Tuesday 24 March 2015

everybody's gotta learn sometime

The topic to kick off my thoughts on education focuses on why there is an exodus of Biblical proportions of teachers from the profession, that most people enter expecting a career for life. Well, look I can only speak for myself - with maybe a little bit of validation from the many teachers I have met over 17 years in the classroom - but that's certainly why I wanted to be a teacher. Inspired by a jolly primary school teacher who greeted us everyday with a smile, an enthralling English teacher, and a Head of Year who regularly took time in his day to ensure the new little black girl in a sea of white faces was enjoying school and being supported when faced with casual racism. Absolutely brilliant - all of them - and so were many more that I met in my 13 years of state education. I'm pretty sure that every teacher can name one of their own teachers who inspired them to go onto this career; or at least such a passion for their subject that they want to pass that on to the students that they meet.

So why are more teachers reaching for resignation letters than signing up?

A Radio 4 programme on Tuesday night about the levels of sickness brought on by stress in teaching was enlightening and frightening at the same time. But I'll be honest - not really a surprise.

This post first appeared on Post40 bloggers : Education column : 23.03.15