It was a joy to learn that the new UK Labour government, under the leadership of Andy Burnham, is finally prioritising ‘oracy’ within the education system. As a long-time advocate of the importance of oral communication, not just the written word, this was a welcome sign of a more progressive approach to education and one that more accurately reflects the needs of our time.
It has long been argued that rote learning and ‘teaching to the test’ is useless preparation for the real world and how success can and should be defined. The overt focus on academic study as defined by examination and solo regurgitation of facts, at the expense of supporting students for a life in the real world, has long been a source of concern to educationalists all over the world. Our education systems, it is well-observed, were designed for an industrialised world that taught people to remain in their place in the cog and machine of hierarchy and clear levels of power that kept the poor in their place in a hugely unequal system. But the advent of new technologies is rendering obsolete even further the systems that we have stubbornly refused to progress in recent decades.
For centuries, private schools have taught the importance of public speaking, debate and presentation skills to all of their students yet there has rarely been a focus on this within state-mandated systems and certainly not in low income or deprived areas. Yet, as the new education secretary argues in her recent essay, these are skills that everyone should have a right to.
“Private schools don’t leave confident communication to chance. They teach it. Debating, public speaking, presentations, interview preparation. It’s all part of the deal. And parents paying the fees would soon have something to say if it wasn’t. They know that being able to speak up, make your case and hold your own can open doors. I want that for every young person, wherever they grow up and whichever school they go to.” Lucy Powell
We are far from advocating the written word is unimportant and this is certainly not about ‘dumbing down’. On the contrary, we believe that reading, literacy, and the importance of being able to express your ideas clearly is so critical to developing the leadership skills necessary for our world. But that focus on the written word goes hand in hand with the spoken word especially as we spend more of our lives speaking and communicating with others orally than we do writing. That ability to clearly articulate our ideas, have confidence in using our voice to speak up or demand what we need, as well as the capacity to compel others to follow a course of action, is so crucial in elevating all members of society to have their right role as leaders in our world. It’s essential when we go for job interviews, when we seek funding for an entrepreneurial venture, or when we need to enroll our families, communities or work colleagues in a new initiative, and it’s vital that we are all given the opportunity to develop those skills.
In our own work, we include public speaking as part of our children’s educational programme Global Explorers, just as much as we do in our Leadership Development programmes for corporate and government leaders, and it is usually foundational to all the work we do afterwards. Until each one of us is able to find our voice, we cannot possibly hope to lead others. But this is never just about the ‘technical skills’ of voice projection, articulation, the ‘power of the pause’, and what to do with your hands, as important as that is. Rather, it is more profound in it’s exploration of your personal vision, the identification of what it is you uniquely have to say to the world, and how to do that in a way that makes your voice heard in more compelling ways. It is a spiritual, not just a technical, journey with the idea that those more elementary elements emerge naturally when the deeper work has been done.
“I do not accept a two-tier system where confident communication is seen as essential for children whose parents can afford school fees, but optional for everyone else…...In a fast-changing world, every young person deserves the confidence to speak up, the skills to be heard and the power to shape their own future.” Lucy Powell
We could not agree more!