Sarah Blackman

My guest this week is Sarah Blackman, a University of Kent alumnus, whom I taught a few years ago on the BA Religious Studies programme. Sarah told her mother at the age of five that she wanted to be a primary school teacher, and three decades later she has fulfilled her ambition. She tells us what initially stopped her along the way from realizing her dreams.

Sarah is from Ashford and she shares her childhood memories of sitting on a balloon and it popping as well as not wanting to go to a boy’s party and the power games that children play around invitations, and we discuss the differences between children’s behaviour at school and at home.

Sarah recalls doing her homework to the sound of Mark Goodier counting down the charts on Radio 1 and the skills of categorising and classifying information. We also find out what her reaction was when she learned that S Club 7 had beaten Madonna to reach number 1 in the singles charts.

We talk about her experiences of school and Sarah tells us why her RE supply teacher was such an inspiration and about the ‘blood, sweat and tears’ involved in writing essays at university, where she went as a mature student, and about how she has been able to apply her university work to her job. We also discover what happened when one of her primary school children picked up on an aspect of the Moses story which many adults would not necessarily have conceptualized.

Sarah tells us about her ‘Friends’ obsession and why she watched ‘Toy Story’ every night when it came out, and why she wants to get that part of her childhood back. We also discuss the way in which schoolchildren today are more aware of changes in the environment and how it will affect them when they are older than has been the case in the past, and Sarah talks about voting in elections. She tells us why she studied Religious Studies and what people would often say to her when she told them what she was studying.

She talks about looking at the past through rose coloured spectacles and the way we filter out more negative experiences and we learn why Sarah thinks she has righted some of the wrongs in her 30s that she made when she was in her 20s.

In the final part of the interview Sarah reveals why ‘Santa Claus: The Movie’ is such an important film for her and we move on to consider the concept of Christmas more broadly as ‘sacred time’. We also find out whether Sarah is in touch with friends from her past and whether she is a looking back or a looking forward type of person.

Please note: Opinions expressed are solely those of Chris Deacy and Sarah Blackman and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of the University of Kent.