Can you teach people to be happy? 1

The town of Slough has a fearsome reputation in current UK folklore. For a start, even if they've never read it, almost everyone knows that John Betjeman wrote a poem that began

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough

and that was because, Victorian-minded public school snob that he was, thirties ribbon development Slough was to him a loathsome reminder of a world of modernity he hated.

And then there was the huge success of the TV comedy series The Office. It's actually set on the vast Slough trading estate, and begins with a shot of the traffic swirling round the huge soulless roundabout that's the most prominent feature of the town.

So that's what Slough means to most people.

I know Slough quite well. I spent quite a few years regularly visiting schools there, supervising students training to be teachers. On the whole, students weren't always that keen to be placed in Slough schools. It always struck me as ironic that barely a mile or two away there was this large secondary boys' school, which had so very different an image and a reputation. It's still there... Eton, it's called.

I Iiked many of the Slough schools, and enjoyed working with the heads, a lot of whom were quite exceptionally interesting and visionary characters. But, yes, that traffic race roundabout was awful and the town itself did seem characterless and dreary.

So I was interested when I saw this announcement of a TV series aimed at teaching the people of Slough to be happy. That's right. To be happy. Just take six earnest psychology, therapy, management and environmental consultancy experts and turn them loose on the unsuspecting citizens. See what happens.

Of course, I was sceptical, because in any case, I'm not at all keen on reality shows, though I do love the combination fairy-tale transformation sagas combined with schadenfreude humiliation fests that are Trinny and Susannah's What Not to Wear series.

But the write up of the series in the Radio Times interested me. Each of the six gurus gave their recipes for how to be happy. The odd thing was that almost every one of them corresponded to something which is central to traditional orthodox Jewish religious practice.

Comments

[Joanne]

But with a name like "slough," the town was destined to be a loser. Who came up with that name?! First thing: they've got to change that name.

[Steve M]

"Each of the six gurus gave their recipes for how to be happy. The odd thing was that almost every one of them corresponded to something which is central to traditional orthodox Jewish religious practice."

Judy, is there any chance that you could expand on this when you get time? I haven't watched the programme and have probably thrown away the relevant copy of Radio Times but I'd be very interested.

A student went to the Zen Master and asked him what happiness is. The Master replied: "Grandfather dies, father dies, then son dies."

[Judy]

Joanne-- Slough will never change its name. We don't do things like that in England, land of names like Nether Wallop and Much Hadham.

Steve-- I am indeed going to expand on the programme. My post was getting so long I decided to break it up into a series. So watch this space...

[George]

Rather unfair on Betjeman who started out a Modernist in architecture, nor is the poem entirely about architecture but about manners and modes.

Betjeman may have been public school but he was not a snob. He has limitations as a poet of course (who hasn't?) but the reason he was much loved was that he showed more affection for so called 'ordinary' people than most writers ever do.

I suspect what he wanted was based on a romantic idea of humane and humanising architecture, something more supple and organic than estates can often be. He might have been wrong in his tastes but it wasn't for lack of warmth. It was a place fit for 'humans' he wanted and his ideas on what constituted being 'human' were far from public school snobbish.