Anyone following the news over the past couple of weeks will have been treated repeatedly to the charming sight and sound of schoolchildren voicing their opinions. The hyper-fuss generated around the setting, sitting and leaking of Sats papers put children in the firing line, and empathetic journalists nationwide have been eager to hear what the sitting ducks have to say. I get queasy when I see a real-life, flesh-and-blood toddler being used as a prop in a Tarantino movie or post-watershed TV drama, so the sight and sound of so many visibly unhappy children worrying made me wince. Or it would have done, if I had believed that I was listening to them and not their teachers or their parents.

One of the things that has always made me deeply uncomfortable when attending educational technology shows over the years is the way a few companies use schoolchildren as marketing tools. The sight of some young and eager teacher, shepherding a little flock of bewildered kids in school uniform around a vast space dedicated to commercial sales is common at these kinds of events, and tells you a lot about how some of these businesses regard schools and teachers. There are ways that schoolchildren and teachers can participate in these events that are educationally appropriate. I’ve organised them. But it is rare indeed, and more often than not those fresh-faced children in their smart uniforms are the equivalent of the aspiring actresses in little black dresses that arms companies use to flog grenade launchers.

‘Offensive’ gimmick

As I sat down to write this article I heard two young children on the radio being asked to talk about their award-winning new school building use precisely these words:

“It doesn’t enclose you or make you feel trapped or claustrophobic, and the windows help bring in natural light so you feel like calm…just think about your work…just focus on it as well.

“You feel very safe. All teachers can see where you are at all times.”

Am I the only one to find this use of real children as PR or marketing tools really offensive? It’s not just trade shows or the news media that does this. It has become ubiquitous globally among NGOs and charities, operating in that economically and emotionally fertile hinterland between central governments and schools. The cut-away from the employee presenter to the child validating their opinion with a spontaneous comment carefully scripted beforehand has become a standard technique in the video material these organisations produce.

‘Mind your own business’

It’s a fascinating phenomenon because I think it has its roots in the classroom and is one of those subtle indicators of what distinguishes world-class schooling from schooling that is merely good. I imagine most teachers, irrespective of Ofsted or any other performance management-labelling, would be prepared to accept that a great schoolteacher never tells a child what to think. But I suspect far fewer would agree that they also never tell a child what they think. I was often asked in the classroom what I thought about a particular issue. Teachers will all recognise that this question is one of the most frequent ploys children use when trying to divert your attention. But they are not always so devious, and teaching English literature inevitably leads you into sincere and intense discussions about things that really matter: love and death, poverty and politics, subjunctives and the subconscious, that kind of froth.

My answer was always a variation of the same thing. “Mind your own business. It doesn’t matter what I think, and it’s certainly not part of my job to tell you. It does matter that you think for yourself. And helping you to do that is definitely part of my job.”

So anyone contemplating producing an educational video, or about to set off to interview more sitting ducks about academisation, Sats or the value of learning grammar, please remember, corruption comes in all shapes and sizes.

Joe Nutt is an educational consultant and author

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