Oracy - a word I suspect is soon going to be brought into common usage - especially if Sir Keir Starmer has anything to do with it. I looked it up in Chambers and I must say the definition is a perfect example of what he has in mind. "Oracy - skill in self expression and ability to communicate freely with others by word of mouth". If only all children could do this.
I look back to my childhood. My parents were in their mid forties when I was born. A 'mistake'? I'll say. I was born two months premature and weighed three pounds and was in an incubator for several weeks. My mother didn't know she was pregnant; she had a violent fit and was put into an ambulance - as the ambulance man put her in he said to my father something along the lines of 'we are taking her to the Maternity Hospital but I doubt we shall be able to save both of them - which do you want us to save?' My father said she's not pregnant - to which the man replied - she is in labour,!!(a little aside here which my father over the years used to relate to anyone who hadn't heard it before - when he (yes men did push prams sometimes in 1932) was walking through the village with me when I was out of the incubator and home, the village gossip called across the road - 'what have you been doing Mr Smithson?' My father replied as he kept walking 'Same as you only we got caught out!'
Was I 'oral' as a child. I was - no doubt about that. My parents and my two siblings (boy 11 years older, girl (woman) twenty two years older) were always telling me to shut up. When I was in my early teens I asked for an autograph book for my birthday - I was thrilled to get one but I asked all my family to write in it (it was the custom in those days) because we weren't even aware of 'celebrities'. The only entry I remember was my father's - "Silence is golden, speech is silvern". All other family entries followed the same pattern. I was mortified and never showed the book to anyone or asked for their autograph.
Luckily it didn't shut me up.
Sir Keir Starmer is quite right though. These days the curriculum has to be followed strictly and it leaves little or no time to discuss things. It is forty years since I retired; I hope things have got better in that respect - but I doubt it.
Children should talk freely, children should learn how to discuss things and come to their own conclusion in arguments. In some families such skills are taught (almost without thinking about it). Children should, from starting with da-da or mummy, always be listened to , they should be able to give their opinion, be able to ask questions (and get answers). That is what language is for.
But I see families all the time passing my window - Dad with the dog lead,Mum looking at her i phone, offspring trailing behind maybe chatting amongst them selves. Yes - they may not be silent but you don't automatically learn to discuss, to form an opinion - to communicate beyond 'what's for dinner?' you have to be guided, the right questions have to be asked in order to elicit the 'right' answers - i.e. your opinion on the subject.
I see my great grandchildren rarely but hear about them often. They are lucky to have been born to two intelligent parents who talk to them all the time. Last time they came (U was six) I gave her a sketch book and some crayons and she spent the whole afternoon going into the garden, drawing a flower, coming in and colouring it, and then asking us to guess which flower it was. We would ask how tall it was, does it smell nice, all kinds of questions which you would ask an adult in a similar situation. Then she would ask how to spell it and we would say slowly a n t i r r i n h u m or whatever and she would write it and dash out to do the same again with another flower or leaf.
Children have to be taught how to listen to another fellow's point of view, weigh up the pros and cons, think about it and then state their views.
Wouldn't one way be to build into the timetable a 'Debate' period every week. Set a topic (hopefully the children would soon decide what they wanted to discuss) and learn to put forth an argument and listen to the replies? Make them feel important when it was their turn to lead the discussion, make them think carefully about a subject, make them able to form an argument and express what they feel. Get them thinking.
Hopefully they won't listen (or worse still watch) Prime Minister's Question time!
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27 comments:
Your childhood tale made me laugh. You still write long posts (please don't stop!).
Oracy might be a good idea so long as it doesn't all theory, such as identifying chiasmus and asyndeton. The Guardian had a great article on this "Nice to teach you, to teach you nice": https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/04/brucey-and-caesar-can-help-children-improve-oracy-says-classic-professor
Children still communicate freely but not verbally. I live opposite a bus stop where children of various ages catch their school buses and to a childm everyone of them will be bent over their smart phones, not talking to each other. I know of some families that communicate with each by text, while all in the same house!
Smart phones are possibly the worst gadget ever invented and I still pinch myself daily that I've never felt the need to own one.
You are so right Pat. Its exactly how i raised my daughter that her opinions matter. She has two of her own now but does not live close i wonder if she does the same? Hers are 2 and 5... Hugs! deb
Like you, I was a late child (but not quite that late!) so grew up with older siblings, but circumstances meant I spent a great deal of time with various elderly relatives. One of my great-aunts had been a teacher in the 1910s-40s and was very keen on diction, but I was lucky in my schools as well We were encouraged to 'speak out'. We even had a debating competition at the end of term. By contrast, my sister-in-law, who until recently was an early years teacher, was quite used to children who barely knew that they had a name, their parents spoke to them so infrequently. She felt that if she could get the children quietly listening to a story for half-an-hour, that was a real milestone. It starts in the home.
With computers and iPhones, lots of communications are done electronically and that is not oral expression nor a good face-to-face verbal exchange of thoughts and debate. I agree entirely, schools should teach oracy and parents should encourage it at home. I loved the flower drawing and verbal exchange game you created for your sweet little girl.
I would imagine that children have to communicate in class although our philosophy teacher who also teachers students at the university here said that when he asks them to contribute to discussion they all go quiet whereas we all never stop talking. Children do a lot of communicating via social media these days. I think it is important in the home to talk around the meal table and listen to adults and take cues from them and be encouraged to talk. If this no longer happens in the home then it will be difficult in school. Starmer may have the right idea but it sounds like it could easily go the way of Blair's Education Education Education, i.e. fail.
Wow! You really were a surprise! What a great story of your birth!
I was brought up to keep quiet and not to venture an opinion unless it was specifically asked for, which was seldom. Quite often things that I said were ridiculed and I was made fun of so I learned not to speak up. I am still a little like that even now.
Amen to this post, Pat.
Sorry your siblings were so much older than you were that the three of you weren't allies. I was an only child, so had no allies either.
My sweet AMIL (angel MIL) was a wonderful, kind, funny, laughing woman who was director of a daycare center for babies to kindergarten age children. She told us after our sons were in school that they were brilliant because we'd always talked with them as if they could understand and then they grew a bit so they did understand us. They are still brilliant!
Hugs!
I have a friend in Korea who teached 5 and 6 year old debate
I have. Idea what it entails but it’s interesting
I am a good storyteller but need to read from a script
Veg artist - well said. Indeed it does start in the home and this does give some children a great advantage over their peers - who never catch up.
My husband was often home late from work, but our children and I always talked over a cuppa and a piece of homemade cake when they came in from school. I was amazed when my youngest daughter told me her friends envied her because she could talk to me about anything. I even spoke to my children before they could speak, and can remember asking my then 9 month old son what we should give Daddy for supper when he gets home!
My husband, who came from a strict Methodist family, was always encouraged to talk and express his opinion from a very early age. At a family gathering, all gathered to say grace around the food and an elderly uncle was invited to do the honours. Piously all stood with head bowed as he pontificated in an Archbishop of Canterbury tone, full of high and low inflections, .. a very long grace, evidently.
At the completion my husband, then four, tugged at his mothers skirt and said loudly "Why does Uncle Alan speak in that silly voice!". Much contained sniggering by all.- Pam, Aust.
I think you are right on target. I can say that participating in debate club in upper elementary and middle school taught me most of what I know about considering all sides of an issue and organizing a response to a topic. Too bad that subjects that are so much higher on the technology scale have left no time for basic communication skills to be taught and used.
We were so many (13 children) that of necessity there had to be some rules. But at the dinner table, which was a daily gathering, (unlike most families today) there was almost always lively conversation. We were taught not to interrupt, and occasionally Dad enforced the " children should not speak unless spoken to if it got too loud. I remember many evenings with my parents on the porch or in the back yard, talking and singing together, in warm weather. And afternoons after school we often had tea with our mother in the kitchen, just sitting and talking. We were fortunate, I think, and although our American grandmother called us hooligans, our English granny loved us. She spent many hours talking with us when she came for one or rare but extended visits
With my own sons, well, I was only 17 years older than my oldest and the next three were within 5 years of him, so in many ways we were a team. I had no one close by to watch them for me so we went everywhere together, worked together, etc. They read a lot as we had no TV. They all grew up to be articulate men, and very good listeners, a trait I think is undervalued today.
I gave my students material showing both sides of a topic. Then I asked them to write a paper using the info that they had read. The topic was using animals for research. It was easy for them to choose one or other side. then they had to support their position. Yes teach kids to listen to other opinions.
We had a 'Debating Society' at school, of which I was a keen member. As for Starmer's proposal to teach children to speak with a 'posher' accent; is he trying to make them all sound as if they'd been to Eton? I'd thought he was 100% against such elitism!
Oh, Pat. What a thoughtful, intelligent comment you have brought forth today. It makes me so sad when I encounter adults who have no understanding of what you have said and obviously were not brought up in enlightened homes themselves. These aren’t necessarily uneducated or poorer folks either. But so sad as they pass it along. And how hopeful when we are lucky enough to come upon those examples like yours where the light shines through. Keep up your wonderful encouragement and inspiration. Your family is so lucky to have you and so are we.
As far as I am aware - you know I don't have children, but my friends do - discussion is still encouraged widely at school. In fact, there is much more working on "projects" now for the children than there used to be when I was a kid. Today, they don't just sit in rows and listen to the teacher at the blackboard, but they work in small groups and then present their results to the entire class. Of course, the lockdown periods when children were not allowed to go to school caused a lot of damage, and the gap between children who were lucky enough to live in families who knew how to communicate and those who didn't, widened.
Love the story of how you were born as a surprise, and your Dad's take on it!
I hope that this initiative will also teach kids to say " I did it" rather than " I done it" and " I should have" not " I should of". Have they never read a book?
When I was a child I was always chided by my grandfather for arguing. He would say, if someone told you a thing was black, you would argue it was white, even though you knew it was black. I can't speak for the thousands of children in school but would ask why the teachers are leaving in great numbers, could it be home life and the inability to hold a conversation without temper and aggression being shown, which in tumbles out into the classroom.
edit: which in turn tumbles out of the classroom.
Frances - as a retired teacher - many children starting school have never seen a book, let alone had a book read to them. Thanks to ursery schools this is not as common as it used to be. In my teaching days many children entered school having never held a pencil.
Librarian - this is good to know. I am not sure that this has spread to children in Comprehensive school where adherence to curriculum and concentration on exams might make making time for discussion more difficult - especially in subjects like maths - where discussion is desperately needed.
Cro - I don't think it has anything to do with an 'Eton' accent - we are speaking here of correct grammar, not using slang. In my teaching days - where the Birmingham accent was prevalent - 'local' expressions plus accent often made pupils stand out in the kind of way that however 'suitable' they were for a job, their way of speaking would let them down
Thank you everyone for such interesting replies.
Red - well said.
As far as I know, public schools have been teaching 'oration' for many years. My grandchildren were taught 'public speaking' at their ordinary schools, so I think this idea is yet another attempt at distraction from all the other, more pressing issues.
P.S. I also think that Kier Starmer pondered over how successful Tony Blair was with his 'education, education, education' stance and thought he may be able to replicate it a bit?
Another great, thought provoking, well commented upon post dear Pat!
Thank you . . . . . . .and all your great readers.
Oh Tom- tongue in cheek here methinks But your first comment is certainly interesting - perhaps many schools do it now. As I have been retired forty years I really don't know. I suspect schools are different places from what they were when I was teaching.
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