JAMES FULLBROOK

Those that don’t teach

By James Fullbrook

The end of July came and went and I, for once, had no long summer break to waltz into. Once I had reconciled that with myself, I thought about teaching and how consistently misunderstood it is by a society that have all been on the receiving end of it for at least a decade in their own lives. We all remember our teachers, for reasons good and bad.

2023 saw a historical number of strikes from the public sector in relation to fair pay and working conditions. The British public has been largely supportive or dismissive depending on which newspaper headlines it read. The chief accusation levelled at teachers is that they get fantastic holidays. It’s true. They do. I did. But they work too.

‘They chose that career, they can’t moan about the wages!’ was another popular gripe with the strikes. Many teachers may feel it is a vocation. I did for a time. Ultimately, it is just a job and teachers should not have to suffer poor working conditions and relatively low wages just because it is perceived as a calling. The reason they took strike action was because they love their jobs and want to be able to do them without mortgage-based fear or Ofsted-adjacent panic attacks. The vast majority of teachers work incredibly hard. Not all, of course, but no profession can claim that.

Pressure on teachers is immense, both external and internal. Targets and benchmarks are set and reset and guidance constantly changes whilst you deal with an emotionally volatile group of perennially changing human beings. Parents with wildly unreasonable expectations or a complete lack of interest. So much of teaching is unseen and unappreciated. I want to provide a peek behind the curtain based on my experience as a primary school teacher.  

-          Teaching is clocking that two of your pupils have come in crying and making a mental note to find out why at some point later.

-          Teaching is convincing a despondent six-year-old that the school lunch won’t be that bad (it will be).

-          Teaching is a child telling you that they had a Nutella sandwich for breakfast but without the Nutella. And you have to work it if that is true or not because their mum denies everything.

-          Teaching is coming up with a Maths lesson that will push the children on but not completely destroy that one child’s self-esteem because he’s still working on his 2 times table.

-          Teaching is realising you are supposed to be on break duty and knowing it’ll be another 90 minutes before you can go to the toilet.

-          Teaching is being on break duty and trying to encourage a sense of fair play in the three simultaneous games of football, sending children off to first aid, talking to the lonely ones and trying to find them a friend, thinking about your next lesson and whether you printed enough sheets all whilst trying to get your head around how this child’s parents have sent him to school without a coat when it’s 3 degrees outside. He’s wearing shorts too, of course.

-          Teaching is keeping children in to finish their work because we ask seven-year-olds to care about subordinating conjunctions.

-          Teaching is trying to carve out fifteen minutes for your lunch with carefully chosen colleagues in between marking and finding out who has been hoarding the rusted, heavy drying rack that you need for the art lesson where you are attempting to teach watercolours(!).

-          Teaching is delaying the art lesson by ten minutes because there’s been a massive argument at lunchtime that the playground supervisors were unable to deal with. You instinctively know which child is lying, because you know them so well, but you can’t prove it so all parties are dissatisfied. You can expect an email from a perturbed parent later.

-          Teaching is exercising your patience while a child throws a tantrum because their table neighbour took the coloured pencil they wanted.

-          Teaching is knowing that the screaming child in front of you isn’t really upset about the character description she’s writing. She is beside herself because her parents are getting divorced and the police got called out to their house recently. You know that but you also know you have 29 other children waiting patiently (mostly) for you to continue with the lesson. You look to the TA for help but she’s busy helping the boy who started last week and doesn’t speak a word of English.

-          Teaching is knowing one negative comment can last long in the memory. You know that. You remember when your teachers said something you found hurtful.

-          Teaching is getting the children out of the door while fielding requests from parents. ‘Can Jonny sit somewhere else next week? Sam is distracting him.’ ‘Did Lucy eat all her lunch today?’ ‘Have you got 5 minutes for a quick chat?’

-          Then the real work begins. Imposing stacks of books that won’t move unless you do something about them. Ticking and flicking and writing comments that you know the children will never read. Doing it because there might be a book inspection but also knowing you’ll feel a bit guilty if you don’t get it done. Check your inbox. Just the fourteen emails since you last looked at lunch. Twelve of them need a response and five of those have added significantly to your workload. Go over tomorrow’s plans and realise you’ll need to stop at Tesco on the way home to get some spaghetti for a Science experiment.

-          AH! You forgot to find out why those children were crying.

-          Teaching is mediating an unbearably tense Parents’ Evening with a couple in the depths of a painful breakup. You want to tell them their child is acting up but you don’t want them to feel guilty about it.

-          Teaching is tough.

It is not all bad though. I can’t imagine there are many jobs more fulfilling.

-          Teaching is knowing you are providing a safe space for a child who dreads going home.

-          Teaching is having a snowball fight when you’re on break duty.

-          Teaching is watching children thrive and knowing that you played a tiny part in that.

-          Teaching is introducing a child to a new idea/sport/book/film and watching them fall in love with it.

-          Teaching is abandoning a lesson to have a debate about something important and being so proud of their curiosity and interest in the world.  

-          Teaching is being subjected to the newly learnt skill of sarcasm.

-          Teaching is being asked how old you are every single day and learning not to be offended when they regularly say ‘48’.

-          Teaching is providing moral guidance.

-          Teaching is being trusted.

-          Teaching is the smugness you feel when someone tells you you’re their favourite teacher.

-          Until you find out they said it to another teacher too!

-          Teaching is never ever dull.

-          Teaching is a privilege.

The last point in each list is the key one. Teaching is special but it’s not without strife. I am so pleased the teachers got a pay deal. It could be better but it’s something.

‘Teaching is not a lost art but the regard for it is a lost tradition.’ Jacques Barzun (1945). Let’s change that.