Does playing jazz piano aged 16 mean you are gifted?
When I was a schoolboy in what is now called year 11 (the year of taking the GCSE) I was writing a regular column in an American rhythm and blues magazine, had had a short story published in a sci-fi magazine, and occasionally playing jazz piano in a local ensemble.So did that make me gifted or talented? It may be unusual - and (I certainly felt) distrusted by my teachers. But gifted?
In those days we didn’t have ”gifted and talented” - although that was not because anyone was worried about suggesting some would succeed and some would fail. The focus in my school was on getting boys into Oxbridge, and I certainly wasn’t going to make that. I scraped through music and English lit A levels, while perversely doing unexpectedly well in history.So what should the school have done? Denigrate my extra-curricula activities on the grounds that jazz, journalism and sci-fi were not really the thing? Justify such a decision with my poor A level showing (poor that is when compared with my fellows)? Or say, here is a creative talent - a bit all over the place, but still a talent. Let’s give him such support. Let’s nurture him. He’s G&T.If they had said I was G&T I don’t know what they would have achieved - except maybe a reduction in the disaffection and resentment I felt. And maybe reduced the number of rows I had with my long suffering mum and dad.
I mention all this because the government now lists the number of gifted and talented pupils each school has identified. And I just wonder if I had been born many years later if it would have made any different to the way the school treated me. I rather suspect they would have listed all my fellows who were destined to get 3 or 4 Grade As. The fact that I used to pick up a copy of the Morning Star at the bus station on my way in each morning didn’t endear me to the powers above. The point is that while lots of people make good arguments for getting more bright students from outside of the world of private schools to Oxbridge, so I can make some sort of argument for giving lots of support to teenagers who are great dancers, singers, cartoonists, story tellers, and even players of jazz piano. But there’s a huge problem. You can measure Oxbridge potential by giving the students mock A levels every other day. How are teachers supposed to measure ability in the creative arts. What would you do if a potential Thomas Pynchon turned up? Or a Cornelius Cardew? Or Bob Dylan? Or come to that Cesc Fabregas?
I really have no idea.
There’s plenty more about schooling, plus full details of every school in the UK on www.schools.co.uk
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Articles by Tony Attwood You can get in touch with Tony by emailing Tony at Hamilton-house.com