Teaching is an active profession – it’s not something that should be addressed from the perspective of ‘she’ll be right’. Every moment in the classroom is precious – students will have few other opportunities in their lives where they have little else to do but learn, and there are so few competing interests for them. Of course, this is a little bit idealistic, but I think that it’s important to recognize how precious every minute of school is – and that recognition is probably part of the reason why I get incredibly frustrated when I see it being wasted.
I’m not going to talk about that wastage in this blog – instead, I’m going to talk about the role of teachers in schools as people who must make the most of every minute. Teaching is an incredibly draining job – in few other professions do you need to be ‘on’ for as long as teachers are – I remember reading that teachers make more decisions every minute than fighter pilots. It’s also a job that takes and takes. A teacher’s job is never done – there’s always more planning to be done, more parents to call, more extra-curricular activities to organise.
At least, that’s how I feel about it. Of course, you can’t keep giving forever, and teachers are becoming increasingly burnt out. It’s not surprising, especially amongst young teachers. There’s lots that can be done to support young teachers, like mentoring, and most systems have counselling systems in place now, as well, which is all well and good. However, I think that teachers must be self-critical, too. Teachers must consider their impact upon the school at all times, and whether they are still contributing to the school in the ways outlined above. As teachers – I think this happens with lots of jobs – spend more time in one role, they can became complacent, lazy, disinterested. The passion that they originally had for the job has become dulled by the lack of new challenges.
When that happens, there’s really only one recourse. It’s time for that teacher to move on – either to a new role in the school, or a new school entirely. By remaining, they can become a deadweight – preventing a school taking the necessary steps for change. It’s a difficult decision to make, and often these teachers don’t realise it, but by their relentless negativity, their lack of enthusiasm, their cynicism, they are poisoning the school – and quite possibly contributing to the things they have spent years trying to avoid.
What are the signs of this? Teachers complaining about things not being done the way they used to be. Teachers complaining about not having enough time. Teachers saying that they are indispensable. When this happens, it’s time to move on.