Today, I met one of my childhood heroes, Johnny Ball.I've never actually met a hero of mine before and it wasn't quite as I expected. Although on reflection, I don't know quite what I had expected.
The presentation had been arranged by the Local Authority for junior and Secondary teachers, but I convinced my Head that I needed to go ("The man's a genius", I breathed headily. She'd been throwing the fliers away as she didn't think that I'd want to go to a talk by the man who used to do the animal programmes on the telly... Between howls of laughter, The secretary and I broke the news that Johnny Morris had been dead for some time...)
Anyway, I think Johnny aimed his talk at an audience of mathsphobes, perhaps, as he talked a lot about looking for the joy in the every day place of maths in the world. It was refreshing, however, to be reminded that the Government has made the maths curriculum very narrow and that we need to widen it out somewhat to find the magic. Besides, anyone who managed to use the word "bollocks" in relation to government education and assessment policy in the first sentence is always going to get my attention.
I also got to stand on stage and be a glamorous assistant, too!
It's an easy mistake to make, I guess...
2 comments:
Oh dear, fancy not knowing the difference between Johnny Ball & Johnny Morris.
Maybe it's not all the Government's bollocks educational policies? :)
Or maybe she was just so stressed out by them.
Either way - all the best for trying to enthuse children about maths. Or even arithmetic.
Lucky you, the man's a legend!
He's the maths teacher you always wish you had, but had someone with the personality of a trainspotter who wore a tweed jacket with patches on the elbow (yes, we really did have a teacher like that at school in Warrington!)
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