Miss Pope, my science teacher, would have approved of music and ice lollies in class. Exams aren’t the only way to learn

‘A range of scientific societies have banded together to recommend more enlightened ways to teach science to children aged three to 11.’ Photograph: monkeybusinessimages/Getty Images/iStockphoto

My father used to tell us a story from when he supervised students training to be teachers. He was sitting in a school staffroom waiting for a student when a teacher came in, collapsed into a chair, breathed out loudly and said: “Well, I’ve taught it to them. Whether they know it or not is another matter.”

I was about 16 at the time, and I couldn’t see why my father found this even worth commenting on, let alone something to laugh about. He tried to explain himself, asking what would be the point of teaching something if the pupils weren’t learning it? No, I didn’t get what he was on about. After all, I had by then had about 11 years of school, and a lot of it had involved teachers talking at us, and if we didn’t “get” it, that was our fault.