Product reviews for Of Teaching, Learning and Sherbet Lemons

I had the great good fortune of attending, in the 1970s, a primary school blessed with a group of highly innovative teachers for whom the child was very much the centre. The mantra of George Hartley, the head who had recruited them, was that each child had his or her own unique talents and that it was the role of the school to fan these into a flame. The range of talents within the pupil body might be very diverse, but each was to be celebrated as a God-given gift that should be developed, not only for the good of the children themselves, but ultimately for society as a whole. The head's vision for his students was ambitious and saw beyond the day when they would leave the school to move on to the local secondary schools. Allied to this was his desire to encourage learners to pursue intellectual lines of enquiry as far as they could take them, using the resources of the school and local library and enthused by the passions of the teachers. The message we, as children, received loud and clear was that learning was meant to be exciting and fun, an exploration of the wonderful world around us and of the ideas of those who had shaped it. There was a good dose of seventies optimism about all this, but the feeling was palpable that the old, more rigid educational philosophies of the past had been thrown off and more creative approaches to learning embraced.

Hartley would, I feel, have recognised a kindred spirit in Nina Jackson. Her latest book, Of Teaching, Learning and Sherbet Lemons, advances an equally pupil-centred and humane view of education, one that, while grounded in academic research and sound pedagogy, is thoroughly imbued with the author's infectious, almost missionary enthusiasm for the process of teaching and learning. The reference in the title to sherbet lemons is not accidental. As Jackson makes clear in her introduction, -˜fizz' is what the book is all about and refers to the excitement generated in the best lessons, when the learning process suddenly comes alive for the students. Pursuing her metaphor, she talks about breaking through the hard but necessary exterior of the sherbet lemon to access the fizz within, a theme that shapes her whole thesis with its balanced but stimulating emphasis on the need for teachers to recover the motivation that brought them into teaching in the first place. 

The book is remarkable for the range of topics it covers. Jackson deals with issues as diverse as pushy parents, dysgraphia, the digital revolution, learning styles and self-harm, as well as the area for which she is perhaps best known, the therapeutic value of music in education. In all, she is keen to engage readers in lively discussion, encouraging us to try the very practical hints she gives and to get back to her with feedback. Her energy and enthusiasm, with the sense she gives of being on the side of teachers overwhelmed by bureaucracy and form-filling, mean that one is swept along by her positive vision of how wonderful the teaching vocation can still be. The book is best read a chapter a day in the first instance, each being a self-contained whole that can be absorbed and reflected on before moving onto the next. After this, it can be treated as a resource to be dipped into as time allows, its value being not only to enthuse the jaded professional but also as a call to action. The question and answer format that begins each section quickly draws the reader in, the imaginary teacher asking the question always being treated with respect and sensitivity and the dilemmas posed being a compendium of contemporary teaching hot topics. 

There are so many valuable ideas and references here that no-one who feels inclined to follow up Jackson's insights will be short of material. What makes the book especially appealing is that she wears her learning lightly and anyone who has ever been put off by educational jargon when approaching a book of this kind will soon be reassured. Jackson is aware that tired teachers sometimes approach INSET in a mood of terror mingled with boredom, and she is clearly determined to avoid the pitfalls that lurk at every corner for the author straying into this territory. There is a very real sense that she cares about the difficulties teachers face in the classroom and that, not only does she want to help, she also wishes to inspire. I recommend Of Teaching, Learning and Sherbet Lemons unreservedly to anyone who feels that their teaching lacks the -˜fizz' their students deserve. If you feel you spend all your time sucking the sherbet lemon, only to find that nothing lurks within. Jackson amply fulfils her aim of putting the inspiration back.