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REFERENCE TO THE QUESTION
The play ‘Kes’ by Barry Hines and Allan
Stronach is one which explores the theme of
education. The play is set in Yorkshire in the
1960s and is about a boy named Billy who
trains a kestrel. The play focuses on issues
surrounding Billy and the people around
him, including his teachers. Education is
portrayed in a mostly negative light with
Billy’s relationships with teachers being very
mixed.
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The main way in which the theme of education is shown in
the play is through the character of Billy. Billy doesn’t enjoy
school and education seems to have failed him. Billy’s
reputation at school is poor and he has previously been
involved with the police but recently he has changed. At
one point, during a discussion with his brother, Billy is told:
“You’ve to be able to read and write before they’d let you
down the pit”.
This shows that Billy hasn’t gained anything from education
because he has very low levels of literacy.
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Another character who portrays the theme of education is Billy’s
English teacher, Mr Farthing. He has a different approach to teaching
his pupils. He takes an interest in what his pupils are into and likes to
hear about their lives. He has a bond with Billy throughout the book.
This is portrayed through the incident with Billy and McDowall when he
gives McDowall a punishment for the fight that they were in, but not
Billy. He confronts McDowall and says, “What would you say if I pinned
you up against the wall?”. This shows that he is on Billy’s side and
recognises that he is being bullied. He then takes a further interest in
Billy and his hawk, ‘Kes’. After Billy delivers a talk on ‘Kes’ in class, Mr
Farthing expresses his interest by commenting, “Right, that was very
good. I enjoyed that and I’m sure the class did too”. He also goes and
visits Billy’s house to see Kes being flown. We can see from this that Mr
Farthing really cares about his pupils and has their best interests at
heart.
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Mr Sugden is one teacher who portrays a very different
side of education than Mr Farthing. Mr Sugden is Billy’s PE
teacher. Billy doesn’t have a good relationship with him. He
humiliates Billy in front of the whole class by making him
wear over-sized shorts which make him look ridiculous. He
has no patience for his pupils and is a very horrible teacher.
During a PE lesson in which Billy has forgotten his kit, Mr
Sugden roars at him, “You make me feel sick!”. He also
physically abuses Billy by hitting him with a ball and taunts
him for not being educated. This shows us that teachers in
the 1960s could get away with treating children like this and
nobody really cared, it was just the way it was. It also
shows us that Mr Sugden is the type of teacher who likes to
bully his pupils.
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STARTS WITH A CLOSING SENTENCE
RE-USES QUESTION WORDS
GOES BACK OVER THE TOPIC SENTENCES
SUM-UP
In conclusion, the play Kes shows many different
aspects of the theme of education. This is shown
by the different teachers such as Mr Sugden who
are not interested in success for their pupils,
whereas other teachers such as Mr Farthing want
their pupils to leave school prepared for wider life.
As a result, Billy has no interest in school and
seems to have gained nothing from his education.
From his experience we can see that education in
the 1960s was focused more on discipline than
learning.
P1: Introduction
P2: How the conflict is introduced
P3: The incident where Jud comes home drunk
P4: The bet = angry Jud (school, killing Kes)
P5: The aftermath of the killing
P6: Conclusion