Wendy Challen: “I don’t want programmed robots – I want children with a zest for life”
A Wendy Challen has just a fortnight left in charge
of the junior girls in Garden House School, Chelsea. But
when she looks back at her 40 years as a teacher, her fondest memories won’t be
just of successes but of some of the more entertaining slip-ups. “I love greeting the children at the front door in the
morning,” she says. “Their stories! What on earth are they going to come up
with next?” Smiling, glamorous in a green jacket and dress, exuding wisdom and merriment, Mrs
Challen is exactly the kind of headteacher everyone dreams of.
B The school, which opened in 1951, has educated f.e.
members of Winston Churchill’s family or the
Queen’s granddaughter. Mrs Challen has been here for 37 years, 25 of them as
head of the girls’ school. Garden House’s atmosphere is appealingly old-fashioned,
but Mrs Challen assures me that she’s witnessed enormous upheaval. “London
has changed amazingly,” she says. “The people who live here, this borough now
has 100 nationalities living here and family life has changed: people today
lead more complicated lives. I came here from a south London comprehensive, and when I
arrived I did think ‘Will this be challenging enough?’, but it certainly has
been.”
C Teachers’ roles have also changed since Mrs Challen
did her training in the 1970s. “Then you were expected to do everything,
French, music, drama, take the children swimming, go in the pool, come back and
give them their lunch. “Today, we have specialist teachers for most of
subjects, but our teachers have a very demanding role: there’s a lot
more paperwork than they’re used to be and they’re always answering emails and
having to deal with parents, who expect us to be there for them. We like to
think we are, but we can’t be answering their emails at two in the morning.
D In contrast, Garden House has minimal rules. “Today
we really respect our children’s views and take into account their thoughts and
feelings.” Perhaps we respect them too much? Last week, a report outlined how
teachers, who’d grown up afraid of asserting authority over children, had lost
control over classes. At Garden House, with an average of around 15 children
per class, discipline’s clearly not a huge issue, yet Mrs Challen is still
occasionally called upon to intervene. “My staff is very grateful that I
can help out because they have to deal with nannies, they have to deal with
housekeepers and not always directly with the parents.”
E She’s suspicious of children whose every spare
second is crammed with extra violin
classes and Mandarin lessons,"
she adds. “I don’t want a little programmed robot, I want children with a zest
for life.”
Adjusted to (1)
slip-up –
chybička, poklesek
exude –
vyzařovat
upheaval
– zvrat
crammed –
nacpaný
1) Read the article and match each of the headings to
a paragraph.
1 Children should live their life
2 Challenging job
3 Mrs Challen – teacher of dreams
4 Role of the teacher today
5 Behaviour at school
2) Read the article and answer the questions.
1 Who is Mrs Challen? What is she like?
2 What do you know about the school where she works?
3 How has teacher’s role changed?
4 What kind of problems do the teachers have?
5 What doesn’t she like about her students and what
does she appreciate?
3) Explain the following words and phrases.
1 headteacher
2 old-fashioned atmosphere
3 comprehensive
4 demanding role
5 intervene
4) Answer the following questions.
What are roles and responsibilities of a teacher? What are
examples of day-to-day activities of a teacher? How should a teacher cooperate with parents and
family members of the pupil? What are specific job duties and tasks of a
pre-school teacher? What might be caused by cyber-bullying?
Video:
Tips, sources of information:
Source:
(1)
Wendy
Challen: 'I don’t want programmed robots - I want children with a zest for
life'. The Telegraph [online]. 2015 [cit. 2015-09-21]. Available
at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ education/primaryeducation/11686282/Wendy-Challen-I-dont-want-programmed-robots-I-want-children-with-a-zest-for-life.html
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