Reasons To Be Cheerful – Why Squander The Positivity That Teachers Have To Spare?
Contrary to what Nicky Morgan might think, teachers are very positive about teaching, argues Jon Berry. It's the data-gathering, observations and paperwork that they object to…
- by Jon Berry
Older readers may remember the singer Ian Dury with fondness; younger ones can Google him.
I’d have liked to witness a meeting between Ian and Nicky Morgan. The former was quick-witted, eccentric, linguistically brilliant with a chequered educational record. Morgan was privately educated, went to Oxford and became a government minister. She’s not funny and she’s not clever.
All the same, I wonder if there was a vestigial memory from some groovy night at St Hugh’s, bobbing away to Ian’s wonderful ‘Reasons to be Cheerful’, that inspired her recent speech to the NASUWT Conference.
Chin up, everyone
According to Nicky, teachers aren’t a good advert for their own profession. She’d been on the union’s website and found there were hardly any positive press relesaes. She wondered if a young person would choose a lifetime of teaching, if this was the impression that teachers gave of their working lives. ‘Step up,’ Nicky told her slumped and grudging audience. Stop being so down on yourself. Be more cheerful.
As improbable as it seems to anyone with even half their wits about them, it didn’t seem to occur to her that she was in any way responsible for this gloominess. It was as if the deadening drudgery of constant data collection and the pressure of constant scrutiny, along with privatization plans for schools that no-one voted for, had been dropped from a stork.
‘Chin up, everyone,’ beams the Head Girl. ‘What if you’re overworked, haven’t had a pay rise for years and are never consulted about what you do? Try to look more cheerful!’
But I do, in fact, have some very good news for her.
Left to their own devices to do the job they love, there’s no group of people with sunnier dispositions than teachers. They’ll work hard, and they’ll work long hours without complaint. They’ll work collaboratively, and they’ll gladly give up vast swathes of their leisure time. I’ll tell you how I know.
Relishing responsibility
Six years ago I began a research project that has since grown and developed in a variety of ways. I wanted to know whether, despite the barrage of daft demands made on them beyond their classroom practice, teachers still loved the basic job.
I interviewed scores of teachers, received written testimony running to tens of thousands of words and was invited to events around the country. The results should cheer every parent, government minister and, yes, child. (Remember them? Children)?
Teachers like being accountable – especially to children and their parents. They relish the responsibility with which they are entrusted. They want to do the very best for those children, and above all, would like more time to invent and plan lessons and schemes that are creative and meet a range of needs.
I spoke to young teachers who had been up until the early hours, absorbed in preparation, happy in the knowledge that a good series of lessons would be the outcome. I heard from old hands, rejuvenated by the experience of quietly and subversively ignoring ‘This week’s learning focus’ in favour of following their instincts with brilliant – and occasionally hilarious – results.
I spoke with groups of teachers about teaching and learning who refused to let the conversation finish – so hungry were they to talk about their beloved profession.
A wicked treadmill
At the same time, I also heard from teachers managing collaborative cross-curricular projects with colleagues that they almost had to smuggle into plans, because they failed to meet required templates.
Some had came up with brilliant ideas which failed to make it on to departmental meeting agendas that were concerned only with data and target-setting. I met dozens of teachers who told me that the staff room – a place for cooperation, commiseration or simply relaxation – had now given way to designated workstations.
So here’s a question for Nicky Morgan: if you were in charge of a workforce that was totally committed to their professional purpose, why would you drain the life out such people by putting them on a wicked treadmill of data collection, high-stakes observations and unnecessary paperwork?
If you had at your disposal clever people capable of great ideas for engaging young minds, why would you tire them out with hours of gawping at screens showing colour-coloured data?
What a waste, as the ever-cheerful Ian used to sing. And it’s your doing.
Further writing on how teachers continue to resist and remain optimistic can be found in Jon Berry’s recently published book, Teachers Undefeated available now via Amazon. To order multiple copies, contact the author at j.berry@herts.ac.uk
