This book shouldn’t work. A memoir written by a 40-year-old, who has never written a book before, hardly sounds promising. The topic, education, moreover is death to good literature: barely has a book been written about the subject that is not dull beyond belief. Yet, against all the odds, this book turns out to be an enthralling read.
Teach First is one of the most inspiring ideas around in 21st-century Britain. The book tells the story of its first decade, from 2002-12. Rising from nowhere, it has become one of the top graduate employers in Britain and is slowly achieving its mission of transforming opportunities for socially disadvantaged young people. The idea is simple: inspire top graduates with the challenge of spending a minimum of two years teaching in Britain’s most socially disadvantaged schools, motivating their students to transform their lives through educational achievement. Even if Teach First graduates leave for other careers after two years, the idea is that they will still be so fired by zeal for improving the lives of young people that they will provide leadership to achieve it in whatever careers they choose to pursue.
The undoubted hero of the book is the author himself, the inspirer and CEO of Teach First, Brett Wigdortz. A consultant at McKinsey until the age of 28, the author describes with painful honesty how, as a lanky and green American in London, he became transfixed by the failure of schools to inspire and motivate poor children. Great teaching is the vital ingredient. He refused to believe that top graduates were motivated purely by high salaries in international companies, and saw that large numbers would want to come into schools to transform the lives of young people, if only the right vehicle could be found. So he came up with the notion of a six-week ‘boot camp’ or crash course in teaching for carefully selected graduates, who would then be unleashed on the most disadvantaged schools. Persuading the educational establishment of his case, and finding the money to translate this vision into reality, makes for compelling reading.
Many setbacks were encountered. Few were more troubling than what he believed would be a sign-off meeting with the Schools Minister in April 2003: officials were damning, and the plan was almost lost before its inception. The book is peppered with ‘boxes’ offering management-style lessons, one of the most deeply felt being: ‘How to turn a “no” into a “yes”.’
Building his team was not the least of the author’s challenges: indeed, he compares himself to David Brent, the explosive and erratic manager in television’s The Office. Sensing at one point that his relationship with his staff was fragile, he convened a 360-degree review with his entire staff ranged around him. A convener read their comments: ‘Brett is diabolically bad at managing Teach First...he micromanages and drives me potty...I don’t know what Brett does... does he know how much damage he’s causing?’ His poor staff squirmed uneasily on their backsides as a red-faced Wigdortz tried to respond in a dignified manner. These moments of honesty make what could be seen as an egotistical book much more digestible and real.
The most arresting episode is the account given of a phone call from a Treasury official in March 2005. The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, he was told, wanted to announce in his budget the next day a doubling of the size of Teach First. Without asking the salient questions, he murmured consent, and the official abruptly hung up. The next day, Brown announced that ‘Teach for Britain’ (as he preferred to call Teach First) would be expanding into four new cities. Wigdortz’s board and staff went ballistic, the more so when they learnt from the Treasury that Brown was voting them no more money. It dawned on Wigdortz that his beloved organisation was being used as a pawn in the power politics between Blair and Brown.
Teach First has grown from placing 200 graduates into disadvantaged schools in London to 1,000 graduates (selected from 7,000 applications) today teaching in disadvantaged schools across England. It is an inspiring story, made possible only by the help of many benign and wise hands. It shows that high-powered graduates are indeed opting in large numbers for jobs which are traditionally seen as low status and hard. It shows that disadvantaged children can achieve exceptional results, as shown at Bethnal Green Academy, where the entire humanities department are Teach First graduates, and where a student production of Romeo and Juliet was performed at a West End theatre.
Reading the book will encourage many to reflect on what they could be doing themselves to transform the lives of others. No better example of the Big Society in action can be given than Teach First.