WHO WOULD BE A TEACHER?

By Dr Stephen Whitehead

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash

By Dr Stephen Whitehead

“Blood was the only thing they didn’t test. But hey, I’ve not been a teacher for 2 years, so maybe that’s changed.”

This notable line is a highlight of this Medium piece ‘Why I Quit Teaching’ by Victor James.

But, actually Victor, in the world of international education blood is taken, literally.

If you aspire to an (expat) teaching position in many countries you will need a blood test; together with a police background check, proof of qualification, verification of experience, plus a whole host of other paperwork — all adorned with some official’s officious stamp.

For Viktor, teaching proved to be a “horrible’ experience, one which quickly disabused him of his youthful idealism.

Recognising that Viktor endured his torture in the USA (Denver), see if his list of ‘awful experiences’ matches any of your own.

1. The Pay is Awful (US$ 23k for 2012, his first year as a teacher): You’d do a lot better in Hong Kong, Viktor, though a condo the size of a shoe cupboard will cost you a good slice of your salary.

2. You Don’t Get Summers Off: Yes, it can be a bummer when you discover that the much heralded ‘summer break’ ends up being needed to recover from the rest of the year’s exertions. Tip: don’t answer work emails during it.

3. Everyone Thinks You Get Summers Off: Teaching is one of those professions full of illusory benefits — everyone thinks teachers enjoy long holidays and remind us of it…constantly.

4. There’s Little Prestige in It These Days: Well Viktor, all I can say is why did that surprise you, as an American? We know that in the U.S. income determines prestige. In Asia, being a teacher is a high prestige profession, even if it won’t get you a Lamborghini.

5. Testing Never Stops: We can blame the English for this. SATS all started under Margaret Thatcher, and her Education Reform Act of 1988. Teaching, and learning, has never been the same since. Soon to be found in a kindergarten near you.

6. You’re Playing the Long-Game. Being a teacher is like being married; brief moments of bliss in a long haul of grim and unrelenting graft. And, like marriage, teaching is fast losing its attraction for graduate millennials such as Viktor.

7. Snakeoil and ‘New ideas’: Guaranteed with each new government, a rhetoric of ‘education, education, education’, together with new policies to ‘embed improvement’. At which point you can be sure nothing will change.

8. Teacher Evaluations Are Ridiculous: Well, they certainly can be. I’ve seen teacher evaluation forms which even Erasmus himself couldn’t accomplish.

9. It’s Mentally Exhausting. And getting worse, methinks. What with lunatic armed students in the U.S. and machete wielding kid killers in China, working in a school can be akin to being a U.S. Cavalryman during Custer’s Last Stand.

10. It’s Extremely Isolating. “Being a teacher feels like being a paratrooper dropped behind enemy lines”. Nicely put, Viktor. I recall my first year in teaching (Leeds, UK), and the atmosphere in the teachers’ staffroom. It was the nearest I’ve ever got to living out WW1 trench warfare.

11. Paperwork. Yup. And you were only a teacher, Viktor. How do you think the school’s senior management feel?

12. Cutthroat Politics. I agree, walk into some schools and it is as if you’ve unwittingly stepped into episode of ‘House of Cards’ — without the humour.

13. Know When to Quit. So, Viktor, despite all this you actually had four years when you learned so much as a teacher that in your final year it all just “clicked”. You “got it”, “everything worked”. And that is why you had to leave. I agree, one of the unsung lessons of success is knowing when to quit. Which is invariably when you are at the top of the curve and what comes next will be downhill.

And Viktor is not alone in seeking escape from the grind of teaching.

UK government plans published on 15th July, 2019, reveal that some young secondary modern teachers will be offered £5000 in their third and fifth years in the classroom — on top of their initial £20,000 training bursaries.

Question is, will the money be enough to keep them from quitting, or even attracting them to start in the first place?

Dr Stephen Whitehead (opinions are author’s own)

reference

James, V (2018) Why I Quit Teaching, Medium. Full article here

For those interested, Dr Whitehead’s latest book, Toxic Masculinity, can be found here.

This article originally appeared in EDDi: Educational Digest International.