Still more to do? By Steve Way

 

A short piece this month but a significant point I hope. I know this has been touched on before and by more able hands but it’s my turn today so here goes…

I used to work as a private tutor, working mainly with children in the Leeds/Bradford area. I’m happy to say that on the whole this is overall a fairly cosmopolitan area and I had the privilege of working with students and families from a wide range of backgrounds and beliefs. I know it’s somewhat of a cliché but as for so many others, when I had to get the chance to get to my students and their families, the differences between them became minor and the heart-warming common factors more apparent.

I want however to highlight a discussion I had with a student not that long ago. I happen to know that she is now in the sixth form but was about eight or nine when I worked with her. I’m not going to name her for obvious reasons. My student and her wonderful and supportive family are part of the British Asian community, in their case with family connections in India.

I can’t remember how we got onto the subject of princesses, I know we were exploring creative writing together, perhaps we were writing some deliberately very short stories, a tactic I use to get my students (and myself!) into gear for more extended writing. In the spirit of exploring ideas and encouraging creativity I asked my student, “What would you do if you were a princess?”

“Well, I couldn’t be a princess,” she answered with crystal clear assurance.

“Why not?” I asked, naturally intrigued.

“Because I’m not white,” she replied with equal conviction.

I think my astonished reaction to her reply, more than anything I said in reply, was the most helpful. However, after I’d talked about the myriad of princesses both real and mythological linked not only to India but many other parts of the world and points in history, who were very definitely not white, she did seem to concede that she could perhaps, in her imagination at least, be a princess.

My student, unlike so many children I’ve encountered who have been put off books from an early age (what are we doing wrong?) was an avid reader. I am of course as guilty as every other writer but it seemed tragic that none, or virtually none, of the books she had read had empowered her to imagine that possibility.

Of course, this was eight or so years ago, perhaps I’ve been unconscious of seismic changes taking place since then that would alter the outlook of an eight-year-old from her background.

If not then we all still have some work to do.