Those who can... teach. And at 100, I should know! As Education Secretary Michael Gove defends his stance on standards, former teacher PHYLLIS STARR reflects on a century of changes in schools

HE WHO can, does. He who cannot, teaches,” wrote George Bernard Shaw in 1903 – and I will never forgive him for it. This line has plagued educators ever since and that hackneyed cliché is still trotted out by any wag intent on cutting a teacher down to size. It’s shameful that the playwright who also co-founded the London School of Economics should have provided the verbal ammunition to mock what I consider to be the noblest of professions and one that I have been part of all my life.

With my 100th birthday only a week away, I think it is reasonable that I hold opinions about the state of education. After all I’ve had many years in which to form a point of view and been part of many of the changes that have taken place – some of which were good and others in more recent years, pretty damn awful.

My personal journey as a teacher actually began 150 years ago, when my grandmother Matilda became headmistress of Beauworth School in Hampshire, which opened as a result of the 1870 Education Act.

That act brought about monumental change as primary education became available to all children and my grandmother was stoic in her belief that everyone should have access to knowledge. It was a philosophy she passed on to all of us and my mother enthusiastically took up the teaching mantle in the early 1900s when she worked at the school in my home village of Cheriton in Hampshire.

Multi-tasking was the norm for women back then who did not have the option to spend only “quality time” with their children as they were with them all the time. My own mother made sure I was able to read, write and do simple sums before I went to school aged five in 1917. Today, children often start school ill-prepared as parents who claim to be too busy to get involved think it is the teacher’s job to be the sole provider of education. It is not. We are responsible for educating our children, if only to teach them right from wrong.

But that is not happening and children have changed because of it. When I was small we did as we were told. Not any more. Children of this new century are presented with far too many choices in order to keep them happy. Boredom is not an option and suddenly educators are asking young pupils what they want to do instead of telling them what to do. Everything has to be fun and that is not real life. What they forget is that to be educated you have to work hard to learn.

I fear I sound like some dreadful

INSPIRATION: Phyllis teaching her girls at Henrietta Barnett school disciplinarian when in fact my aim as a maths teacher throughout my career was to get my pupils to enjoy the subject and to have a good relationship with them. I have always been opposed to corporal punishment and fortunately never worked in a school where it was practised. I am glad that has gone as the idea of beating a child for bad behaviour is abhorrent and ineffective.

When I left school at 17 in 1929, I went to Southampton University to study pure and applied mathematics. There was a lot of fuss in my village as I was the fi rst person to go on to further education but my parents couldn’t afford to send me, so I went as a student assistant librarian which gave me free tuition fees and something towards lodging. I fear that government changes to the grant system now will mean that only those who can afford to pay for the privilege will be able to go which is so wrong. Of course the point of university is to study something vocational, which is not always the case these days and it is very strange to me that one can get a degree in subjects as diverse as cartooning and auctioning to casino operations. I wonder where these degrees will take them. I am awfully glad that Oxbridge now gives women degrees though.

When my cousin Nita went to Cambridge in the early 1900s to study mathematics they did not award degrees to women and she only received it posthumously when the system changed, even though she graduated with higher grades than any of the male students.

With my degree I was able to teach at secondary schools and went fi rst to Bourne in Lincolnshire and then to Gosport in Hampshire.

By 1944 I was at Henrietta Barnett School in London’s Hampstead Garden Suburb and it was there I would spend the rest of my teaching career, hoping as Albert Einstein so beautifully put it to “awaken joy in knowledge”.

To recall my happiest times is harder as there were so many. The ethos of the school was a celebration in itself as all girls regardless of colour or ethnicity were encouraged to get along and learn together. Of course there is nothing quite like top grades in exam results to make a teacher happy.

Of the changes I have seen, the 1944 Education Act which gave free education to all made the biggest difference and brought about enormous change in the syllabus, notably it got harder.

IHAVE no doubt in my mind, through experience and information derived from former pupils who are now teachers that education has been dumbed down and I received a letter only the other day from a teacher who told me that she is coaching A-level maths students at O-level standards.

The method of marking has also changed over time and that has affected the grades and the creation of a bigger band of A and A* passes. Quite simply exams are not as hard as they were 20 years ago and the maths taught in 2012 does not prepare children for university.

One of the biggest mistakes is allowing government to make decisions about the future of education when it should be down to the teachers who know that progressive reduction in the syllabus is bad for Britain.

Sooner or later they will come to realise that they have to let teachers teach. League tables are also a lot of nonsense as one cannot compare one school with another and it is most disheartening for the staff at a low-ranking institution, not to mention the pupils.

I hope I will be remembered as a dedicated teacher who passed on her love of mathematics. Future educators should never forget that children are what we are dealing with and we should always do the best for them.

As for George Bernard Shaw, I still insist he was wrong. Those who can should teach.

As told to BRIGIT GRANT

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