Ex-Mirror editor quits uni post after support for IRA
We’re guessing MC Grammar isn’t your real name? TEACHER JACOB MITCHELL, 36, ON LEAVING SCHOOL WITH ONLY ONE GCSE, RAPPING AND RECORDING THE BOOK DAY SONG
FORMER newspaper editor Roy Greenslade has resigned from his university post as outrage continued over his secret support for the IRA.
Mr Greenslade, 74, said he was stepping down as an honorary visiting fellow at City, University of London – where he taught ethics in journalism – after revealing he backed the ‘use of physical force’ by the republican organisation during the Troubles.
The former Daily Mirror editor, who also worked at The Sun and The Guardian, said he had kept quiet about his sympathies because he needed to pay his mortgage.
Yesterday, he told MailPlus political correspondent Michael Crick that the
decision to quit was ‘purely mine’. A university spokeswoman said: ‘While acknowledging Professor Greenslade’s educational contribution and his right to express his views, the university has accepted his resignation.’
Fellow former Mirror editor Piers Morgan branded Mr Greenslade a ‘repulsive terrorist-loving charlatan’ while victims’ families described him as a ‘coward and a fraud’.
A charity set up in memory of Johnathan Ball, three, and 12-year-old Tim Parry (both pictured), who were killed in IRA bomb explosions in Warrington in 1993, told Metro it found the comments ‘deeply offensive’.
In a statement yesterday, the Tim Parry and Johnathan Ball Peace Foundation said: ‘We invite [Greenslade] to visit Warrington and the Peace Centre so we can show him the real consequences of the violence he has given his support to and why our work for peace is the only way forward.’ Writing in the British Journalism Review, Mr Greenslade revealed he had been in ‘complete agreement about the right of the Irish people to engage in armed struggle’ during the conflict in Northern Ireland.
I’m a teacher called Mr Mitchell. When I started rapping grammar at school I’d go, ‘Stop! It’s grammar time,’ as a play on the MC Hammer song, U Can’t Touch This. I even wore a gold outfit. It went over the kids’ heads as it’s from the ’90s and they didn’t get the joke.
Why did you start rapping?
In 2015, the government started testing kids on grammar. There were quite a few weighty terms such as subordinate clauses, adverbs and the subjunctive. Everyone was panicking. Teachers were teaching very well but they didn’t know this terminology precisely. If I was going to be teaching this stuff I’d need to be sure of it so I made up
The Grammar Song to help remember it. . MC Hammer.
What were you like at school?
I actually failed at school. I left with one GCSE. I went to work in the real world at 16, which I didn’t like.
I managed to get back into college. I enjoyed rap music so I put the syllabus into rap songs. I got an A and two Bs at A level.
Are your pupils rap fans?
They love it. I put The Grammar Song on YouTube so they could listen to it at home and they got the best SATs results the school had ever seen. It happened the following year and we ended up in the top 50 schools in the country. I shared it locally with other schools and it started going nationwide so I set off on the road and started delivering concerts in different schools. A lot of educational songs are great but they are aimed at a younger audience and have nursery rhyme sounds.
We bet it’s raised a few eyebrows in the staff room…
When a teacher walks into a classroom and sees me dressed in gold with a big chain, rapping about subordinate clauses, of course they’re going to wonder what’s going on. We all do things differently but if kids are engaged, that’s the most important thing. I was so overwhelmed by the fact you could teach any way you want as long as the kids received the curriculum.
What else do you rap?
The rise of tablets and gaming means there’s been a big decline in children reading for pleasure so I thought I’d take my message to books as well. I
The rise of tablets and gaming means there’s been a big decline in children reading
started with The Gruffalo and my wife put it on the internet and it exploded. I was invited to LA and did an interview on The Ellen DeGeneres Show with my family and I rapped a Dr Seuss book.
Can’t you just read a book to children instead?
I wanted to reach those kids who feel left behind. Special needs learners, kids with English as a second language and kids from disadvantaged areas. The main drive for me is that I know what it’s like to be isolated in education and feel left out of the classroom. I know what it’s like to be misunderstood.
Have you developed any lockdown habits?
I’m three weeks in to taking cold showers. I’m up to two minutes now. My wife is like, ‘What are you doing? A warm shower is actually nice.’ But I read The Wim Hof Method, which is all about activating your potential by exposure to the cold. It’s brilliant
– I feel more alert and have more energy. It’s also about the mind and realising there are no limits. A month ago, I couldn’t have had a two-minute cold shower. It’s a good lesson to all of us – things we think we can’t do, we can.
Any examples?
It actually led me to solving a Rubik’s Cube this week. The cold showers have made me bolder. It’s a case of mind over matter.
Tell us about your connection with World Book Day?
I’ve recorded the official World Book Day Song, which is amazing. As a teacher who has celebrated the event for the past 12 years, and also as a father who wants my children to read for pleasure, it’s made me so proud. The song is about a journey to find a new book courtesy of the World Book Day free book voucher and it namechecks several classics such as The Tiger Who Came To Tea, Elmer and We’re Going On A Bear Hunt.
How do you like to unwind?
I play the piano and the ukulele. I cook a bit and I love to read. During lockdown I’ve been doing Joe Wicks’ exercises with the kids and I love Mario Kart. My daughter saw a picture of a Nintendo console from when I was a kid. She asked what the game was and it’s out now on Nintendo Switch so we bought one.
Be honest, what does your family think of you rapping?
My daughters – Ellie, five, and Khloe, three – love it, they’ve grown up around it. My wife sometimes gets fed up with it. She regulates me. She likes rap but she’s more into the house scene.
MC Grammar’s World Book Day charity single, The World Book Day Song, is out now on Decca Records