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