Postcard from Bishkek

Maybe its a silly question … but then again, maybe not.

It all started on Monday evening.  The working day was over and I was getting ready to pack up and go home for the evening but iTunes was busy downloading the day’s podcasts so I decided to look at a couple of news websites.

Having scanned the local news services and seeing that someone I know is being questioned over corruption charges … Hmmm … I opened the BBC website.  There didn’t seem to much there so I clicked on the “Also in News” link.  This is the page where they all the oddities – what the Daily Telegraph calls “Wierd News“, both of which are worth a look every now and again.

As I was scanning down the list of stories, the one with the headline “Bill Gates school mystery speaker”  caught my eye.   Apparently, one November evening a teacher in a South London school logged on to a website and put in a request for an interesting speaker to come and address the school’s prizegiving ceremony … and who did they get?, none other than founder of Microsoft on his way from Seattle to Davos for the World Economic Forum.

It seems that he really Wowed the audience, with stories of his schooldays, how he got into computing, dropped out of University …  and how he’s given away most of the fortune that he earned in attempt to rid the world of diseases like polio.

I couldn’t help thinking of the brilliant, inspirational speech given by that other inspirational IT mogul,  Steve Jobs, to a graduation class, and like Bill Gates, made much of how he had dropped out of University.

So, even though iTunes had, by now, finished downloading the latest episode of the Archers, The Best of You Tube, TedTalks and so on, I sat a bit longer and did some research on the scheme that set up the celebrity guest for those kids.

Now, I know from my days as a teacher how useful it can be to have a guest speaker turn up at school to give a talk.   They are not all inspirational by any means, but they do bring with them both novelty, (they say that “familiarity breeds contempt” and school teachers like parents are often dismissed by kids because are a known quantity, whereas the speaker is someone new … an unknown quantity), and authority, (they come from the real world not the classroom and there is another cliché that says “those that can do do, whilst those can’t do teach“).

“Outside Speakers” support teachers with their in depth, first hand knowledge of a the topic; enriching the learning experience by giving another (practical, real life) dimension to what the teacher has been trying to get across in class … and they also provide a different experience that can make learning fun.

You can’t do it all the time, of course, or else the experience looses it’s novelty and value, but inviting a speaker in to address a group of students can be an extremely valuable instrument in the teachers’ armourery.  I remember my reaction on the rare occasions when we had visiting speakers at school when I was a pupil, (rare, because that was a long time ago and back then it wasn’t really the done thing); the reaction of a group of students when, as a school teacher, I invited speakers into address them; and I see the reaction of students when I am invited in to give them a talk.

I rarely ever turn down an invitation … perhaps it’s me hankering after my former life, dying to get back into the classroom; perhaps I simply miss the “performance”; perhaps I am just flattered by the invitation which suggests that someone thinks that I have something worthwhile to say … but I like to think it is because I think of it as part of my way of giving something back to the community … part of my “corporate social responsibility”.  I try to talk lecturers into inviting more guest speakers in to address their classes – but they always seem to be under the pressure of time and the need to finish the syllabus and prepare their students for an examination – and other businessmen to volunteer to give a talk – but they always seem to busy doing their jobs, making money running their firms.

As I read further, I wondered iof we could possibly arrange something like this “Speakers for Schools” programme here … maybe invite Bill Gates … I wonder if he would come to Bishkek?

Anyway, I was impressed by the story.

 

The surprises, however, didn’t end there.

It turns out that there are at least two similar schemes in Britain where schools can apply for a guest speaker to come and address a group, be it the whole school or just a single class.   As I was looking at the website of one of them, there was a photograph of the director of the organization and I thought to myself, “I know that face”.

I looked closer and saw the name … yes, that’s him … I used to teach Mathematics with him … he used to give me lift to work every morning and then home again in the evening, (well, it was 15 miles across country).

He’s not teaching now … he seems to have had quite a varied career working as TV producer and presenter and writing books in between then and now …

Hmmmm … that really got me thinking … Maybe I should give him a call – perhaps he could give me some pointers … Even if we couldn’t get Bill Gates to come out here to Bishkek, I think the idea behind the project still has a lot of potential.  There’s lots of interesting people with something to say here in Kyrgyzstan … maybe we should give it a go.

 

Anyone out there in Kyrgyzstan interested? … If so, drop me a line or give me a call!

 

Tags: Education, Expat, In_the_News