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ATM People • Ian Harris
Ian Harris was ATM Chairman (1959-61), and as such opened the first national ATM conference in 1961. He was then Treasurer from 1961 until 1965; that was in the days before we had an office or any administration, and one of the Treasurer’s duties was to receive Mathematics Teaching from the printer and despatch it to members.
Ian had an early interest in mathematical films, and produced a black and white one on Tangency. In the mid-1960s he wrote and presented much of ‘Maths Today’, a BBC series of mathematics programmes for secondary schools. This work he shared in a seminar on ‘Mathematics and Television’ at the 1966 ATM Conference.
The 1960s were also the time of ‘modern’ mathematics, and Ian was among the enthusiasts for this. He was a member of the team that produced the ATM book, Some lessons in mathematics, in 1964, and like other ATM members he gave lectures and seminars on the new topics. He always had a particular interest in geometry, complaining that it was neglected, and insisting always that its attraction for him was that it was a branch of mathematics that was absolutely useless.
He taught at Dartford Grammar School, becoming Head of Mathematics, and then joined the Education Department at Kings College London, later becoming dean of education. He had been a student at both establishments!
At Kings he ran the one-year course for postgraduate students, challenging their ideas about mathematics as well as about teaching. Before long he realised a long-cherished project, and obtained funding to establish a mobile television unit. This was shared between himself and a colleague in the Classics Department, and they spent much time over the next few years visiting schools all over the country and videotaping lessons, building up a very large collection.
Many of the lessons were given by ATM colleagues, so they included some very unusual teaching styles! Those of us who experienced these recordings were amazed at the almost total absence of interference from cameras strategically placed in the classroom and remotely controlled from a van outside, and the feeling that not only did you have the usual control over the lesson but you also felt that you had a hand in directing the video! The tapes were mainly used for their students. However, Ian could occasionally be persuaded to show some of them at a local ATM meeting, always insisting that viewers watched an entire lesson rather than edited highlights.
For a while during the late seventies and early eighties Ian’s absence from ATM was sadly noted. He had felt that it was timely that others should get on with the task of running the Association. By 1984 he reappeared to challenge us all. What were we doing that was new? How were we recruiting new blood? Were we sustaining the membership? How could the National Curriculum thinkers be influenced?
By then he had retired from King’s and had begun to revisit schools to work with 6th formers – especially those in Cambridgeshire. It was there he helped in the establishing of the long running 6th form weekends held at Grafham Water, where along with other ATM members he worked and played with countless young people, enthusing them about mathematics: complex primes, taxi cab geometry...and magic.
He also co-authored several books for Polydron, after quizzing their sales staff about models they had on show at a conference. But his favourite book was Middles, which was published by ATM.
This was also the time that Ian began to work further afield, in Poland, Denmark, Scotland and Germany. Whether at conferences, seminars or workshops he was always a popular contributor and course member. The bars were always the place to find him with either a puzzle or an activity to challenge you.
Particularly in later years, the ATM seminars he was involved in were full of ingenious problems and he always approached them with a tongue-in-cheek assertion that these seminars were an indulgence in mathematics and not about education! However, insights into education inevitably emerged from the way he dealt with the problems. The accompanying small booklets he co-authored are now collectors’ items.
Of late, when discussions centred on mergers and futures, his challenge to us all was to secure a mission for ATM and pursue it relentlessly.
Those of us who knew Ian socially as well as professionally will miss his engaging personality and his great sense of humour. He was a person who not only enjoyed his work but also enjoyed life to the full.
