On teaching

A response I wrote a while ago to an article on whether teaching is a fulfilling job. In all the madness of Christmas concerts and carol services and end of term exhaustion, I enjoyed re-reading it...

A family friend, herself am experienced primary headteacher, asked me the other day whether I enjoy being a teacher. She'd had the same conversation with her daughter, a secondary science teacher, a few days earlier. I think that most teachers would recognize the feelings of confusion, and doubt, that precede any answer to this question, and finally, my answer: teaching is both the best job in the world, and one of the worst.

There are days when you end the day feeling fantastic. Your year 9s enthused about a new project, and threw themselves in whole-heartedly; year 13 engaged in a really interesting academic debate that took them well beyond the realms of their A Level syllabus; a struggling year 11 finally reached the next grade boundary in their most recent assessment, and the enthusiasm of your period 5 year 7 class was infectious. On these days, teaching is the best job in the world.

Then there are the days when 30 year 10s really don't want to learn about a topic which, let's face it, is truly dull, and you find yourself counting the minutes as you are overwhelmed by apathy. One of your year 8 students kicks off and you spend the entire lesson fire-fighting to avoid full-scale anarchy, and end the lesson feeling exhausted and overcome by guilt that you barely spoke to the 'good' students at all. You don't have time for a lunch break - or even to make a cup of tea and go to the loo, as you're dealing with the fallout from the latest hormonally-charged argument in your form, and spending every free minute chasing those year 8s who need to be in detention. When the end of the day finally draws around, you're faced with a 2-hour meeting, and then another 3 hours of marking at home, before you go to bed to get up before the crack of dawn to do it all again tomorrow. On those days, teaching is one of the worst jobs in the world.

Of course, what we - teachers and students alike - hope for is that there will be enough of those great days to keep you going through the worst, and so every day, and every week, and every term we put every ounce of our energy into making them happen, and when there's no energy left we keep on going, dragging ourselves through the days with an exhausted smile until the end of term arrives, and we can collapse, sleep for three days and get a cold.

So, excuse me if I don't have much patience for those who bemoan a teacher's holidays, and those who can't understand why it isn't an easy job. It's a tough one. But it can be the best one in the world, and there's no doubt that it's one of the most important.

So do I like being a teacher? Yes, and no. Do I regret being a teacher? Never.