It is uncanny how anagrams can have such close correlations to each other and mean almost the same thing! We may be familiar with (and be amazed by) the fact that the anagram of ‘Election Results’ is “Lies! Let’s recount’! Of more relevance to this article, we may note a number of anagrams that are related to education. Anyone who has attended a boarding school may recognise the accuracy of the anagram of ‘Dormitory’ being ‘Dirty Room’. Then, an anagram of ‘Schoolmaster’ is ’The classroom’ – where obviously the schoolmaster resides! Interestingly, the anagram of ‘Eleven plus two’ works mathematically as well, it being ‘Twelve plus one’! Many of an older generation may identify with the anagram of ‘punishment’ accurately fitting the experience, namely ‘Nine thumps’. Then the anagram of ‘Albert Einstein’, the great academic, could sum him up well — ‘Ten elite brains’.

Of course, crossword enthusiasts are very familiar with anagrams (there are not many other uses for them, other than for humour, as seen above). A cryptic clue for ‘education’ could well include the words ‘cautioned’ or ‘auctioned’, both of which could be connected to education somewhat dubiously! Anagrams are, after all, sorting letters out into a desired order and so when we think of crosswords, we think of the ‘Across’ and ‘Down’. It is not too difficult (or inspirational) to consider that an anagram of ‘across’ is ‘a cross’! That is where education comes into the equation again.

A cross symbolises a number of things. In Mathematics, when a child makes a wrong answer, we apply a cross beside it. In stories we might come across (there we are again) a story where ‘X marks the spot’ of hidden treasure; the cross here represents a wonderfully rich possibility (while such stories also often relate to pirates and their symbol is a skull and cross-bones – a cross again). In relationships, when someone signs off with an X, it represents love (pre-emojis, of course!). In elections, we apply a cross to indicate our preferred candidate, our chosen representative. Finally in the Christian faith, the cross symbolises a horrendous punishment as well as a powerful sacrifice.

So, a cross symbolises, at different times and in different contexts, wrong-doing, punishment, choice, love, treasure, each of which can be related to education though in a different way. We may all be familiar with the customary description given to the movement of pupils from one class to another, which indirectly also uses crossword terminology – generally, universally, we speak of moving children either down a set or up a set. And of course, when we speak like that, we imply that up is better and down is worse. We speak of a lower set, a weaker set or, even worse, the bottom set, or such like. For many a child, their school journey becomes a matter of (as the old song goes) “down, down, deeper and down”. Children are made to feel downcast as a result, when it is all so unnecessary.

We must change that and instead of talking of ‘down’, we must speak of ‘across’. The bottom line (not the bottom set) is that we should speak of moving children across from one set to another set, from one set to another more suitable set, according to ability, pace and the like, not according to cleverness. By speaking thus, we are reinforcing that all pupils are on the same level of importance; there is no hierarchy. It is simply recognising that some pupils can go faster than others, some can go deeper or further, there being nothing wrong with that. We must move across, not up and down.

We must not leave our pupils with a cross to bear by speaking of “down” but must show love and offer hope for them by helping them to understand their value is as important as any other child, no matter what class they are in. When we think of ‘up’ and ‘down’, we might think of north and south; and in that regard we speak of the north and south pole. Remember, thought, there is no east or west pole; indeed, as a Bible verse states (Psalm 103:12), “And as far as the east is from the west, God has separated us from our sins” – that distance is vast, limitless. There is no sin or wrong in not being as academic as others; children in slower sets are not pirates. We do not need ten elite brains or be an Einstein to understand that. Let us get our thinking, not just our letters, in the right order – and thus be duly cautioned. A cross sums up education entirely so let us put a cross beside moving pupils across. That is where the treasure will be found.