Comments on: Get On My Cloud! Or how not to develop ‘confident speaking’. With help from Mick Jagger, Rhys Ifans and the cast of The Boat That Rocked /2013/12/get-on-my-cloud-or-how-not-to-develop-confident-speaking-with-help-from-mick-jagger-rhys-ifans-and-the-cast-of-the-boat-that-rocked/ Supporting children's language, communication and learning Tue, 24 Dec 2013 21:33:01 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.3 By: Michael Jones /2013/12/get-on-my-cloud-or-how-not-to-develop-confident-speaking-with-help-from-mick-jagger-rhys-ifans-and-the-cast-of-the-boat-that-rocked/#comment-7863 Tue, 24 Dec 2013 21:33:01 +0000 /?p=884#comment-7863 Hi Louise! Thank you for your very kind words. Would you like to write a review for my new book!!??
I think that children believe that everything they are asked to do in school has a purpose, but some boarding schools used to have the weirdest practices. Apparently the whole of Parliament is run like some boys’ public school. I have read that new MPs are not given any guidance about what to do, but have to find everything out by making mistakes. Presumably they will feel so humiliated that they will remember the right procedure quickly. It’s a form of institutionalised bullying, where the ‘newbies’ or ‘plebs’ are kept down by the older boys, who in turn are bullies by their seniors.
This used to be typified in hospitals and medical schools, where students and junior doctors were taught by public humiliation. just think of the ‘ward round’ and the way that consultants talk to students and juniors who may have made a mistake.

We had a neurologist who used to teach us neurology once a week down at his hospital. He would ask a question like ‘What is the function of the corpus collosum?’ (Luckily he didn’t ask me to spell it!) If you didn’t know he would roll his eyes and sneer ‘Next!’ until someone answered properly. Along the way he would mutter things like, ‘You should have done this last year/What do you mean, ‘you don’t know’ etc. We all made sure we knew the answer the following week. It was really humiliating though. We settled his hash good and proper though. On the last evening before the Christmas break, I got a very large jack-in-the box, with a very loose catch. We wrapped it up in paper and left it on his table before he came into the lecture theatre. He was very pleased and asked, ‘is this for me? You shouldn’t have.’ I felt a bit bad, because clearly this man who was so nasty to us had a bit of a soft side (or even underbelly.. probably all those liquid lunches down in the consultants’ restaurant). He proceeded to unwrap the present, set the catch off in the process, out jumped Jack and our persecutor nearly had a stroke! He saw the funny side (thank goodness), but was still pretty mean to us.
I often wondered if he was nice to patients and their families, or just someone who had been brought up to learn by public humiliation and assumed that the best way to teach was to dish out facts in the same way that he had received them.
Very best wishes
Michael

]]> By: Michael Jones /2013/12/get-on-my-cloud-or-how-not-to-develop-confident-speaking-with-help-from-mick-jagger-rhys-ifans-and-the-cast-of-the-boat-that-rocked/#comment-7862 Tue, 24 Dec 2013 21:16:35 +0000 /?p=884#comment-7862 Thank you Eileen. I’m glad you like the posts, and please feel free to pass them on. Yes you are right about us making our own way in life. I think that all children need very basic things in order to have a good foundation for the rest of their lives. Put simply, this is a regular bedtime, regular meals and being safe at home and school. All of these things come from having a secure family life, whatever form that takes. That’s not so easy to provide, but is essential. All that we can ask is that parents try and do their best for their children.
All the best and I hope you have a nice Christmas too!
Michael

]]> By: Eileen /2013/12/get-on-my-cloud-or-how-not-to-develop-confident-speaking-with-help-from-mick-jagger-rhys-ifans-and-the-cast-of-the-boat-that-rocked/#comment-7861 Tue, 24 Dec 2013 11:01:59 +0000 /?p=884#comment-7861 Michael

I always enjoy your posts..there are things to think about and things to laugh at in this one, as usual, we are what we are in spite of what those in authority thought they were teaching us at the time, I hope we are not making the same mistakes today….but are we making others? Time will tell!

Have a great Christmas

]]> By: Louise /2013/12/get-on-my-cloud-or-how-not-to-develop-confident-speaking-with-help-from-mick-jagger-rhys-ifans-and-the-cast-of-the-boat-that-rocked/#comment-7859 Sat, 21 Dec 2013 10:20:37 +0000 /?p=884#comment-7859 ….brilliant, poignant and brave – made me laugh out loud and dance but also remembered my brother’s torture at boarding school…thank you so much for another witty insightful missive…

]]> By: Michael Jones /2013/12/get-on-my-cloud-or-how-not-to-develop-confident-speaking-with-help-from-mick-jagger-rhys-ifans-and-the-cast-of-the-boat-that-rocked/#comment-7856 Wed, 18 Dec 2013 16:13:53 +0000 /?p=884#comment-7856 Wise words, John, wise words. I’m a big fan of John Hegley, who used to write a lot of funny/bittersweet poems about his childhood, when his dad used to whack him a lot. At one of his gigs he was taking questions from the audience, and someone asked him, ‘Are you OK about writing about when you used to get punished a lot as a child?’
John’s reply was, ‘It wasn’t nice at the time, but it’s nice to make money from writing about it.’
We all kind of laughed uncomfortably at that.
Have a nice holiday yourself and very best wishes for 2014.
Michael

]]> By: John Rice /2013/12/get-on-my-cloud-or-how-not-to-develop-confident-speaking-with-help-from-mick-jagger-rhys-ifans-and-the-cast-of-the-boat-that-rocked/#comment-7855 Wed, 18 Dec 2013 14:03:44 +0000 /?p=884#comment-7855 Tough times, Michael, tough times. We are what we are sometimes because of, but all too often in spite of, our past experiences.

Enjoy your holiday and I’ll look forward to more of your insightful posts in the new year.

John

]]> By: Michael Jones /2013/12/get-on-my-cloud-or-how-not-to-develop-confident-speaking-with-help-from-mick-jagger-rhys-ifans-and-the-cast-of-the-boat-that-rocked/#comment-7854 Wed, 18 Dec 2013 07:35:52 +0000 /?p=884#comment-7854 Thank you Carol. You are very kind. I hope you have a happy holiday!
Very best wishes
Michael

]]> By: Michael Jones /2013/12/get-on-my-cloud-or-how-not-to-develop-confident-speaking-with-help-from-mick-jagger-rhys-ifans-and-the-cast-of-the-boat-that-rocked/#comment-7853 Wed, 18 Dec 2013 07:33:28 +0000 /?p=884#comment-7853 Me too! We love to boogie! Have a happy holiday
Very best wishes from Michael!

]]> By: Carol Adams /2013/12/get-on-my-cloud-or-how-not-to-develop-confident-speaking-with-help-from-mick-jagger-rhys-ifans-and-the-cast-of-the-boat-that-rocked/#comment-7852 Tue, 17 Dec 2013 20:57:42 +0000 /?p=884#comment-7852 Thank you for all your wonderful posts throughout the year. Your comments on children and their language have given food for thought. However, I have also enjoyed the musical trips down memory lane. Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

]]> By: Jo /2013/12/get-on-my-cloud-or-how-not-to-develop-confident-speaking-with-help-from-mick-jagger-rhys-ifans-and-the-cast-of-the-boat-that-rocked/#comment-7851 Tue, 17 Dec 2013 20:00:06 +0000 /?p=884#comment-7851 Think I will do that dance on Xmas day
Happy Christmas
Jo x

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