Blog7-Horrifying but sadly not surprising

Horrifying, but sadly not surprising

Well, we are in the teeth of the most severe recession most of us can recall, the country’s public finances are mess and are to remain so for some considerable time, we have an impending rise in VAT, and the expected feel good factor from England’s sporting feats in South Africa is yet to materialise. Against this background you would have thought that our retailers would be working as hard as possible for their share of our ever decreasing spendable income. You would have thought, but you would be wrong…

Let me share with you a chilling, yet all too familiar story.

Yesterday a friend of mine set off to Manchester to purchase a digital camera in advance of his son’s graduation. Like most of us, in advance of such a significant purchase he had carried out some research on his state of the art Mac. He had arrived at a shortlist of 3 cameras. He set of for the retail metropolis full of excitement and anticipation, a rare experience for a man in advance of a shopping trip! Nevertheless the satisfaction of concluding his research, the pride in his son’s achievement and the glorious weather all combined to banish his usual cynicism of the British retail experience.

He arrived in Manchester unusually quickly, parked his car and headed purposefully to a national electrical retail store. He walked in, not wasting time looking around the shop as he had already decided on his shortlist. He could see two out of the 3 cameras he had chosen on display, he smiled. He would ask an assistant to get the both down go through them, ask the questions he had decided on from his research, make the purchase and reward himself with a coffee in the sunshine.

A shall pause here; regrettably I am sure you all know what happened next, why? Because we have all been on the receiving end of it time and time again. As you complete the story yourself within your imagination, ask yourself why you are able to do that. I was driving as my friend was regaling me with his experience, I had to pull over for fear of crashing the car, such was the anger, disappointment and most of all the predictability of it.

So, find a comfortable chair, pour yourself a glass of wine and keep the bottle close, making sure the cat is in another room for you will surely kick it, and finally I strongly recommend the children are out of ear-shot as the stream of expletives that are about the pour forth from your own mouth shock even them.

He strides purposefully to the counter, he had woken early and so is in the shop before the lunchtime crowds, there are only a couple of other customers. In fact there are more staff than customers. He stands at the counter, two members of staff are chatting, he can tell that one of them has noticed him and yet continues to talk to his colleague. He can feel the frustration rising within him but refuses to give into it, he is determined to enjoy the purchase and after all the two camera are now only 3 feet ahead of him.

Finally he is acknowledged, “ can I help you?” at least that is what he thinks he hears, the assistant mumbles it through a thick mancunian accent, fails to make any eye contact at all, and demonstrates the level of enthusiasm usually reserved for a dentist’s waiting room. Nevertheless John perseveres. He asks to look at the two cameras. The assistant turns to the shelf and reaches for them only to present John with two completely different ones. “No the Nikon and the Sony” John says trying so hard to maintain his composure. “Sorry mate” comes the response. Mate! John thinks you are not my mate! You are supposed to be helping me. His mind wanders…what is it these days where everyone is your mate, why are people so deliberately lazy when they talk as if the don’t really want to be understood….

So he know has the two cameras in front of him. He picks up the Sony, it feels good in his hand, bursting with technology, the excitement of the impending purchase returns to him. He presses the small button on the top-nothing, he presses it again, nothing. He hands it to assistant, “can you turn it on for me please? “ oh sure mate, sometime the batteries run down on the display ones, yeah that’s it I will see if we have any batteries in the back” Not a hint of an apology, or recognition that this might be his fault.

As the irritating youth disappears to get the batteries John, examines the other camera, Yes you guessed it……. that doesn’t work either.In that moment every fibre in him wants to just walk out of the shop, the day is spoilt; the pride in his son and his research is now tarnished. He resents the fact that he can’t leave, he needs a camera and he would only have to return to another shop later and doubtless endure a similarly painful experience.

Eventually the assistant returns, with a colleague in tow, “I found these in the back hopefully they are the right ones”
Hopefully? what do you mean hopefully? Why don’t you KNOW? What the hell is this place, a shop or a drop in centre for delinquent 19year olds with nothing better to do? Of course he doesn’t say this.

The youth has now been examining the camera for 5 minutes trying to find the where the batteries go. “Hey Paul, come here a minute mate” he shouts across the shop to a colleague. “Where do the batteries go?” Eventually the camera fires up and it is handed to John. “There you go mate” In that moment John feels angrier than he did a week ago watching the second half of England against Algeria.

After a similar saga with batteries for the Nikon John now has both cameras working and in front of him. He play with them both but doesn’t really know what he is doing, he wants advice, and help, he wants to make an informed decision. As soon as he opens his mouth he knows he is going to regret asking… “Can you explain the differences what features does the Nikon have above the Sony? “
“Not sure mate” comes the reply, “ well it says on the box………………”
That’s it John can endure it no more, “Ok I’ll take the Sony”

The assistant then tries to successively sell John a case for it despite the fact that it comes with one, a memory card for £25 despite there being ones for £12 on the counter in front of him, and then, yes you guessed it, our favourite-warranty insurance. John refusal is met with disapproval and the youth begins to adopt a superior tone of condescension, in seeking to persuade, John is aghast, this spotty youth, who has shown no enthusiasm, provided no service or advice in the last 45 minutes, is now as good as saying John is making a mistake. The rage and tension are now at such a level, that even losing to Germany on Sunday would not provoke a similar reaction.

He can now leave the shop, or so he thought, but he now has to pay. For some unfathomable reason, the youth does not take payment, he instead takes the camera across the shop to the only till point that is open, but as yet unmanned, “wait here mate, I’ll just get Sharon for you” I do not need to describe John’s reaction to this as I have no doubt that you have already said it in your head.

Sharon breezes across the shop, “ Hiya, sorry to keep you waiting, I have just been on the phone to me best mate, her boyfriend left her and she’s in bits” she continues to talk but it now it is just noise to John, very irritating noise.
She then asks him for his address, why do you need that? John responds, “dunno luv that’s just the system”

After providing as much information as required for his recent passport renewal, he pays and leaves the shop with his shiny new camera. He walks across the square collapses in a chair outside the coffee shop. He peers in through the window contemplating buying a cup of tea and a cake, only to see a queue of 8 people waiting and only one person serving…………………… “Oh for fuck’s sake” he says to himself, except he doesn’t say it to himself, it comes out of his mouth, delivered in tone of hopeless resignation. Two young mothers with toddlers in tow shoot him a disapproving look, as do an old couple sharing the telegraph crossword. But next to the couple is a man on his own with two bags, which tell the story of his morning, he looks up, catches John’s eye, nods and smiles. He knows.


So, that’s the story. You can let the cat back in now and go make sure your children haven’t heard your screams of anger and incredulity. Horrifying, but sadly not surprising.

How an earth did we get here?

I am reminded of a quote from John Ruskin:

“There is nothing in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and he who considers price only is that man's lawful prey.”

I regret to say we have got ourselves into a position where we have got what we deserve.

We have slavishly followed the mantra of: price is all. Supermarkets, from 24 hour mega stores to small urban mini markets dominate not only the high streets of our towns and cities, but also our villages. My local village has two opposite each other.
We are familiar with the often-remarked observation that the high streets of our towns are indistinguishable from each other. We could all name 10 stores we would be sure of finding in any town. It is of course so easy to blame big business for driving out local artisans. But I fear that is far too simplistic. We need to look closer to home far the real culprits. It is us.

We insist that prices are as low as they possibly can be, so we can have yet more stuff we don’t need in pursuit of happiness and contentment which is actually to be found in the opposite direction.

We insist in a life of convenience and want everything in one easy place so that we don’t waste time shopping for food in four different shops, the butcher, greengrocer, baker and fishmonger. What exactly do we do with the time we save? Spend it in other shops buying stuff we want but don’t need, sit in front of that poisonous box in the corner of our living room watching soporific rubbish which slowly turns our brains to mush, and then jolts us with intermissions (the volume of which are always two or 3 notches higher than the programme) persuading us to buy yet more stuff, and subtly suggesting that our life cannot possibly be complete without another thingingmajig. And we buy it.

We return from our holidays in continental Europe marveling at the pace of life in Italy the café culture in Paris, the individuality of the towns and villages we visit. We are jarred when we find a MacDonald’s on the high street of Tuscan town, and find ourselves thinking, “How on earth did they get permission for that?” “It ruins the atmosphere of the street” “Why would anyone want to eat that here, when you can get real fresh Italian food round the corner?” We are totally oblivious to the simple truth that our towns and villages were like that less than a generation ago. We may not have the weather out Italian cousins are blessed with, but we had the villages the local produce, and the individuality of our towns. We chose to give all that away on the alter of cheap is best. Our local councils acceded to more and more planning requests from supermarkets to open yet more and more stores.

So we sit in a coffee shop, itself a global chain bemoaning the demise of our local village, just before driving our shiny new Range Rover, (for safety and seeing over the country hedges, you understand!) 5 miles down the road to Waitrose to do our weekly shop. “I would love to shop locally, but there aren’t any shops any more. Waitrose is the only place you can get fresh raspberries and mango in November and Tallulah just insists on having them with her organic muesli in the morning, When you do find a local shop the prices are just not competitive, its so much nicer in San Gimignano, all the shops are local selling local produce ” You stupid, shortsighted, narrow minded selfish fuck, have you no idea?

Returning to John’s camera, which you will be pleased to learn he was able to get to work when he got it home, and connect it to his computer. I was of course pleased for my friend but slightly disappointed that I am prevented from penning a couple of paragraphs on the sheer anguish of getting home to find a piece missing, the instruction manual is in Russian or some other such event designed to shorted our lives.

However at the time of writing, John has yet to take a picture and transfer it to his computer! I will naturally up date you all when I have more information.

There are independent camera shops, as there are bookshops, music shops, local restaurants etc…. Less and less I grant you but they do exist. They cannot compete which the national chains because they cannot deliver the volume and so cannot secure the supplier discounts. We then confuse ourselves by convincing ourselves that it is a commodity purchase, A Sony camera is a Sony camera, wherever I buy it from. Why would I pay even £1 more from the independent? I would be delighted to provide you with John’s phone number, he can tell you better than I!

An altogether better experience on the day, one that would have enhanced the pride he was feeling. One that would have provided him with confidence in his choice. That marvelous feeling that we rarely get these days’ of being served by someone who is genuinely enthusiastic about the product, cares about helping you. The purchase moves from being a just a transaction to being experience to build on the preparation we but into it.

I can remember 15 or so years ago there was a marvelous independent record shop in Manchester. I wandered in one day, music was playing which I liked so I asked what it was, they guy in the shop told me, and then went on to say, if you like that you may like this and this and proceeded to play them for me. His passion and enthusiasm was palpable. I became a regular, so much so that often when I returned he would say great to see you Dave I have a few cds that I think you might like. Take them home and have a listen, and pay me next time if you want to keep them! Shopping there was not a transaction it was an experience. To this date my music collection is richer and more varied than it would ever have been had I never gone there. It continues to be a great source of pleasure for me. I am sure I could have got the cds for less in hmv, but why would I? You might say it’s all right for you, you make enough money not to have to worry about £1 or so on a cd. That may be true, but that is not the point, the point is we make choices, and if those choices are governed solely by price, as Ruskin says we get what we deserve.

Blog 6-Exams, Inputs or Outputs

My children are currently enduring a week of exams. Nothing particularly new in children taking exams, even though it is a new experience for me, and more particularly my children. It has caused me to think about their purpose and our general approach to them.

Does our preoccupation with exams prepare our children for life?

Exams by their very nature measure outputs, there is no measurement or assessment of inputs, effort, attitude and commitment. There is nothing particularly wrong with this. Exams are not designed to measure this, anymore than a ruler is designed to tell the temperature. Exams do of course have a vital role to play in the education and development of our children, I do not dispute that. What does concern me however is the received wisdom that the passing of exams is in fact the purpose of the schooling of our children. And even more concerning is that we as parents and society in general communicate this explicitly or implicitly to our children.

In doing so we place a huge premium on outputs with very little attention placed on inputs. In doing so what are we telling our children?
Where in our priorities is the space for learning for its own sake? Seeing that as a valuable educative pursuit.

Are we exploring in enough detail between knowledge and understanding?

How many of us have interviewed potential recruits with a string of qualifications that make our own look as if we were asleep during our school years, only to faced with someone who appears to never have had an original thought in their entire life!

We tell out children to assimilate knowledge, but do we encourage and challenge them to understand? True, understanding without a bedrock of knowledge is impossible, but it seems to me that we value and test knowledge only, with understanding being an optional extra.

I think the educational consequences of this are all quite obvious. What is perhaps less so is the wider consequences of teaching our children to be so fixated on measurable outputs. “what we do, without discussion of how we do it”

There was a time not many years ago, that if a cricketer knew he had edged the ball he would walk, declaring himself out without waiting for confirmation from the umpire. That is unheard of now. In fact when in a recent match a player did that he was roundly criticised by team management. This is accepted because the stakes are higher these days; there is more money in the game more pressure and so on. The stakes are higher? Winning becomes more important than personal integrity? This is advanced as an acceptable argument, with “gentlemanly” behaviour banished to the history books as a quaint custom irrelevant in our modern world.

This preoccupation with outputs only leads us in only one direction, integrity, honesty, development of personal values are subordinated to measurable achievements. If achievement is in conflict with integrity, how often do we hear of integrity prevailing and be championed as the right thing to do?

I am sure we do not explicitly encourage our children to cheat or bend the system, as our bankers appear to have done. But our children are smart they work out instinctively what we as parent want for them and what their friends and society define as success.

The relentless focus on outputs, achievements and measurable attainment without the balancing discussion and praise for trying hard, doing one’s best and seeing that as a real success in itself will I fear lead our children in the wrong direction.

As parents what is the first question we ask when our children get their exam results?

1. How did you do? What marks did you get? Were you in the top quartile?

Yes? Well done.

No? Oh well at least you did your best and that’s what counts.

OR

2. Did you do your best? Did you prepare well? Yes? Well that’s great I am really proud of your effort and your achievement

Our children are not stupid and we are not capable of disguising our body language. It is quite clear to our children what the “No?” response in paragraph 1 above, really means.

We are telling our children that we care more about the output than the input?

The output is that the consequence of three things:
The quality of the teaching
The innate ability of the child
The effort put in by the child

Only the last of these is within the control of the child!

In our calmer moments way from the competition of the school gates most parents will say: “All I want is for little Jonny to reach his potential” But in the heat of battle at exam time we lose this perspective. Our children sense this; they have watched their parents lie to each other for years! They know what we really value!

As Larkin said… They fuck you up, your mum and dad, they may not mean to, but they do……