Fast tracking · Sun May 21, 18:15 by Eleri Straker
Yet another of my long-term colleagues is leaving. Not retiring, but being promoted at another school.
Although I’m pleased at her success, I’m rather sad at her departure as she’s good at her job and the kids respect and like her. So why is she leaving?
She’s one of the generation of teachers who went into teaching as a vocation, because she wanted to make a difference. Unfortunately, this attitude to teaching no longer seems to be in vogue.
My daughter, at university, went to a Career Day and out of curiosity approached the “Be a Teacher” stand. The chap there told her in detail how much money she could make and how she could ‘fast track’ into senior management very quickly and what a great career it was for her… When he finally paused for breath, my daughter, never one for holding back, told him that not once in his advertising pitch, had he mentioned the kids… He had the grace to look embarrassed.
A colleague of mine, when asked at his interview at a previous school, what he saw himself doing in five years’ time, replied that he hoped that in that time he would have become a bloody good classroom teacher… His reply was received with incredulity, as the expected answer, the one that would have got him the job, apparently, was that he could see himself as second in a department somewhere…
Isn’t that sad? Is there anything wrong with having the ambition to be excellent at what one does? Well apparently there is. The sign of a ‘good’ teacher seems to be the desire to climb the career ladder, not to become a better communicator or educator.
As a bit of an old fogey myself, (admittedly a Doc Marten-wearing one!) I find myself rather concerned by this attitude. I went into teaching to ‘make a difference’ too. The result of this is that along with my colleague, I’m seen as a bit of an oddity. A bit eccentric.
I have no problem with the ‘eccentric’ bit, I’ve always been proud to be different. But I do have a problem with the attitude, increasingly more common these days, that in order to rise in this job, you have to:
a) be young and
b) be willing to step over the kids to do it.
Is the reason that discipline in schools (even in a good school like mine) is deteriorating down to the fact that those promoted to senior roles in charge of behaviour etc are too young?
Can someone put in charge of pastoral care, particularly of those only a few years younger than themselves, really do the job? Don’t you need some life experience to be able to advise young people properly?
Can you really only be promoted if you are under forty?
My colleague is leaving for a school where her vast experience and ability to teach matters more than her age. She’s a damn good teacher and she will be missed. But I can’t help wondering how long it will take before it is realised that there’s a hell of a lot more to being a good teacher than the date on your birth certificate and a good interview technique.
