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The Teacher`s Tale
Posted: 19 October 2003
Word Count: 98
Summary: After speaking to most of the teachers I know........
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Its the richest job in the world
So why do I feel depressed
Learning has always been fun
But now it is put to the test.
Education is meant to be more
than knowledge and churning out facts
It develops the person inside
The character's goodness and acts
We've assigned every part to a box
To a target, objective and test
We have clogged up the system with SATS
and ripped up our hopes for the rest
I'm a trainer delivering blocks
Reducing my work to a chore
The children grow aimless and bored
School doesn't excite anymore.
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Comments by other Members
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 Ellenna at 08:42 on 20 October 2003
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Peter very well expressed ...and just as I read this I heard Philip Pullman(Dark Materials) talking about the "league table mentality" of teaching .. I am sure any teachers reading your poem will empathise entirely...
Ellie..
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roovacrag at 13:24 on 21 October 2003
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A family of teachers i know what you mean. Todays teaching is not the same.xx
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spud at 07:59 on 22 October 2003
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Peter
I can really sympathise with this one.
My daughter sat her first set of SATs this summer and, although the teacher did a brilliant job of trying to make it fun, it wasn't until she (my daughter) moved into her current year did I realise what a boring time it must have been for her - no colour at all. I don't remember having to learn so much in such a short time at that age (7). But more to the point, this particular teacher teaches the same SATs year every year with grace and enthusiasm.
I thought that the simple rhyme and rhythm pattern of the poem worked really well - very reminiscent of the poems that I learnt by heart when I was a school girl.
thanks
Spud
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Barney at 22:58 on 23 October 2003
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This is all too true, Peter. Sometimes I wonder if I'm in the right job. I'd like to be in the 'write' job instead! Thank you for the poem - I may direct some colleagues to read it! (I'm also added a poem of my own to the group - not quite finished - on a similar topic).
Barney
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peterxbrown at 00:49 on 24 October 2003
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Ellena, Roovacrag,Spud and Barney,
Thank you very much. I would love to hear from techers! I hope they ncan fight back soon on behalf of parents and children. We are heading for 11yr olds with all the Level 5s etc. imaginable, but also with a dislike of books, learning and Education in general. We are putting them off!!
Love and respect
peterb xx
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Tina at 12:58 on 24 October 2003
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I have ben in education too many years
A primary head for 12 years and now a freelance consultant.
What has , does and will continue to worry me is that we are all so very willing to please? Why is this I wonder? No wonder we are so very slandered in the media if we are so very willing to always do as we are told. Not surprising we are not treated like the professionals we are. Having fought hard to preserve what I beleived in I eventually gave up the fight.
AND What standards are we improving - what are we teaching our children? More about passivity than creativity. More about instruction than learning.
Passionately yours peter
with thanks
a voice for small children everywhere
Tina
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peterxbrown at 15:18 on 26 October 2003
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Thanks everyone. Education is in the hands of the managers, not educators/teachers/........
Tina, I found your comments very moving and oh, so true. Teachers must stand up and be counted and take the consequences!! The culture of blame and shame, league tables etc. is killing "learning". Is it possible that our "leaders" want a trained workforce who will do as they are told, not an educated workforce which questions and thinks!!??
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miffle at 15:17 on 10 August 2004
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Peter, just discovered this sad hearted tale. I used to teach: now that perhaps is a sad yet familiar story too!
I like the way that you question the idea of 'riches' here though I feel and recognise the way that you struggle with your (?) profession here too.
I was lucky during my school years to have more than a handful of teachers to whose lessons I would willingly have gone even if I had been given a free rein: now, I think that's the idea of the Sommerhill School (?) and I think that there's much that's laudable about this! This was the kind of teacher that I hope I was...
The state system is rigid: it does not in general encourage alternative thinkers, pioneers. It has disinherited teachers: children are individuals - trust the teachers to know what's best. I personally would like to see children leaving school with a sense of who they are and where their strengths lie. I also think that a positive experience is of more importance than a string of exams.
I think it would be a good idea if the state curriculum were more open to a wider pool of educational philosophies: in Sweden I do not think that children go to school until they are 6 or 7 ? So many people in the UK simply do not know there is a choice beyond state / private education: organisations like Education Otherwise and Human Scale Education help to spread the word.
One thing about the poem which perhaps blows your cover (that is if as I infer from your note that you are not a teacher?) is the use of 'we' in the third verse: 'they' the State... ? Or perhaps, as a teacher you are accepting a collective blame there?
Also perhaps linked to this thought I would be tempted to say: 'Education is more than knowledge...facts': 'meant to be' does suggest an air of resignation, perhaps you wanted that (?)
Food for thought. Kind regards, Nikki
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Jim Barrel
