My A4e - Ann Hinchliffe

Lots of good A4e stories are about recognisable success, like the chap writing his name. I'd like to suggest that a lot of our successes may be real but unrecognisable, either because success isn't always instant or because it's gift-wrapped in an unexpected colour. The coffee question's like that.

I've found this attitude reassuring in years of teaching children and adults: they may or may not get the certificate you're aiming at but often the seeds you've sown will be reaped in odd ways, or years later. Fingers crossed that that's so in my current classes of offenders, sometimes moved to another prison at short notice by the Home Office.

Thirty years ago I was a VSO English teacher in Papua New Guinea. (Please don't think "cannibal" stereotype -- just ordinary kind people). A year after I got back, one of my Sixth Form students wrote me a chatty 2-page letter. Bottom of page one: "We were pleased that you were our teacher, because you . . ." I turned the page with eager anticipation: was it lucid grammar teaching or attempts to inspire them with poetry that they valued? Page two: ". . . danced in our village." Pardon? The memory came back of a thatched village one evening where I'd accepted the invitation to join a traditional circle dance. Afterwards, several villagers said no European had ever been willing to have a go before then. Still don't know whether my English teaching was any good but I'm really proud that this young woman was pleased with my dancing.


Ann Hinchliffe, OLASS, HMP Erlestoke and Dorchester