Is dignity a dirty word?

This time out, for a change, I'm not going to go on about education. But I'm sure teachers are getting the blame for this issue. What am I on about? Let me tell you.

Why is it ok (in fact, it would seem preferable) these days to be rude? And loud? And not care what anybody thinks? I know I was raised in a different era and some things do have to change, and often for the better, but some things which were important then are still important now. Let me give this a context. 

I was in the local shopping centre recently and there was a young mother sat on the bench, with her child in a buggy, shouting into her phone. I gathered from what she was shouting that she was talking to the father of her child. The basic content of her tirade was that he was a useless dad and she could manage without him. Well, nothing wrong with that. Plenty of us single parents have raised children we're proud of without any help from their fathers. So what was wrong with what I saw? It wasn't just that she was shouting. She was shouting with a foul mouth. In front of her child (to the father of that child) she was yelling obscenities at the top of her voice in a public place. Her anger and apparent frustration were also making her look like one of Shakespeare's witches. Now, people who know me know I'm no prude. I have been known to swear on the odd occasion. But I certainly never swore in front of my children when they were small. I still don't swear in front of people who don't know me. And I would certainly never swear at the top of my voice in public. Unless maybe someone was murdering me.

So why has this incident led me to write another blog post? Because I see this as symptomatic of a general breakdown in the standards of our society. Why didn't she care what everyone else thought of her? Why didn't she have any consideration for the other people around her, just going about their normal business? I think because most people only care about themselves nowadays. We've all seen other people try (or even tried ourselves) to intervene in these sorts of situations. And all we get for our troubles is threatened, or a mouthful of abuse. 

Where was her dignity? Where was her self-respect? Don't get me wrong, if he deserved a mouthful she was right to give it to him. But there's a time and a place, surely? Or isn't there any more? I was brought up not to 'wash my dirty laundry in public' and that was very public. Couldn't she (shouldn't she) have had that conversation later when no one else was listening? Why is it ok for everyone to see us when we are at our very worst? Why are we happy to share even our most personal and intimate moments with the whole world?

But this isn't just about that girl and her lack of personal awareness. We've all seen examples of young women so drunk they can't stand in their heels behaving in ways which should be reserved for the privacy of a bedroom. Did all those brave women who fought to give me the right to vote, fight to give women the right to behave however they like? Did all those women who struggled to give us equality struggle so that we could behave like (or even worse than) men? Timothy Leary once said 'Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition'. I think he meant we should strive to be better. Not just better than men but better human beings. 

Perhaps we need to take a step back from this very open, public, access-all-areas life we all seem to lead. Perhaps Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc shouldn't be used to share every private moment of our lives. Perhaps we should think twice about how the world sees us. Perhaps more people should have had the role model I had: a strong, independent woman who managed to be that and to remain dignified and lady-like. Because of her, I still care how other people view me and I hope I always will.

Outstanding

Warning: I'm back on the same old rant. Education. If you stop reading at this point, I won't be offended. Most of my readers (as far as I know) are friends and family who are either educators themselves or who know me well and understand why I am passionate about this subject, so they expect it. If you don't fall into either of those catagories, leave me a message to let me know and next time I'll try to write about something else. 

But, back to today. With the spectre of Ofsted inspectors coming to check up on us again, I've been thinking about their expectations. Not so long ago, it was enough to be 'good'. Good used to mean better than ok. If you had a 'good' car, it was more expensive, and performed better, than your neighbour's. If you were described as a 'good' little girl by old ladies your mum met in the corner shop, then your mum would have been proud of you. If you went out for a 'good' drink on a Friday night, you had a hangover until Sunday morning.

Now? Apparently 'good' has been down-graded. Each school's performance is expected to be 'outstanding'. Every lesson is expected to be 'outstanding'. Every teacher aims to be 'outstanding'.

'Outstanding' used to mean 'of high quality; excellent’. Is that what you would expect everyone to be all the time? Is it realistic to expect every second of every hour to be ‘excellent’? 
But let's look again at the dictionary, another definition is 'satisfactory' and the example used for that definition is 'a good teacher'. 

So do I understand this correctly, a good teacher is, by definition 'outstanding'? Or do we actually have to strive to be 'outstanding' because to be just good is no longer good enough?
Don't misunderstand me, I wouldn't do what I do if I didn't care: if I didn't want to provide the best learning opportunities for my students every time I stand up in front of them; if I didn't want to push, pull, cajole, inspire them to want to achieve their full potential; if I didn't want to be a good teacher.  But I think I'm doing just fine if I am a good teacher.

Yes, there are still schools that need to improve; there are teachers who need to rekindle their love for the job, so there is a need for a system that checks on those things. But can that system, can those parents, can those 'stakeholders' expect us all to be outstanding all the time? If I asked you to think of an outstanding footballer, you might name Ronaldo, Beckham or (if you're as old as me) Pele. If I asked you to name an outstanding person, you might say Nelson Mandela or Mother Theresa. But if I asked you to name an outstanding teacher, would you? Could you?
Forgive me, I'm not comparing myself or other teachers to any of those people (though I think most of us are worth more than a couple of ridiculously overpaid footballers) but perhaps you're getting my drift by now. Surely the meaning of outstanding is to 'stand out' from the crowd? If every teacher, every lesson, every school is expected to be outstanding than what on earth are we 'standing out' from? Yes, demand high standards from us, believe me, most of us demand that from ourselves but to expect us to stand out all the time is an outstandingly ridiculous demand. 

Just as a matter of interest (and because I'm a word geek) I thought I would share the fact that there are more than 50 definitions of the word 'good'. The first of those is morally excellent. Teachers are expected to be that too. You only hear about the few who aren't. Nobody ever gives us credit for the fact that we have to provide the moral guidance that many of our students don't get at home. 

Do you know what? Maybe I am outstanding after all.


http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/good

Under Pressure

It took me a while to get started (much like my aging body in the mornings these days) but now I'm up and running, I seem to be on a roll so he's my second serving.

As David Bowie and Queen once sang, 'pressure pushes down on you, splits a family in two'. This time around, in education, in the UK, I feel that I am actually managing to let most of the pressure waft over me but I am watching what it is doing to my colleagues. Why can I let it waft over me? I work for an agency, I'm a temp, so I don't have that permament contract to worry about. 
I've been kicked up the arse by the system once, so maybe I'm a bit more savvy this time round. Maybe I'm more able to dodge the kicks now BUT there are definitely some things which still make my blood boil and sometimes they are fellow educators.

I regularly read The Secret Teacher blog which I found via the Guardian's 'Teacher Network'. This is honest, sensible writing from someone who is obviously still working hard at the chalk face (or is it the interactive-multi-media face?) which I enjoy reading and can always empathise with. There's no 'I sacrifice my life for the sake of my students' or any suggestion that this anonymous teacher is anything but a thoroughly dedicated professional. I have to comment, of course, on the need for anonymity. Teachers all live under a permament shadow of the fear of blame. If any of us actually dared to stand up and tell the truth, we know that we'd soon be heading for the door. 

So what's making my blood boil? I decided to look at another blog recommended by The Guardian and found a man who uses the twitter name @headguruteacher. Really? Who gives themselves the title of 'guru'? Even just for a twitter handle. The dictionary has a couple of definitions of guru. Firstly, a preceptor giving personal religious instruction. Since there is nothing about religion, I'm assuming that's not who he thinks he is so that leaves the alternative: an intellectual or spiritual guide or leader. His blog often gives advice on how teachers should manage classroom behaviour, their time or cope with their work load. All good but it's his tone that irks me. Anyone who has the audacity to title themselves guru is far too arrogant for his own good. He tells me that because I don't see the value of homework (and there is as much research which agrees with me as there is which argues for it) that I do not take education seriously and therefore am not a good teacher. How very dare he? Ask any of my students, past or present: I take their education very seriously and they (if not Ofsted) tell me I'm a good teacher. And that, as they say, will do for me.

So, not only do we have to deal with the pressure of our own senior leadership, HMI, the league tables and the media we have an additional layer of pressure pressing down on us from our own fellow professionals. It's no wonder good, experienced teachers are looking for an alternative.

That idea of being a good teacher sparks another thought but I will save for my next blog.


http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/guru?s=t


http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/series/the-secret-teacher?INTCMP=edi_231654

First Time Out

When I suggested I might start writing a blog it was a throwaway comment (with my usual brand of sarcasm) about how little free time you are left with if you work in education. I’m not sure I even really intended to start blogging but it seems there is some interest in my words so perhaps I will give it a try.

Back to my original comment on FB, reprinted here, ‘I keep meaning to start writing a blog. My experiences of education leave me plenty to say. Maybe I will start just as soon as I have a spare minute’. Why was I suddenly feeling like commenting on my experiences in education? Well, I had just completed my first day in a new post, my third school this year. Not because I keep getting the sack but after leaving a long term post, I decided to take a bit of a back seat for a while and just do some temping. For those of you who don’t know me, I’ve been teaching for the last 13 years: five years in my first school, then after another five years in another job I took early (very early) retirement. Disillusioned with the ever changing bureaucracy which governs teaching here; I decided to have an adventure and went off to Bahrain to teach there for three years. Maybe some of that will be fodder for another blog, another day. But back to why I’m here now.

My first day in a new school was a day without students, a staff ‘training’ day. Why did I put ‘training’ in inverted commas? Because surely at the end of a day of training you should know something you didn’t know when you began. I’m not suggesting I know everything, far from it, but in education there is a phrase we use a lot, “why do we keep re-inventing the wheel?” And this was yet another day when we re-invented that wheel.

This is the third school I have worked in which is in ‘special measures’, that means HM’s Inspectors have deemed too many areas of the school as not up to scratch. An ‘expert’ or ‘guru’ is drafted in to change things and it’s always the same things: leadership; behaviour and teaching and learning. The problem, as I see it, is that someone not trained in education, a politician, this time Michael Gove, decides that we need to change things. Fine, if things aren’t going well they need changing, I get that, but what I don’t get is that we never get time to actually see anything through and they keep changing the same things. Take for example, ‘Literacy Across the Curriculum’, here’s an initiative which has been heralded as the answer to everyone’s problems on at least 3 different occasions. It makes sense to anyone with half a brain that students need to be literate in every subject, not just in English. If the students are writing an essay in History, then they must be able to write it using the correct spellings, grammar and punctuation. But, we’ve no sooner started that and training the students in the ways of it, then the powers that be come up with the next ‘new’ idea. So, we have to leave behind the first one and all concentrate on the next one. Imagine taking a toddler who is learning to walk and telling them they can’t walk any more, that now they need to learn to cycle, then just as they’re getting the hang of that, taking the tricycle away and telling them they have to learn how to use roller skates. Would they be able to do anything of those things well? You get my drift, right?

This is a long rant for my first time out, isn’t it? Sorry, once I get going, I get going. I’ll leave you with a couple of things to ponder until next time.

1   1.My colleagues arrive for work an hour before school starts, teach all day, and work for another 2 or 3 hours before going home to do some more work. They also work at least one day over the weekend and I mean all day. I know you’re thinking what about all those holidays? But can these people be expected to be able to do the most important part of their job, teaching, properly? I defy anyone to be at the top of their game and manage 30 teenagers effectively if they are already exhausted.

2   2.  When is someone going to listen to the suggestion that the students actually have to take responsibility for their behaviour and their own learning? Time we stopped pussy footing around the students and their rights and the parents who know their kids’ rights inside out and told them all to suck it up or ship out.

Until next time; if I ever get my marking finished.