Jamie Oliver’s Dream School – a Channel 4 media fest or relevant lessons in communication and motivation?

This week sees the start of Channel 4's Dream School, Jamie Oliver’s new television project. Celebrities with a particular subject expertise chance their arm in the classroom. For a while, it will put education on the front burner to compete against the Arab revolt and Coalition politics.

The assumption is that the hitherto poorly-motivated students, will experience a Damascene conversion as well-known experts from a wide spectrum of achievement, parade their wares and instructional skills.

Of course, the project is an artificial one, as the presence of cameras, celebrity teachers and being made a fuss of all kick in.

Nevertheless, the enterprise is worth a second take. It enables us to reflect on what actually constitutes good teaching in the first place. Commentators and reviewers usually deliver their critiques after the programmes have been shown, but bucking the trend here is an unscientific checklist, that we might have to hand as we view from the couch.

Communication is at the heart of good teaching, so how will our celebs perform? Do they have an interesting voice and presence? Do they use the space around them? Can we visualise them delivering 30 sessions a week?

Teaching some Economics ages ago, and not being particularly on top of the subject - even though I had been in The City - I had to go the extra mile in grasping the topics myself. I am sure this enabled a more sympathetic view of what the learners were experiencing and a more thoughtful insight in my preparation. The question before our celeb list of Dr Starkey, Alastair Campbell, Ellen MacArthur and others is quite simply “ What's in it for the students and what are they doing?” It is no good having expertise - the key skill is empathy for the perspective of the learner.

Many students don’t ask questions because they don’t know what they don’t know, and our celebs will have to cover this shortfall. Visual aids,relevant language as well as an understanding that we learn in different ways complete the picture.

Michael Gove is in uncertain waters creating a coherent policy out of academies, free schools, the use of ex-military staff on the payroll and the revelations of Ms Birbalsingh.

The punchline is that memorable teachers were ones with personality and charisma. They were ones who bucked the system and took risks. They have been squeezed out by the treadmill of assessment, clonal lesson structures and the devaluation of grades. It explains why we have such sterile teaching and alienated learners. If Oliver’s series exposes this, then it is to be applauded.

How ever do young people learn the skills of oratory and debate? A golden opportunity for Michael Gove and his White Paper.

So we have yet another Education Minister bringing forward a White Paper to reconfigure the educational structure of the country. Business and other employers know that it is hard going, to get the right home-grown people with the right skills at the right time. The desire of educated and articulate workers to enter the country is symptomatic of this.

Never have so many qualifications been awarded to so many and yet something is missing. It might be the inability of school leavers and college students to be at ease when using their voice confidently, presenting and holding a coherent conversation. It might have something to do with the recent finding that people in the UK, are spending in excess of 30 hours a week in front of some type of screen, and detached from those with whom they are communicating.

Michael Gove would serve students and society really well, if he were to put in place more curriculum opportunities for students to learn speaking skills. It would prepare young people for later times, when they have to deal with customer-care, start up a business, contribute to political activity or be a confident member of the community. It is about assertiveness and self-worth.

The prescient observations of Gertrude Stein in the early 20th century are more apt than ever: "Let us stop communicating with each other, so that we can have some conversation."