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The circle of reason

Jenny Mosley's innovation, Quality Circle Time, is now popular with schoolteachers in the U.K.

FUN WAY TO LEARN Educationist Jenny Mosley

In history, the best ideas almost never involve the invention of something radically new and different. More often, the genius inventors simply see two useful things and put them together. Thus we have almost everything from a cap umbrella to meat on a stick to the cellular phone. Jenny Mosley did the same, and arrived at one of the widely used teacher's innovations in the U.K. in recent times — Quality Circle Time.

"The idea of standing in a circle is as old as the hills," she says. "Almost every tribe has done it. But it is new to bring it to education." What Quality Circle Time does is to bring everyone in the classroom, teachers and students alike, into a circle so that everyone is treated as equals. "The idea is that every child has the right to speak up, to agree or disagree with something. And no one is allowed to put down anyone else. It teaches the children to be respectful of their teachers and peers, but to be respectfully assertive."

Japanese origin

Such an application of the circle first originated in Japan in the 1930s as part of their strategies for Total Quality Management, since it was reasoned that people could not commit to the organisation if they did not feel part of it, says Jenny. She herself was first introduced to the idea when she was teaching at Gideon School in Clapham Junction, London. "In the early 1970s, we had a good principal who did Circle Time for the staff once a week. We had a lot of fun, asked each other for help and developed a culture of honesty. I liked that culture, and took it from the staff to the children."

The fact that what started as one teacher in one school has now become a worldwide phenomenon still surprises Jenny. "I never had a business plan or anything. It just spread by word of mouth. I first started doing it in my class. Then other teachers in the school asked me to help out. Soon, other schools in the area wanted to know if I could be deputed there. Then, I started working for the education authorities." For those who think standing in a circle sounds too flower child-like, Jenny points out that harsher modes of control such as corporal punishment haven't achieved any real success.

For more information on Jenny Mosley and Quality Circle Time, log onto www.circle-time.co.uk

RAKESH MEHAR

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