Getting Back To School During a Pandemic -A Teachers View: Interview with Misoon El-Gomati

The spotlight on education continues in this interview with educator, schoolteacher and poet Misoon El-Gomati. Touching on getting back to school post covid-19 lockdowns, safety measures, fears, lessons learned, the necessity (or not) of schools and elements of a rounded curriculum. • Was it right to shut schools down in the first place? • Is it madness to open them up again? • Has home education proven more effective than schools? • Can a school ever be a safe environment?Also, as promised, here are the words of her poem that Misoon recited on the show :Streets Paved With GoldThe streets of England, this great land of empire, trade and wealth, are paved with gold Their upright ladies and gentlemen love their nation and their inhabitants They educate and medicate their civilians and their guests for free The streets of England, this great land of peacemakers, manufacturers and nation builders, are paved with gold Your ancestors who loved their home nation, found themselves inhabitants of this new land They educated and medicated these citizens and their guests with their lives The streets of England, this great land of slave traders, imperialist imported ideals and arms dealers, are paved with gold You were raised upright by your kin and community, taught to love your ancestral home alongside this new nation and its inhabitants You’ll be educated and medicated though in reality it won’t really be for free The streets of England, this great land of stop and search, points based immigration bills and child migrant programmes, are paved with gold These upright ladies and gentlemen who so dearly loved this nation, stigmatised it’s black and brown people, classified us into skilled and beneficial, protected its inhabitants by shipping thousands of its native British children to its former colonies to a life of torture, torment and turmoilThey’ll  miseducate and not medicate certain civilians and their guests, leaving them to languish and long for a land to really call home