It’s been a while.
Sorry.
The academic year has started and I’ve been sucked back into
its cycle. It has allowed me two
experiences of it: mine and daughter’s.
Hers has been interesting.
She was a little overwhelmed by scale, at first, but appears to have
quickly settled into the routine and started to appreciate and take advantage
of the opportunities available to her.
Mine has been like looking through an out of focus lens – much like the
move back to the UK, in fact. A school
is a school, and the intention and outcome remains the same: educated pupils. The systems and the processes have their
idiosyncrasies, and this is the aspect tripping me up at the moment.
The opportunities available for daughter, for all students,
in fact, are pretty great – this is something that does niggle me about
expectations on those that work in education.
It is the question that occurs in interview, “And, how will you
contribute to the co-curricular activities at the school?” The approach of the Head of PE, “I understand
you’ve coached (insert sport here) before?”
Camps, plays, choirs, debating, tournaments, competitions, events…oh,
and do remember you have ensured that that data is complied, analysed and
entered for collation and processing by the end of this week, thanks.
I was at school in the 80s when teachers went on
strike. I remember all extra curricular
activities stopping. I remember clubs
and supervision at break and lunchtime stopping, and us being told to leave
school grounds during these times. All stuff
again taken for granted; all that is dependent on good will. “It’s part of the job” runs the argument –
often from those who then say, “Such short hours” and, “All those
holidays”.
Being late into education, the imposition of the job on
personal time is conspicuous. I used to
compare it to having to turn up to work at my old job as travel agent and
having had to write the brochure before the seasons start; to have to compose
the blurb for each resort differentiated to accommodate the various kinds of
tourist that may or may not read the brochure description; to have created the
spreadsheet or database that stores all the information about the sales made
and then transferring this information from my own record to the company’s
record; to having to attend evening meetings with returned holiday makers to
discuss their holiday and how it could be improved in the future, to refining
the pitch and re-writing the brochure once again to accommodate these
aspirational improvements…etc….whilst organising and coaching a company sports
team and helping out backstage or with the lighting for the company play….and
running a company club at lunchtime.
Of all the jobs I’ve had, this is the only one that inhibits
life outside of the four walls of the factory – so to speak. Never as a travel agent, as a library
assistant, as a secretary or office manager, never as a warehouseman did I ever
have to take sales home to complete or call from home to confirm an
appointment; or take stock home to sort and stack ready for the next day. Never did I have to go home and design, make,
print, guillotine and laminate labels for stock ready for the next day. It’s all part of the job, remember?
I salute those teachers who give their time and their
expertise or revel in their amateur enthusiasm for an interest. These are the people who fire the
imaginations of students, who round and fill their educational experience, who
give a place and time for them to feel secure in investing themselves in an
interest too. Daughter is able to take
advantage of this generosity so she can sing, act, travel, learn.
As in all jobs, there are exceptions that prove the rule –
there are less effective people who work in education, just as there are less
effective people who work in any walk of life.
There are, however, many more exceptional people who give much of
themselves for the betterment of the young of this country, and in countries
all around the world.
Goodness knows how they manage to fit all that in by 3:30pm,
eh?
