Alec Clegg Still Dreams

by Johnny Panic & the Bible of Dreams

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about

Alec Clegg was Chief Education Officer for the West Riding of Yorkshire from 1945 to 1974. He believed in a liberal arts based education for all and held that such an approach stimulated better outcomes generally. Anyone going to a West Riding school would be encouraged to paint, draw, dance, sing, or learn a foreign language simply because it was the right thing to do.

No-one today has ever heard of him.

No child today escapes the grim “if-you-fail-maths-you-will-die” austerity of national curricula, academy chains and ofsted inspectors with bad hair and no dress sense.

This tune, whose first line is taken from an Ian McMillan article about Clegg, is a nostalgic howl for something better for our children.

youtu.be/VYefh5BIEYk?si=WOwlY9gF10tgDNRh

lyrics

Here’s a photo.
A black & white photo.
A schoolboy sitting at an easel painting,
Light through the window illuminating
The vase of flowers in his painting,
Like something an old Dutch master created.
A boy making Art because Art needs making

Reading for the sake of reading.
Painting for the sake of painting.
Stifled hallelujahs speaking;
To children in the old West Riding

Here’s a painting.
A colour painting.
A young girl in a library reading.
Light through the window illuminating
A coloured world of literal dreaming,
Stifled hallelujahs speaking;
A child reading books because books need reading.

Here’s a video,
A local news video.
Leeds lads dancing instead of fighting,
Single-glazing cold but steaming,
Light from the window illuminating
A coloured world of physical dreaming.

Reading for the sake of reading,
Painting for the sake of painting,
Dancing for the sake of dancing,
Stifled hallelujahs singing.

Running fingers through grey hair,
Looking down from the foggy hill in pity
on their grandchildren’s budget uniformity
and wept when they remembered.

Let the words of our mouths
And the meditations of our hearts
Be acceptable in this sight
Drawing pebbles picked up at the seaside.