The buzzword is Making Things

    The great thing about a blog is that you can say what you want without a magazine editor changing or messing up what you have written. The downside is that hardly anyone reads a blog unless you are a celeb. 

    Today's blog is about a true celeb in my life and that is my woodwork teacher. He more than anyone else has influenced my life - a true genius of a teacher and such is this man's modesty I could only find one Google result (below) about a Telegraph article about him riding a Royal Enfield Bullet in 2001. Curiously I owned one of those motorcycles as well as follow Howard in his footsteps and train at the legendary Shoreditch College as a Handicrafts teacher on leaving school. We were well ahead of the game teaching youngsters how to think creatively as well as use their hands. We were teaching design as an integrated part of Handicraft years before Design took over and eventually became embedded in Technology. The buzzword now is 'Making Things'. A bit late when the subject has been systemmatically dismantled over decades! 

    Howard Orme became woodwork master at Abbotsholme school as I entered the Lower Sixth form having failed Woodwork O level with the rest of the class under the previous uninspiring teacher who swiftly vanished. In the December resits I got 85% and two terms later Grade A at GCE A level (normally a two year course)! The thing about Howard, apart from him having a very glamourous young wife at this all boys' boarding school was that he was mildly eccentric and a damned good cabinetmaker as well as an inspiring teacher. Enthusiasm is what comes to mind and this certainly rubbed off, but he must have liked me and for someone who spent much of his school life in trouble that was quite something. 

    My father died when I was 17 and the headmaster gave me the day off lessons to be quiet and on my own. I took the day off fly fishing on the River Dove and feel no remorse in saying it was the first day of my freedom and so I guess Howard would have become a role model. He made learning woodwork fun and even gave me the keys to the woodwork shop one Friday night to make my first guitar. I worked throughout Friday and Saturday night and slumped over the bench around 4pm on the Sunday with one completed acoustic guitar. We had run out of French polish so I used shoe polish.  It was an exciting moment of truth to string the guitar and it sounded good. 

   Above all Howard was a superb craftsman and he would invite me to his flat to inspect his cabinets while his lovely young wife made coffee! Howard had just left the RAF and I guess he was about 23 years old when he joined the Abbotsholme teaching staff.

   On one occasion the headmaster brought some parents of a prospective new boy into the workshop. Howard and I were competing on mini crossbows we had made aiming at a poster of Edward Barnsley at the far end of the workshop. The headmaster was speechless but this was an independent progressive school and I was Howard's star pupil. 

    I dedicated one of my woodworking books to Howard Orme and later met up with him at Eton College where he took up a post in what he described as the Department of Maniacs (Mechanics).  I don't think Howard ever really knew how much he had influenced me and not just in a selfish way of my becoming a renowned designer maker but more importantly to hand on the gift of education and in particular the undervalued Practical Arts that was my particular vehicle for personal development and expression. The greatest reward and one more lasting than the acclaim of (transient) fame as performer is when out of the blue ten, twenty or thirty years on an ex pupil or student appears out of nowhere and says you helped them find their direction in life. Especially in the field of teaching when at the time you have no real measure of whether you are any good at all.

However, one thing for sure is that anybody in the business of education - a teacher, has no business there unless they have not just enthusiasm but a passion for what they are teaching. A university degree proving you are clever is not enough. 

Jeremy Broun with teacher Howard Orme at Abbotsholme School

Howard Orme and Jeremy Broun at Eton College where Howard taught

Howard Orme's Telegraph article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/4753067/Typical-biker-Howard-Orme.html

Lost in the Myre

 Twitter, Flitter, Blog, Smog, Tweet, Ted, Gawker,  Flicker,  Bicker,  Facebook,  Faceless - it goes on and on just like university degrees, so many of them yet what are they worth? Who is the supreme champion of the grab your attention platform? Whoever it is today (Facebook Business page?) one thing for sure it won't be next year. There will be a new kid on the blog. In the time it has taken for some corners of society to understand what a blog is and finally succumbing to peer group pressure that they are less than inadequate not to use one, those in the know tell us the blog is out of fashion. Its been left behind. Even this blog is admittedly a cathartic exercise, with the deluded hope that one day a small iota of its drivel will be of use to some fellow inhabitor of this planet.

   I suspect I may be bookmarked for the 'Grumpy old men' folder but to quote a young teenage age girl's mother last Christmas when I led my street against the neighbouring street in an impromtu snowball fight. As the girl hit me fair and square on the snout, she screamed 'I got that old man'. Mother quickly reprimanded her ' Don't be rude, he's not an old man, well, if he is, he's a very young old man'.

Moral compass

   Professor Richard Dawkins reportedly says 'The Bible is good reading but an appalling moral compass'. What makes it good reading then prof?!

   I would disagree with this renowned atheist scientist who is implying that all religious doctrine is altogether bad for us!! I don't think faith or non-belief is the issue here but that the Christian code as stated in the Ten commandments in The Old Testament is hard to beat as a moral humanistic code or compass. Does Mr Dawkins suggest something better? 'Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself' and 'love your neighbour' is a lot better than the moral code that has taken over from church worship which is the television and namely the soaps that have millions of addicts and is socially indoctrinating. Whether The Bible is truth or a fairy story is neither here nor there if it serves a purpose, that purpose being to offer a guide. 

   I am no Christian in the claimed sense and am probably more an atheist now than an agnostic and do not have the arrogance of scientific knowledge or certainty about anything but I question those who pull down bricks without anything positive to rebuild with. It suddenly seems very fashionable to knock Christians and yet we have the hypocrisy (or fickleness) to celebrate an important Christian festival - Christmas with only one thing in mind to overindulge and over consume with money a lot of us don't have!  Playing Devil's Advocate it is curious the Bible has survived two thousand years of interpretation and ambiguity, even if it a human construct. The problem with science is it often leaves a vacuum!
  I think the late John Lennon is more convincing when he said 'whatever gets you through the night' and that is how I would view the tradition of leaving Gideons Bible in lonely hotels nationwide.

A community

    Many years ago, in fact in 1972 I was one of a dozen craftsmen and women who established the UK's first residential craft commune. I gave freely of my time and expertise as a 'carpenter' to help renovate the property in erecting 22 ledge and brace doors and a long refectory table with a dozen or so Glastonbury chairs all in the spirit of this exciting new co-operative and just in return for my food. My workshop rent was nominal and I recall there was a budget for modestly equipping the woodworking workshop where I was obliged to allow members of the public learn alongside me whilst I attempted to make a living creating my furniture designs. We had a communal gallery and the dream was that a van would collect our craft wares on a Friday and take them away and sell them. 

   The commune was called "The Dove Centre of Creativity" not far from Glastonbury and we were written about in the Colour Supplements as a pioneer model. The twelve craftspeople including myself agreed to a modest percentage markup on our produce to be sold through the commune's gallery. Very soon the harsh reality of commercial survival kicked in and a two-tier markup was introduced by the commune's charismatic leader whereby the 'strong crafts' such as furniture making supported the weaker crafts such as printmaking. Some craftspeople stayed in bed til late whilst others were disciplined early risers. It was inherently unfair that one craft should support another nor was it correct that one craft was stronger than another as it all boiled down to the individual.

    I had invested my time in this venture (and others had given all their savings) and although it was in my heart I found I was actually restricted from making a living by needing to sell outside the commune, yet prevented, and I was forced to leave. I was the first which was quite painful and at the time I was accused of abandoning the philosophy and spreading panic around the centre as others were soon to follow. It was a naive dream but I have no regrets and amicably met up for a re-union twenty five years later and made a film about it called "Silver Dove".
    Interestingly we were in theory a community of like-minded people, all creatives, but very quickly it fell apart and individual private enterprise and self-determination took over. When David Cameron walked away from the Eurozone summit it kind of reminded me of when I was the first to see the reality behind the dream all those years ago. But even then there was no certainty ahead.

Jeremy Broun at the Dove Centre in 1972

The table and chairs built by Jeremy Broun at the centre

The Dove Centre of Creativity

Peer Group Pressure

    One thing I learned at a fairly young age is that peer group pressure can be limiting to positive outcomes and often paradoxically the weakest influence. Fortunately when I was young it was not the dominant almost obsessive force it seems to be today and one so entrenched in consumerism. 

    However, if David Cameron felt alone amongst 26 other nations it somewhat presumes the outcome of their coherence or fate. Time will tell and he may have seen the writings on the wall. I don't quite understand how he can be held responsible (by his deputy Nick Clegg) for a bad outcome when the will of France, Germany and others is to diminish the power of the City and that by setting our own rules we have a better chance of regulating that absolutely vital sector. Cameron could influence but not determine the outcome. What would others have brought away from the table and Labour would not declare its hand at all. We will become 'isolated' if we have nothing to sell but determining our own fate I sense is better and who knows we may pull together better as a nation and mobilise our remarkable resources without the increasing madness of European bureacracy. Human nature anywhere around the world is to look after its own first and that is what we are doing but the British always seem perverse. Clegg agreed to what Cameron was asking for at the Summit the week before! 

    I took the trouble today to watch BBC Parliament long enough to get a feel of its climate and thoroughly disagree with their BBC political commentator who later said on the Six O'Clock News that labours jeers at the absence of Nick Clegg dominated the session. Rubbish, if anything or anyone dominated it was Cameron who was extremely clear, firm and straight forward in his arguments and showed the kind of leadership we scream out for and that many in the House stood up and applauded. 

    Another surprise today from one of our other reverred institutions - the politically correct Guardian newspaper was the admission of the journalist Nick Davis that he may have got it wrong about the News of The World phonehackers deleting the Milly Dowler voicemails. Police intelligence eventually revealed the voicemail may have been automatically deleted the messages!! You mean nobody at the time considered that most telephone answering devices hold a limited number of messages before they are chronologically deleted? Interesting whether the weight of this small factual discrepancy is significant in the cause of the demise of the News of the World. But again, peer group pressure is the order of the day as everybody was at it and nobody pointed a finger at the millions of people who bought the newspapers that relayed information via phone hackings! 

   Britain has a little work to do on regaining its sense of greatness!

Black Dog

     Catching a snippet of the local television news this evening a woman in a high responsibility council job won record damages for Industrial Injury (circa £300,000) for depression caused through stress in the job. I think it was a counter claim as she was sued for a million for not declaring she was prone to depression at the outset.  Tricky situation and many would argue that a high profile job would demand a person with robust mental health and that the judgment would also send a signal out to employers not to touch with a bargepole anyone suffering a history of depression. So what do you do? Lie about it on the application form?  However, regarding this particular case others on high salaries do tend to justify their pay as commensurate with their ability to deal with high stress.

    Many people suffering from depression actually work to an exceptionally high level of ability and  conscientiousness but there is still the stigma. I actually believe that one should be honest despite the risk.  I was able to convalesce on full pay for two thirds of a year by a compassionate employer (Millfield School where I was teaching) in 1970 at the age of 23 but nobody threatened anyone with court action or pointed fingers but it was simply a gesture and out of gratitude I returned to the job a year later before leaving school teaching. At the time the breakdown was so severe I was lucky to be able to take in food.

   I read not long ago of the case of a man in  the USA who won half a million dollars for the 'emotional damage' of losing his mother early in his life. My mother died in childbirth as a result of blatant hospital neglect. she bled to death. That would have made me a comfortable millionaire!

   What is surely needed is a more compassionate but pragmatic approach to mental health. The statistic is one in six suffer mental health problems. I take some comfort amidst the shame of suffering crippling depression that Churchill suffered  'The black Dog' Someone told me Spike Milligan wrote his epitaph 'I told you I was ill' and that lightening sharp witted comedian on Not the Nine O'Clock News - Paul Merton has also suffered severe depression.

   Not that I would wish depression on my enemy but apparantly there is a high correlation with highly intelligent creative people succumbing to it.  A small comfort to me in that my father regarded me as completely stupid until the day he died!

   High achievers often fall into two categories - encouraged by competitive parents or suffering so starkly in low self-esteem they continually try to prove they are at least worthy! Possibly the former also applies in the child wanting to be noticed by over-competitive parents. Over a lifetime of seeking therapy and finding little help, the best tonic in my opinion for 'The Black Dog' is to get a dog (my little dog is the best human being I know) and enjoy good sex - but not with the dog please!