Teacher Talk: 'Estelle Morris commanded quite a lot of respect'

Richard Robinson, 35, teaches RE, personal, social and health education, and citizenship at Castle Community School in Deal, Kent

Are you pleased to see Charles Clarke take over as Education Secretary?

It's hard to make a judgement because he's seen in the staff room as something of an unknown quantity. A lot of my colleagues felt disappointed that Estelle Morris resigned. She commanded quite a lot of respect because she had spent 20 years in the classroom and seemed to have integrity. Teachers warmed to her for voicing their concerns openly. What I can say about Charles Clarke is that he seems keen to take a hard line with the unions straight away.

Do you feel that teenagers find their lessons boring?

Teachers are certainly working to make lessons more interesting, by using "active" learning techniques for example. I do an RE lesson on taking responsibility, using kits provided by the charity Cafod for making trainers. For 45 minutes, the students get an idea what it's like to be a child in a sweatshop.

Also, vocational GCSEs are offering students who feel bored or uncomfortable in a conventional environment the chance to learn hands-on skills. And the Government may introduce a system whereby subject teachers, perhaps from as early as Year Ten, would cover topics that are work-related – leisure and tourism within geography for example.

What do citizenship classes have to offer?

Many teachers feel that citizenship encapsulates what should be happening in good teaching anyway – it includes awareness of human rights, racism, sexism, personal finance, and community work. But teaching it separately makes it explicit and measurable. The essence of citizenship is global responsibility. It's natural for citizenship to fall on an RE teacher's shoulders but any teacher may take it and it's the whole school's responsibility. An example of a class is one I did recently on sexist stereotypes in the media. We looked at a Daily Mail article in which a woman was dressed as a domestic goddess, then a temptress and then a good housekeeper. It was striking how like a Fifties Good Housekeeping article it was.

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