I asked my son how you were supposed to get over being stuck when you were in the learning pit. He told me.
The next day, I asked my elder son who is eleven, if he'd heard about the learning pit and the 5 Bs.
F: "So, what do you reckon the 5 Bs are?"
"Braying?" he said, instantly.
F: "Braying? You mean praying? Like, praying for help?"
O: "No, braying."
F: "Braying how?"
He imitated a donkey.
O: "You bray for help!"
F: Of course!
"B for boo-hoo!" said son 2, "H" joining in the game.
F: "Oh, you vent your frustration in crying and feel better!"
H: "No, you cry because you're stuck and it makes a river which floats you out of the pit."
F: "Like in Alice."
"Yes," they said.
"Or, B for booby", said my ever-tactile younger son.
F: "Sorry?"
"You know, the sea-bird", he said, guilelessly. "It comes along and lifts you up out of the pit."
These imaginative flights were heartening. I liked them far more than the real 5 Bs.
The previous day, the learning pit fresh in my mind, when I first thought about the 5 Bs the B that came to my mind was "Brainwashing" - in primary colours in one of the bold, funky fonts used in the Tom Gates books for 8-12 year olds.
F: "So, what are the 5 Bs?"
H: "Brains."
F "Oh - use your brain to try and figure out the answer'?"
H: "Yes."
F: "What else?"
H: "Books."
F: "Look in a book for the answer?"
He nodded
F: "So what's the next one?"
H: "Buddy"
F: "That'd be 'ask a friend for help'.
H: "Yes".
It's nice when the children are the ones with the knowledge, confirming things, especially to adults.
He couldn't remember the next one.
F: "So what's the last one?"
H: "Boss."
F: "Boss? What boss?"
"Well," he said, embarrassed, anticipating my reaction. "The teacher is boss." This last was said with a sort of flourish that possibly combined an optimism he perhaps hoped I'd catch, with the lightest of defiant notes, as in "The teacher can be boss, can't they?" I think I groaned.
F: "Your teacher is your boss?"
"Yes," he said, in the same tone.
F: "Do you really think a teacher should be a boss?"
H: "Well, they are in a way."
F: "Yes, if they have to get 30 children across a road. What else could the teacher be, in a classroom?"
H: "I don't know."
F: "Guides? Mentors? 'Learning facilitators'. People there to help you? Just, no, not a boss.
"The children came up with that", he parried.
F: "Oh! The 5 Bs?"
"Yes!" he said, though he could equally have meant they came up with 'boss' and probably did mean that. I wondered if I'd backed my son into a corner where he was now defending his teacher, and left it there. Talking about it later, that turned out to be true. Unsurprisingly, the children hadn't come up with any of it. Assuming this was a teaching resource idea that would be on the internet I looked it up and found it was just that.
It turns out that the 5 Bs, together with the Learning Pit are methods which aim to foster independent learning, though to my mind the word 'boss' compared to the alternatives does just the opposite. The word 'boss' moves things away from independent learning where the focus is on the child. Where does the focus shift? Towards supplier-focused 'education' or 'educator'. That is because a boss is someone who tells you what to do, you can't really argue - in the sense of discuss - with them to get to the truth, you ultimately have to do as you are told and really a boss is not someone you question. Learning on the other hand is all about questions and discussion. 'Education' therefore - never mind education with an actually named 'boss' figure - is a totally different thing to learning. Some might say, the two concepts are in fact opposites.
This is true for any kind of learning, at any age, in any setting. In fact, you see this idea of supplier-focused convenience versus user-focused effectiveness anywhere there is an imbalance of power, especially where on one side of the equation you have vulnerable people and on the other, the people supposed to be caring or providing for them . The other obvious place you see it is in geriatric care: traditional care homes. This idea is explored more fully, with examples and in lucid, engaging prose in Atul Gawande's superb book "Being Mortal" - an excellent 'B' to commit to memory.
I think instead of Boss, that B should actually be the opposite: "Beware!" "Beware of the Boss". Because where independent learning is the aim, having a 'boss' risks stifles creativity, engagement and independent thought. Someone for whom those things really were the focus would not call themselves a boss.
The 4th B, in case you were wondering is 'board'. To get out of the learning pit you look on the board for a tip. That is actually quite a nice one, because guides and mentors rather than educators or bosses provide nudges, ideas for you to explore, questions for you to ask and answer that bring you to your own fuller understanding. That is another version of what independent learning might be like and one I prefer.
You might be forgiven if the B that sticks in your mind is the other spelling of 'Board'. I hope though that the Bs that sticks are the independently imagined ones; B for "Boo-hoo!" for instance, the river of surreal tears cried by creative, reactionary learners, trapped by those Bosses in a pit they should never be in. Why would you want to remember that sad scenario? Because, apart from the graphic warning, those learners are demonstrating that very independence - floating themselves away out of that dangerous pit, on a river of adventurous learning.
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