The Bbc Wanted Me to Check the Children's Uniforms...But I Stayed Home to Wash My Hair ; Clare Short On Why She Feels Betrayed by the Bbc After Spending a Week Teaching in a London Comprehensive for a Realitytv Programme

Mail on Sunday › February 15, 2004

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Summary

WHEN Clare Short, the notoriously straight-talking former Cabinet Minister, agreed to swap roles with a teacher at a tough inner-city comprehensive for the BBC series My Week In The Real World she never imagined she would be the one being told off for being late. In this fascinating account of her time at Southfields Community College she reveals how she rebelled against the grinding workload and the demands of the programme makers but was ultimately left wondering why anyone would want to be a teacher.

HAVING walked out of a job that had absorbed most of my waking hours for six years, I was open to new possibilities. All sorts of proposals were put to me, one of which was from a likeable woman at the BBC suggesting that I change places with someone for a week.

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The Bbc Wanted Me to Check the Children's Uniforms...But I Stayed Home to Wash My Hair ; Clare Short On Why She Feels Betrayed by the Bbc After Spending a Week Teaching in a London Comprehensive for a Realitytv Programme

She said that Michael Portillo had done it as a lone parent and asked me to consider.

I suggested that I become a teacher. I had always meant to be a teacher, my father was a teacher and I come from a family of teachers. I thought I would enjoy the week and my efforts might make people think more about the difficult and precious job that teachers do.

It was quickly agreed and, having fixed the dates, I thought little more about it.

When the appointed week arrived, th...

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