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Terry
Furlong ***************************************************************************
Terry
Furlong ***************************************************************************
Terry
Furlong I first met Terry towards the end of the 1970s through LATE. He always had a smile and an encouraging interest in those around him and I know that he made me more confident not only as a classroom teacher but also in challenging reactionary ideas in school. For so many years Terry could be relied upon to bring us the latest inside information about exams, the National Curriculum and skirmishes between Government ministers and civil servants. And Terry had a wonderful way of enlivening meetings about such dry topics with his unique turns of phrase: "donkeyology" is a word that has stuck with me for years. Can anyone remember any others? I wish I could. When he turned up towards the end of one of our LATE committee meetings in 1992 on his return from yet another unproductive meeting about assessment and testing as a representative of NATE with a Tory minister, he was quite clear that careful analysis and reasoned argument would make little difference without the backing of some form of mass protest or civil disobedience. "All that lot will take notice of is if we tell them to eff off!" (He could be delightfully irreverent.) The idea of a boycott of KS3 English SATs formed in our minds, was discussed at our annual summer residential weekend conference in Seaford and became reality later that year. The last time I saw him was at the LATE conference last November where, despite emerging health problems, he gave the opening address, "Writing is not knitting", a tour de force on the National Literacy Strategy which was witty and passionate, with Terry's unique blend of incisive argument, literary allusions and fond descriptions of personal experience. I shall miss
him terribly. *************************************************************************** Terry
Furlong I spoke to Terry on the day that he discovered he had lung cancer. He phoned to tell me that he had been to the hospital, heard the diagnoses and was "just ringing to let me know that he wouldn¹t be able to get up to Sheffield for a bit". I, of course, was totally devastated and didn't quite know what to say to him but Terry, as always, took the lead and said that it was ok, he had a very slow-growing cancer and it wasn't going to get him for a very long time - and it wasn't anything to do with the smoking! My own memories of Terry are very different to those of most others. I first met him in 1984 when I took a part-time job at the NATE office in Sheffield. I had never heard of the National Association for the Teaching of English. My background was in administration and I had just returned to work after bringing up my family. It was a very exciting time for the association. The office had just been moved from Huddersfield and a new computer had been installed. Phil Smith and myself spent most of our time running the then small association, of just under 2000 members, from our office above the University playgroup. Terry came into my life when, as NATE Treasurer, he helped to set up the distribution deal with The English & Media Centre. We had to run the distribution from a split site (just over 5 miles away) and Terry came to Sheffield on the day all of the EMC stock was being delivered. I will never forget as he sat in the middle of thousands of pounds worth of paper, puffing on his pipe (with sparks flying all over) and asking about fire insurance. After that we met on lots of NATE occasions and I like to think that as the association grew so did our friendship. We had the sort of friendship that could be picked up at any time no matter how many months had passed since our last meeting. He always asked about my growing family and, in return, he told me stories about his life, his adopted family of old ladies next door, the house in France that he loved so much and his own family in Wales. I knew that he played the piano beautifully. He once played for us at home after one of his visits to the office when he was killing a few hours before his train. My daughter, then aged 7, asked if that man had really come all the way from London just to tune our piano. So my memories of Terry are very personal. They creep up as I sit at work planning conferences and NATE meetings. I can't quite yet believe that I won't see him again at any of them. I know that many people will miss Terry for very many reasons but I, for one, am so glad that I had the chance to meet this remarkable and genuine man and to have had his friendship. I will remember him with a smile. *************************************************************************** Terry
Furlong I
realise that I am e-mailing my memories of dear Terry on the Sunday
of the LATE summer weekend conference. How appropriate! I can't
remember how many times I have driven back to London on such a day,
feeling refreshed and strengthened both by the content of the programme
and also by simply being with those whom I called "the English
chums" - and Terry was one of the best. *************************************************************************** Terry
Furlong Terence
John Furlong, who has died of cancer at the age of 59, was a major
force in English teaching for 35 years. He was born and brought
up in Cardiff, and attended Cardiff High School, where he excelled
academically. He began A-levels in physics, chemistry and maths,
but soon switched to English, French and German. He played the piano,
and gained a Grade 8 qualification. He took his first degree, in
English, at King's College, London, between 1962 and 1966. After
experimental starts to his career, in advertising and as a chef,
he became an English teacher at a time when the extension of equal
educational opportunity to working-class children, including children
from a diversity of racial backgrounds, was an inspiring cause to
join. A list of his jobs and positions of responsibility is indicative:
from 1969 to 1973 he was an English teacher at Spencer Park School,
Wandsworth; from 1973 to 1986 he was head of English (and later
head of the faculty of languages and humanities) at Holland Park
School; during that period, he had a two-year secondment, from 1979
to 1981, as advisory teacher for English in the ILEA; from 1986
to 1994 he was English adviser for Brent, with a secondment from
1989 to 1991 to lead a team designing the first SATs in English
for 14-year-olds. During his career, he was also chair of the National
Association for the Teaching of English, chair of the International
Federation for the Teaching of English, chair of numerous advisory
committees to examination boards, and chair of governors at Holland
Park. When he took early retirement from Brent, he set up his own
educational consultancy, offering professional development in English
to schools, LEAs and training colleges, and was in constant demand
until the end of his life. Terry was a
one-off - a very special individual and an irreplaceable member
of the English teaching community. We are all left feeling that
a unique force has left our lives. *************************************************************************** Terry
Furlong The day before going to press with this issue of the magazine on May 29th, we heard the very sad news that Terry Furlong had died, just a few months short of his 60th birthday. Terry was an incredibly energetic activist in almost all fields connected with language and English teaching. From his publications, his work with NATE, LATE and the London Borough Brent, and his seemingly endless journeys as a consultant and in-service trainer, he will have been known to thousands of teachers. Anybody who met him, however briefly, will recall a man of immense charm and generosity of spirit. We, at the English and Media Centre, will miss him deeply, not only as a powerful and articulate advocate of 'progressive' English teaching but also as a key supporter of the Centre. He was a committed member of the English Magazine Editorial Group in the ILEA days, a co-author with Jane Ogborn of The English Department Book and, most invaluably for us, Chair of the Trustees of the Centre. As a trustee he was a much appreciated adviser and friend in setting up the organization, and a steady and confident source of support as we steered a course out of the ILEA into the very different world of not-for-profit organizations. Terry had a natural air of authority and chaired many organizations, including NATE, the Governing Body of Holland Park, and various Examination Board Committees. This authority derived from a wide-ranging knowledge of the educational world and the nature of language and learning. His eloquence on almost any subject under the sun seemed effortless: he was able, at the drop of a hat, to speak his mind and share his thoughts in any social or educational context. Terry's public profile was always very high and he often appeared on television to defend the values of English teachers. His highest point of visibility came when, as Head of the Unit for devising assessment procedures at Key Stage 3, he was quoted, out of context, as saying that the ritualistic teaching of Shakespeare was often 'arse-achingly boring'. He was front page news, especially in the right wing press, and his subsequent notoriety enhanced his reputation as a fighter for the English teacher's corner. Terry was known for being late for meetings - an endearing but slightly disconcerting habit that was really just the reverse side of his great generosity. On one occasion he was a week early for a conference but, more often than not, he was usually running late - literally. The reason was really always the same: he was a man who loved human contact and his lateness was the result of not wanting to leave the person or group with whom he was currently conducting business or conversation. He pushed himself very hard in the cause of English teaching and had a hard job saying no to anyone: he was the original 'over-committed man'. For a man as colourful and flamboyant as Terry, it's easy to forget that he also flourished in the unglamorous world of assessment. He gave countless days and months of his time in committees and meetings forging an approach to assessment that did justice to the true value of children's writing, reading and talking. He was also fearless in his opposition to simplistic forms of teaching and assessment that demeaned the imagination of students and teachers. Before his recent illness, for example, he was conducting research for the Association of Teachers and Lecturers on the effects of the Literacy Strategy. His last six months, living with lung cancer, must have been very distressing and debilitating yet his optimism and appetite for living meant that he found it difficult to stop working. He was lovingly cared for to the end by his life partner, Gabriel Genest. Terry was a one-off - a very special individual and an irreplaceable member of the English teaching community. We are all left feeling that a unique force has left our lives. *************************************************************************** Terry
Furlong Those of us who taught English through the 1970s and early 1980s would count ourselves as more than fortunate to have worked with Terry, either in schools, on courses, at conferences or meetings simply because he was an inspirational educator. He believed that "there is very little which can't be learned by the apprenticeship method, and anyone can teach anyone else anything up to their own level of competence." At a training session in the early 1970s, just as I started teaching, Terry showed us how to provide reluctant learners that they really would like Shakespeare, particularly if we could draw parallels with their own lives. Improving the teaching of Shakespeare from what he once irreverently called the "arse-achingly boring" method of going through it word by word was obvious! For Terry the main purpose was to raise standards for all young people, including those without the best access previously to the widest and best of world literature, who could become effective and imaginative users of language. Through those actions they gained a better understanding of their lives as well as having recognition by public forms of assessment. From his very early days in teaching at Spencer Park School in Wandsworth, he sought ways to extend pupils' access to examinations first through the old CSE then GCSE. Terry championed teacher assessment, underpinned by a rigorous external checking system. He argued in examination board meetings, with government officials and media pundits that good teachers know how to reward success, writing " for teachers the world over, the problems of assessment are similar. There are political uses of assessment and educational uses. What I cannot comply with is the regular imposition of a political system of evaluation which has already decided who will fail and in what proportions. If I were to be denied my belief in the almost limitless potential of my students, I would give up". The advent of the national curriculum in 1989 changed the scope of the debate but Terry argued that assessment at age 14 should be subject to as much teacher involvement as possible. Despite his assiduous work in devising national English tests government agencies viewed it as not conforming to the restricted criteria they had designed. I have lost count of the number of teachers whose weary faces lit up when they talked of Terry and of his ability to encourage them to develop their classroom practice, always with examples of how it could be done. His recent work had included substantial involvement in raising standards of literacy both within English and across the whole school as well as helping under-performing schools to transform their students' achievement. Some three months ago, as he was recovering from chemotherapy, I worked with Terry as he supported an English department with low morale, showing them how they could improve pupils' writing. Perhaps the sparkle was hazier but the chuckle, the intellectual sharpness and the vision were undimmed. A sense of the power of collective effort and a determination that the future should be better for a greater number of teachers and learners than it was in the past permeated all of his work. And he did work hard. In Britain, as chair of the National Association for the Teaching of English and across the world, through his Presidency of the International Federation for the Teaching of English, humour, high spirits and a mental toughness, that reflected his outstanding capacity for learning, infused his actions and thoughts. He was a true polymath, speaking several languages well, being a skilled mathematician, displaying a clear understanding of a range of scientific principles as well as being a talented flautist. A successful academic school career in his native Cardiff saw Terry closely attached to science and mathematics. However he changed effortlessly into learning languages and, significantly, he gained an English degree at King's College London in 1962. After a very successful period as head of English at Holland Park and an advisory teacher role for the Inner London Education Authority, Terry became English adviser in Brent in 1986. Early retirement in 1994 only spurred him on to more work. In 2001, he co-wrote a report on the pilots of the Key Stage 3 national strategy, noting that "..most English teachers welcomed the clarity and focus which the learning objectives have given to help pupils achieve fluency and confidence with the language,… yet teachers also resented the additional time involved in marking the end of Year 7 tests which they found of limited value". Almost a full circle. We are all the poorer for his death, but richer for his life and what came from it. Terence John
Furlong - teacher *************************************************************************** Terry
Furlong Terry Furlong died of cancer on May 29. He has been important in the development of English teaching during the last forty years and will be greatly missed by the huge number of people whom he has helped. He was passionately interested in teaching and in the pupils and teachers with whom he worked. His love of literature and interest in language made him charismatic in the classroom and his instinctive sympathy with even the most unhappy and truculent child, as well as the imaginative opportunities he provided for everyone lucky enough to be taught by him, made him greatly loved and respected. He was head of English at Holland Park School from 1973 to 1986 during which time he transformed the organisation and teaching at that school. Convinced that the examination system for sixteen year olds was out of date, he became influential in the development first of CSE and then of GCSE. He championed the hundred per cent coursework and dual certification syllabuses and, although these were axed by the Conservative government, he always upheld the principles behind them. He became Treasurer and later Chair of the National Association for the Teaching of English, establishing it on a more secure financial basis and providing the foundation for an increased publications list and stronger membership. Later he followed up this work to become the Chairman of the International Federation for the Teaching of English. In 1986 he became Inspector of English in Brent during which time he carried out research into Key Stage 3 assessment at the London Institute of Education. He wrote numerous articles, took part in conferences, lectured throughout the country as well as abroad and contributed to books on education. A man of strong loyalties, he returned to Holland Park as Chairman of the Governors. His humour, originality, wide interests, his energy and his determination to make education exciting for everyone will be great missed. He seems irreplaceable. *************************************************************************** For information
about the Terry Furlong Scholarship Fund and how to contribute,
click here. Go
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