Cool game

You will all love this one ... but remember not to do this in real life girls.

Yesterday I met a boy you would not want to throw a rock at. I kid you not his job is so cool - he is in charge of this castle.

Wow!! What a job. He runs the castle, does promotions and markets the place and thinks about historical matters I guess. Yesterday he got kids to get dressed up as medieval people. And told them about working in the tourist industry.

This was at a work related learning event which had been organised by pupils from Danum School in Doncaster. They had organised the event as part of their own Travel and Tourism BTec course. And had invited lots of speakers and presenters to talk about their work in the leisure and tourist industry, with kids who were doing GCSE Leisure and Tourism. It was amazing how they did such a briliant job, getting things together and organised. They were great people, less than 18 years old and so confident. I had to hand it to them, they had done well.

I found it all really intersting; but I had a few reservations which were similar to those I feel when I watch programmes like Super Nanny or Little Angels. Both these programmes assume agreement that there is a right way to live in a family and are totally uncritical about what they assume to be 'norms'. Anyone who does not fit, is just doing it wrong. They set out a middle class way as being the only and right way. No valuing of diversity.
The reason why I felt yesterday's event contained similar elements was that I felt there was a cultural gulf in the lives of these children and the lives of those they would serve in the tourism industry. I felt that a lot of the time they were totally bemused by what they were seeing, not understanding the cultural significance of all these routines and procedures. It was so weird. here is an extract from my field notes:

Making a Hotel Bed

I watched this demo where the bed was made by the demonstrator and as she moved, doing the task very quickly, she gave a clear commentary about how to do it. Then she unmade the bed and asked the kids to volunteer to do it. None did so she picked two to do it together. They did so while others looked on. She asked if there were any questions, and there were none. The kids stood politely in a silent semi circle around the bed. They were mesmerised; one boy was open mouthed. But I asked the kids if they had ever been and stayed in a hotel. None had. They all used duvets they told me and did not do sheets and stuff at home.

(I am thinking how very hard it is to teach these kids anything
beyond the skills in hand if they cannot understand anything about the context. There is a huge cultural gap really in the work that is going on here. If we are to do this properly we cannot just show them the skills there has to be some kind of critical thinking going on. Even if it is just an understanding of why beds are so important in hotels – when at home they typically remain unmade in their houses. If we don’t have this kind of teaching around it all, then we are doing them no more favours than the old sec mods or technical schools.)

The routines and procedures these kids saw were beyond their cultural experience I think; certainly I feel that the people enacting them were also probably uncritical and unaware of their meanings. Other activities included:

1. Laying a table in a restaurant
2. Making a bed
3. Check in – (at the airport)
4. Air Cabin Crew (doing the safety talk before take off)

I felt that there was a trick being missed here. Vocational education needs to be more than just watch and copy. There needs to be a why and the people teaching need to help the kids ask the questions and be ready to help them with explanations.
Maybe I was in a bad mood but I felt a bit uncomfortable with it all.