Education v shouting

I've said almost all I want to about the arrogant, bullying, foul-mouthed persona adopted by celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay on TV (it's probably mostly an act, put on in the belief that TV which doesn't involve people shouting at one another is boring, but that's beside the point). One other point did occur to me after writing down my previous rambling post on the subject.

Ostensibly, the reason why professionals or experts like Gord Almighty stand in judgement over lesser mortals in these sort of shows, is because they know lots of stuff which they can teach people who are starting out. At least in part, their role is to educate. Think for a moment how we try to educate our children. I would be willing to bet that there have been few educationalists, at least since the Victorian era, who would advocate moulding their charges' minds by fear and deliberate acts of petty humiliation.

Here at the Gradgrind Academy for the Training of the Lower Orders, we believe that in order to successfully educate a child, that child's spirit must first be thoroughly broken by sarcasm, belittling the child's first imperfect efforts at self-improvement and displays of terrible anger, delivered with a stern, unforgiving countenance. Only when the sin of pride has been wholly driven from the stubborn breast of the ungrateful wretch may the work of moulding this sinful human clay begin.

I don't really think that's the best way to educate anybody. What it is, is a way to dominate them, bend them to your will and make them docile and compliant. Which is why these sort of techniques are beloved of tyrants. It's education in the sense of "political re-education" - i.e. forcing your ideas down your opponents' throats not by force of argument, but by undermining them and then rebuilding them in your own image (as fictionally portrayed in Nineteen Eighty-Four, when the interrogator O'Brien breaks Winston Smith down in order to rebuild him as a model citizen who loves The Party).

So educationally, I think these programmes are pretty valueless. The other educational deficit which they encourage is the bad example; not only are Gordon Ramsay and his like not effective at spreading what skills and experience they may have to offer, but the are probably all too effective at spreading their lack of social skills, lack of emotional self-control, bullying and general rudeness. If you're bothered about children behaving anti-socially, I'd humbly suggest that Gord is setting something of a bad example.