The Older I Get, The Better I Was!

I started teaching in 1976 and spent four years and two terms at my first school, a High School in Rowley Regis. Someone very recently posted a teaching staff photo on Facebook and it stirred some powerful recollections: I wasn’t on it; I’d only just left when it was taken and in spite of my absence it’s an acceptable photo! The colour quality is good and it captures the essence of the memory I have for my former colleagues. As is the way of things on Facebook, someone posted another photo, a black and white one of the Staff Football team: we were playing the 5^th Year (Year 11’s now) in a match that celebrated their final year in school and the restorative (albeit temporary) power of the male ego: you know, “The older I get, the better I was,” sort of thing. No one took it dreadfully seriously: a light-hearted piece of “pupil engagement”.

1976 marked a time when challenges to the assumed comfort of education as a key player in developing a productive and employable workforce were raised; notably from the political left. Jim Callaghan and Shirley Williams each voiced concerns about the worth, value and relevance of what was taking place in our classrooms. In doing so they added fresh fuel to a debate that eventually led to changes that have in so many ways “wiped the smiles off the face of education.”

And there is the starkest of differences: fun. Things like this happened regularly and often:

·          Teachers running lunchtime activities (Formal)

·          Teachers running lunchtime activities (Informal)

·          “Catch Up Classes”

·          Teachers having time to socialise and build up productive relationships with the kids

·          Teachers having time to socialise and build up productive relationships with each other.

·          Whole staff social events

·          Spontaneous “stuff”

As I reflect on the journey we've been forced to take, it feels that we have lost some of the essence of purpose that made a job a calling. It’s hard to look at the “progress” we are alleged to have made without concluding that it has been successful largely in an unintended outcome: it has made a calling a job.

Fly The Flag: Stick The Sticker!

First things first, I’m Irish. I’ve lived in England almost all of my life and I like it here. Next, Ireland’s failure to get to the finals was in part down to an awful refereeing decision and the never endingly perplexing stance on 18 yard box technology generally, goal line technology particularly. Last: I shall be supporting England in the World Cup.
We in the U.K have been through some pretty challenging times and with many others I suspect that they’re far from over. A recent poll in LinedIn suggested that there was a strong belief (around 81% of respondent if I remember correctly) that things were likely to remain uncertain in the Global Economy for a while.
There hasn’t been too much to smile about over the last 20 months or so and it is clear that there are some bruising encounters ahead for people who may have previously thought their job to be secure, their future safe and subsequent plans in place. The jarring reality is that this is not, for the vast majority of us, the case.
The World Cup? A chance for people to park, just for a while, the fears and anxieties they’re dealing with and get behind the England Team. It’s been great to see the Cross of St George flying as the anticipation builds, good to read articles on how managers may wish to implement some flexible working arrangements for the period and uplifting to feel “part of the party”.
Today I read that the party has been pooped. Enterprise, the major Public Service contractor has, it would seem, informed its employees that stickers must not be stuck to or flags flown from any of its vehicles because of Health & Safety issues, stating that the Health & safety of their employees, customers and the general public is paramount. Good for them.
It would be very wrong to jeopardise the well being of the population by allowing a refuse collection lorry to fly an England flag. Do these people not realise that a sudden change in wind-speed or direction may have an adverse effect on handling and vehicle stability? In cities and rural communities, the hitherto unheard of sound of a flag, flapping on the wind of progress from a vehicle may inflict trauma on hens and hoodies alike.
Stickers in windscreens too present a hazard that is almost incalculable in its potential to cause multi vehicle pile ups from motorway to middle England as vast tracts of the driver’s vision are obliterated by massively intrusive ermmmm….stickers.
Given the hard times we’ve been through and the tough challenges ahead, I wonder if it would be alright, just for a few weeks, to let people enjoy themselves in a relatively harmless expression of national unity and purpose. I know some will take it too far and make the headlines for all the wrong reasons; life is a bit like that at Christmas and New Year too. I’m convinced though that the majority of us will enjoy the life, get involved with the competition and bring some “feel good” back into our lives generally and the workplace specifically.
I know it’s not for everyone; that shouldn’t mean that we can’t all benefit in someway from the sense of unity and hopefully pride and success that waits. Maybe, Enterprise, you might wish to reconsider your decision and do the grown up thing: issue your drivers with flags for their vehicles and a windscreen sticker that suits, together with a full set of instructions!