Why we’re doing this.
I went to see Tony Benn at the Citizens’ Theatre last night. I’m not particularly political, but my mum’s a huge admirer of his, and I said I’d come along. He was as intelligent, insightful and entertaining as I’d expected, but one thing he said (twice, as it happens) keeps recurring to me. He said that “teachers who explain the world and movements which change the world are the way forward.” I’m not sure how broad his definition of ‘teacher’ was, although the importance of teachers was a running theme of the discussion, but it brought back to me the reasons I stayed in this job. Not the reasons I applied for it, which were the usual ‘good hours, good money, good holidays, what else will I do with my 2:2 in English?’ reasons, but the reasons I stayed. From the moment I observed my first lesson on my first placement, a good month or more into the course, I’ve known that education is a vocation of paramount importance. How many experiences, other than schooldays, are so widely shared by so many? What better place to allow the minds of those who would start those world-changing movements to explore and develop.
And there’re the dangers in education, not of incompetent teachers or underfunded schools, but in teachers lacking passion, and schools with a culture of low expectation. So much responsibility rests with us, for explaining the world and equipping others to change it.
The thing about teachers, though, from my observation, is that responsibility doesn’t burden us. Rather, it frees us, as we know we’re doing something fundamentally vital to the world, and it makes us proud. Six years on, and I’m still delighted to reply to the question “so what do you do?”
2 Comments
I agree completely. It took me some time to fully appreciate the job that I am doing; the length of time, in fact, that it took for me to gain a level of competence at it. After that happened, the rewards which it offers fully revealed themselves to me. With classes and individuals of lower ability the barriers which they had to learning were both formidable, understandable and, for a relatively inexperienced teacher, seemingly insurmountable.
However, the first time you break through the main barrier to learning which, more often than not, is a fundamental lack of self belief, the progress and change in attitude from pupils is unbelievable.
I am not suggesting that it is a magic wand which will allow pupils who enter secondary school pre-level A to successfully pass Higher, but rather the understanding that we can create a climate where pupils are able to enter life after school as (forgive the edu-speak) confident individuals who will be able to recognise and value themselves and their talents.
We can teach them not to undervalue themselves.
Absolutely, and that’s surely one of the keys to a functioning society. As you suggest, there’s more to education than exam results. We know, it, and it’s our job to make sure the kids know it, but the harder task is convincing parents, employers, and newspapers. Is that one of those movements that change the world? Maybe we should start it?