If you find yourself having to give a short speech about the importance of good school design, you could do worse than to pilfer a few goodies from Stephen Bayley’s short talk at our launch a few weeks ago, taking what he calls ‘the utilitarianism of school design’ to task with a range of quotes:
Here are a few quotes from Stephen:
“… imagine how very different a character Harry Potter would have been if Hogwarts looked as deadening and depressing as Tesco.”
“… a building is good if it makes you feel better.”
There’s a quote from Nicholas Nickelby in there as well – a classic description of 19th Century educational horror
‘at the delightful village of Dotheboys near Greta Bridge in Yorkshire, youth are boarded, clothed, booked, washed, furnished with pocket-money, provided with all necessaries, instructed in all languages living and dead, mathematics, orthography, geometry, astronomy, trigonometry….”
(Sadly, he didn’t quote from is favourite description – Waugh’s Llanabba from Decline and Fall).
Then a quote very much of his own: “It’s not that we lack great architects, we lack great clients.”
Mark Twain: “In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made School Boards.”
He quotes Simon Henley:
“The government want schools to look like shops with graphics and bright colours. They’re frightened of tradition, and frightened of the idea that children should even be a little intimidated by school. I’m not afraid of ethics and institutions. Institutions are good.”
(Stephen’s feature on Simon Henley’s work at St Benedicts in Ealing can be seen here).
He finally quotes Stephen Johnson’s ‘Everything bad is good for you’ making the case for non-traditional educational dynamics – striking a balance between tradition and the possibilities that technology offers in education. And while these short tweetable quotes will help to get the message out / get picked up by search engines / give you something to cut-and-paste into your next speech, you’ll probably find it easier to just ….. watch the video. Stephen doesn’t represent the views of the Centre for School Design – but like most journalists he’s eminently quotable!
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