I’m someone you might call politically ambivalent. Or androgynous. I’m neither left nor right, Labour nor Tory. Yet I have an innate distrust of Conservative politicians, something I am barely concious of much of the time and which I can only attribute to growing up in the 90s, surrounded by the Tory sleaze allegations in my most formative political years.

(”formative political years”? What do I sound like?)

It is therefore with some sense of unease that I find myself, almost without fail, thoroughly enjoying Michael Gove’s weekly feature in the Times2. (he is Conservative MP for Surrey Heath and now shadow DCSF secretary)

But no more (the unease I mean). If you’ve heard of Teach First — or even if you haven’t — you may be interested to watch this piece on Mr Gove putting himself in the lion’s den for 60 minutes, teaching a class of adolescent girls from the Harris Academy, Bermondsey.

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(Or watch the video here)

There are many things I admire in this endeavour. Putting yourself out of your comfort zone is so unappealing that most of us avoid it like Christmas card writing; for a politician to risk the potential ignominy of such a public experiment is all the more brave. He didn’t appear to dissemble or ingratiate — no ’street’ talk or fatuous attempts to amuse. He was simply Michael Gove — articulate, urbane, honest (”I’m a Conservative”) — and they seemed to respect him for it.

As he himself remarks, with the support of the team at Teach First this wasn’t likely to be “a typical hour”. Nevertheless, even in a single atypical hour, doing this is going to give you more insight into the world of the teacher than anything else.

I look forward to reading his features with a clear political conscience from now on. :-)

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