's also about feeling a small part of something bigger. The people who wrote to a father in mourning felt the need to communicate their feelings and offer their support.

I didn't write to Tariq or Avdul's family, but I do write letters for Amnesty.  Writing letters for Amnesty sometimes feels like a futile gesture - there's not much we can achieve as individuals or even as large groups, and that's frustrating. It is humbling to know you can do so little. Sometimes we get some good news about a campaign. What you write or do will probably have little or no effect, but feeling only a small, humble, part of the world, or humanity, means everything.

Sent from my BlackBerry smartphone from Virgin Media

Valuing News of The World and CP

My work with 'Creative Partnerships', along with all the other creative agents, ended last week.  In looking to our futures Lee Corner invited us to consider our values - consider what it is we really want, and to reflect on our past.  

All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education (The Robinson Report) was published to wide acclaim in 1999 and spawned Creative Partnerships.  Throughout the document it refers to collaboration supporting learning - collaboration between young people and parents, arts organisations, businesses, LEAs, local communities, Arts Council, museums, libraries, everyone.  It also recognises a need to develop confidence for young people to make the most of their own resources, developing their own creativity.  Our values are as our name suggests - creativity and partnership.

So what's gone wrong with Creative Partnerships?  Have we kept to our core values?  Does the Government share our core values, or are their priorities different?

There's been a lot of talk in the press about values.   The police have not yet completed a criminal investigation into phone hacking, but already a hugely successful paper has been closed down for good.  In a recent Sky news article titled, 'what is the value of the News of the World?', begins: 

With an average weekly circulation of 2.6 million, the News Of The World is Britain's best-selling Sunday paper and a profitable venture.

But if NOTW main value was to make money, they'd be merchant bankers.  The other value they claim is to seek 'truth'.  It might not be Famine in Somalia, because they also value 'fun' and focus on stories about 'human nature'.  However they identify their news values, you definitely know what you are getting with NOTW.  They have stuck to their values, and yet their 'lack of values' has ended it.  But that's not the end of the story. At Sky, the Saturday Sun has already grown in size, and media analysts 'expect a new title launch, but not immediately.'


Creative Partnerships, like NOTW, is gone and it's not coming back, even if our values are sound - 'a profitable venture' recognised by Ofsted and more widely:

PriceWaterhouseCoopers say that for every £1 invested Creative Partnerships delivered £15.30 of benefits to the national economy

A new title launch soon?  I guess that depends on what the Government values.