oddstruck

The Glass Ceiling
or
A learning curve too far?

By “Oddstruck”

The Learning Ladder
“You can never stop learning” is an oft-heard phrase in bell-ringing circles. How true. From doubles to maximus and beyond, there is always something new, given the opportunity. But is it always possible to progress to the next level? Or does there always come a time in a ringer’s career when any further progress is impossible; in other words you hit a ‘glass ceiling’ and no matter how hard you try you cannot break through and only end up with a head-ache? But first, what exactly is ‘progression’? I would say there are two types: vertical and horizontal. The former is when a ringer moves from 6 to 8 bell ringing, or from 8 to 10, while still ringing methods with the same degree of difficulty, such as Plain Bob or Cambridge. Horizontal progress is ringing more ‘difficult’ methods on the same number of bells, such as moving from Plain Methods to Treble Bob. Most ‘average’ ringers usually do one or the other at any one time and usually progress in steps; for example from Bob Doubles to Bob Minor, then to Kent TB Minor, then Plain Bob Major. Progress can often be uneven and may involve what may seem to be a ‘backward’ step at some time; such as learning Cambridge Minor having already mastered Plain Bob Major. This has all been said many times before.

Means, Motive and Opportunity

So what factors can affect a ringer’s progress? Like a ‘whodunnit’ story, I would define the essentials as ‘Means, Motive and Opportunity’. Most learners have the means to be a ringer: sufficient co-ordination and physical skill to cope with handling a bell and the mental ability to cope with basic change ringing. Motive varies enormously between ringers and is not necessarily linked to Means. Some well-motivated ringers can progress even though at first glance they lack the potential to be a good ringer. The phrase “You’ll never make a ringer” has come back to haunt many a teacher. Similarly some ringers are content to remain at a fairly basic level, even though they have sufficient skill to progress further. And finally, Opportunity. In many ways this is the most nebulous of the three essentials for progression and is closely linked to Motive. The well-motivated ringer with sufficient means tends to make their own opportunity, seeking out towers that will enable them to advance and arranging peals and quarters in order to reach the next level. They are sometimes described as ‘pushy’, ‘selfish’ and worse but they will often become the best ringers and conductors in the area and when they have reached the top of the ladder will usually put back into ringing as much as they took out while they were climbing it. (Incidentally this brings into play another factor of progression: namely that in order to progress a large proportion of your total ringing time needs to be spent ringing with bands where most of the ringers are at a higher level than you are. But that is probably worth an article in itself). Occasionally a ringer who has reached multi-spliced level will refuse to ring peals in simpler single methods as they are too ‘boring’ but mercifully they are fairly rare. These though are the ‘mega-ringers’. Most ‘average’ ringers do not aspire to such heights.

Progression or Continued Learning?
But back to the original question: just how far can we-the-ordinary-ringer go? Another well used ringing phrase is: “Anyone can be a ringer, from 7 to 70”. True, but not anyone can ring Spliced Surprise Maximus. So far I have spoken about learners in general; now for some personal recollections. I learnt to ring in my late teens, went to college struggling to ring bob doubles and left able to ring Surprise Major, and Royal at a push. Back home, after a while I got in with a peal band – not ‘Grade A’ standard but good ‘B-movie’ level and rang a fair number of reasonable peals – standard 8, a bit of spliced, other Surprise Major methods with a degree of difficulty roughly similar to the standard methods, various surprise minor. A number of these peals contained either a ‘first pealer’ or ‘first in method’ as we brought on other promising ringers both young and old. But there, progress stopped. I never got the opportunity to ring harder Surprise Major, and apart from the odd Cambridge Royal, Grandsire Caters and some very occasional Little Bob Maximus, never progressed to ringing on higher numbers either. The peal bands broke up; people moved – I did myself, and increasing work and family commitments and lack of time and money meant that peal ringing virtually ceased. Of course it is possible to progress without ringing peals or quarters if there are good practices to attend, but there were none within reasonable distance. I did do a lot of teaching of learners, but without the more advanced ringing to keep my brain working, I found that when I did get to ring anything interesting, I struggled more than previously. Concentration, never my strongest point anyway, became more of a problem, mistake-making increased to an unacceptable level and the downward spiral began, leading, a few years ago, to an almost total abandonment of and disillusion with ringing. In the end, I accepted that I had reached my peak and was unlikely to progress any further. Well, almost accepted it. There was still some small part of me that wanted to continue to learn, and suddenly things changed for the better. A new job gave me the opportunity to ring at a good 10-bell practice and dust off those long-forgotten surprise royal skills, such as they were. Cambridge and Yorkshire came back fairly quickly and I learnt new methods for the first time in years; Lincolnshire, Rutland, Superlative and Swindon Royal were all added to my repertoire. So, I should have been content with this. Well, no, actually. Having tasted more advanced ringing for the first time in years, I wanted to do even more, but was convinced that the more advanced methods such as London or Bristol Royal were beyond me. Frustrated, I saw no way forward, but after a night of gloomy introspection with only a bottle of Pernod and the computer for company (a lethal combination!) I realised that the solution was in my own hands. If I did not even try to learn any more advanced methods, how would I know whether I could ring them or not, given the opportunity? The next night I sat down and learnt the first two leads of Bristol Royal, repeating it over again until I felt it had sunk in. After a while I added another lead, and another, until I knew the whole method. It wasn’t easy, I have to admit. It wasn’t much like Bristol Major. The house was littered with scraps of paper with squiggly lines on them; apparently I even muttered it in my sleep! It played cruel tricks on me; just as I thought I’d got it, I’d fall off the line and forget what came next, but eventually I was as confident as I could be that I knew the line. As to actually ringing it; well that was a different matter; for a start there was no practice I knew where it was rung where I could see if I could translate theoretical knowledge into practical experience, but at least I had taken the first step and proved to myself that I could learn something new. Next I tackled London Royal; I stood more chance of ringing this as it was occasionally rung at the 10-bell tower I rang at on practice nights. I found it easier than I expected; possibly having learnt Bristol my brain had got the learning habit again, and I felt fairly confident I could ring it, given the opportunity. So far, I have not had the chance to try, but I am content to wait; I’ve managed to learn two new methods and that is the most important thing.

And Finally…….
The moral of this article? I suppose it is ‘Never give up trying’. You may think you have reached the limit of you ability, but unless you try to reach the next level, you do not know if it is within your capabilities, so go for it! You have nothing to lose after all. And to all ringers who have reached that high plateau of excellence, please remember (as I’m sure most of you do!), those ringers still on the slopes behind you. Some will make it on their own, but others need more of a helping hand (or even a push!). Not all will make it the whole way, but everyone deserves the chance to achieve as much as they can, and a little encouragement can go a long way. It is not just those learning bob doubles who need help.
(With apologies to those on Ringing Chat who have heard most of this before, and with thanks to those who have given encouragement. Also thanks to the Northamptonshire 10-bell tower which has re-awakened my ringing ambitions)

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