Gevas

I taught for a total of 3 years before throwing in the towel. I was so sad and sorry to find I couldn’t override the UK statistic that says that 1 out of 3 teachers quit within the first three years of working.

I had wanted to be a teacher since I could say the word. I was focused and driven throughout my high school years, college and university. My best year was the year of teacher training for me. I knew I was on the final run towards achieving my goal of teaching 11 – 16 year olds. I taught the subject of Religious Education and my passion for the children was only seconded by my passion for my subject.

I loved children. I spent every available moment of my teaching career around the children. Other teachers would spend their lunch hours in the staff room, I would spend mine in my room with a room full of students who sought out my company. Other teachers would spend their preparation time either in the staff room, the library or their own rooms, locked away from the students. I shadowed other classes, helping out other teachers by supporting difficult or challenging students. All of this above and beyond my contract.

Did I give 100% – no. I gave 1000%.

So, what killed my teaching career? Teachers.

The apathy, the boredom, the slating of difficult children behind their backs, the slating of difficult parents, the teachers who worked solely to pay the mortgage and found no joy in the work or in the children. The children could tell the difference between a joyful teacher and an apathetic teacher and I watched, year by year, as it ground them down too. A group that stay strongly in my mind even now arrived as I did fresh, new, a little scared but willing to try. When I left they had wilted in their approach, in their interest and saddest of all, they were cynical in their approach to the very people who should be helping them on their educational journey, the teachers. By the time it came to leaving the school, groups often had no respect whatsoever, mirroring the lack of respect the teachers actually had for them.

The teaching career in England used to be a status job, where one was guaranteed a level of payment that afforded a comfortable if not luxurious lifestyle. Now a teacher can’t afford to buy a house. This level of under payment attracts nothing but second rate workers who treat the art of teaching as a job rather than a vocation. The unforeseen outcome of this is now making itself very obvious in the next generation. The younger generation see cynicism and learn cynicism. They see apathy and learn apathy. Sadly they see disrespect and learn disrespect.

I personally could not stand to be a part of this obvious degeneration of the state of the world I live in.

To address the original question again, are teachers giving 100%?

Those who are, won’t be soon. Those who aren’t are fitting in fine.

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