Should children have more say? Hannah Lowe says that her book is about the wit and wisdom of the kids in her school “who taught me so much”. Yet children’s views are often dismissed.
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Teacher's £30,000 for 'love song to youth'
Should children have more say? Hannah Lowe says that her book is about the wit and wisdom of the kids in her school "who taught me so much". Yet children's views are often dismissed.
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The five writers had their hearts in their mouths. Each had won one category in the Costa Awards, but now the biggest prize of all was about to be announced: the Costa Book of the Year. Who would collect the £30,000 cheque? Finally, Reeta ChakrabartiA BBC journalist and newsreader. She chose the poet John Keats as her special subject when she appeared on Celebrity Mastermind., the chair of the judges, broke the suspense: the winner was Hannah Lowe.
Lowe's book The Kids is a collection of sonnetsPoems that are 14 lines long and usually have 10 syllables per line. inspired by her experience of teaching in a London school. She wanted to portray her students, "with all their humour and wit and complexity". But the poems are also about her own schoolteachers - and what she has learnt from her young son, Rory.
The sonnets deal with subjects like retaking exams, texting in class and the many different backgroundsLowe grew up in Ilford with an English mother and a Jamaican-Chinese father. that classmates come from.
They also share what it is like to be the teacher: "It can be scary, it can be joyous and everything in between." Above all, The Kids is "a love song to young people and to the kids that I taught, who taught me so much... about personal things, and public and political issues to do with feelings of belonging".
For Reeta Chakrabati, it was an obvious winner: "It's joyous, it's warm and it's completely universal... in a simple way, because everybody's been to school."
"Each of Lowe's sonnets is a blackboard chalked with the tales of earnest teachers, of cheeky and lovable students," said fellow poet, Daljit Nagra. Another, Carl Tomlinson, wrote that the poems "leave us caring for the kids as much as she does".
Lowe chose to write sonnets even though they are a very traditional and difficult form of poetry. She believed they could be made to appeal to modern teenagers if the subject matter was familiar to them. Even the sonnet's shapeBecause the lines are generally short, a sonnet usually looks rectangular., she says, is a reminder of the classroom, since it is rectangular like a blackboard or the page of a book.
Lowe is not alone in believing that adults have much to learn from children. Some of the cleverest people in history have shown their ability at a very young age.
Aged 15, the 17th-Century French mathematician, philosopher and physicist Blaise Pascal published an essay so brilliant that other mathematicians thought it must be his father's work. Two years later he invented the world's first widely used calculatorHis machine could add and subtract mechanically..
In the same century, the Mexican writer Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz wrote her first dramatic poem aged eight. By 16 she was able to hold her own in a discussion with 40 professors on their various areas of expertise.
Later this year the footballer Marcus Rashford will publish a book called You Can Do It: How to Find Your Team and Make a Difference. Its aim is to teach children between 10 and 14 "how to use your voice to make a meaningful change for the better".
Part of the debate is whether the voting age should be lowered. In most countriesIn a few countries, such as Kuwait, the voting age is as high as 21., it is 18, but in some, it is 16. These include Austria, Scotland, Argentina and Brazil - and Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro if you have a job. But in the US a move to give 16-year-olds the vote was defeated in 2019.
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Should children have more say?
Yes: Over 25% of the world's population is 14 or under. Children have a different perspective and are more in tune with modern life than many adults. They would also bring more passion to debates.
No: There are many areas of life that children do not know about or understand. They tend to see issues in black and white, but adults know from experience that the world is more complicated than that.
Or... Adults like to dismiss children as naive, while children dismiss adults as out of touch. But both generations have something to offer. They should listen to each other more.
The Kids by Hannah Lowe is available from Bloodaxe Books (£10:99)
Keywords
Reeta Chakrabarti - A BBC journalist and newsreader. She chose the poet John Keats as her special subject when she appeared on Celebrity Mastermind.
Sonnets - Poems that are 14 lines long and usually have 10 syllables per line.
Different backgrounds - Lowe grew up in Ilford with an English mother and a Jamaican-Chinese father.
Sonnet's shape - Because the lines are generally short, a sonnet usually looks rectangular.
Calculator - His machine could add and subtract mechanically.
Most countries - In a few countries, such as Kuwait, the voting age is as high as 21.
Teacher’s £30,000 for ‘love song to youth’
Glossary
Reeta Chakrabarti - A BBC journalist and newsreader. She chose the poet John Keats as her special subject when she appeared on Celebrity Mastermind.
Sonnets - Poems that are 14 lines long and usually have 10 syllables per line.
Different backgrounds - Lowe grew up in Ilford with an English mother and a Jamaican-Chinese father.
Sonnet’s shape - Because the lines are generally short, a sonnet usually looks rectangular.
Calculator - His machine could add and subtract mechanically.
Most countries - In a few countries, such as Kuwait, the voting age is as high as 21.