ems. Firstly, we are exclusively engaged in Jamie’s world, rather than Katie’s. “It is his story, his challenges, his family, his voice,” she says. “Her voice is erased – that was a creative choice they made, and in terms of art, it works very well, but it is a disaster as an educational resource.”
She also believes that a drama with a damning view of education probably shouldn’t be shown in schools. “In the second episode, there is only one competent teacher,” she says. “The others are putting on videos instead of teaching, while the well-meaning but ineffective head teacher doesn’t instil any confidence. Nobody stops or changes or guides pupil behaviour. Not only is this not fair – there are good, nurturing teachers everywhere – but if you show this in a school, you are undermining yourself as you do so. You are saying, ‘We are powerless’.
We, the teachers, are powerless – and you, young lads, are potential scum. Give you access to social media and you turn into killers.
”Ultimately, what we should have learnt by now is that education by television rarely works. “Adolescence is an incredible piece of storytelling that has opened a lot of people’s eyes to the issues of sexism and misogyny amongst young people,” says Sean McGrath, a director who has written a play about trauma and consent that is now performed in schools around the country.
“But we must remember that [Adolescence] was written to inform and influence an adult audience, and in my opinion, is not age-appropriate for young teenagers. Showing it in schools is a bit like using Schindler’s List to teach Year 7s about antisemitism, or Requiem for a Dream to warn them about drugs – powerful, yes, but not created with the developmental, emotional, or psychological needs of young people in mind.”
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