“Sometimes You’ve Got To Put Down The Curly Wurly…” – On Duty Days And Forgetfulness
Forgetting your duty day just is no laughing matter, says Tom Starkey…
- by Tom Starkey
It’s funny what sticks isn’t it? There are some things that, for reasons unbeknownst to this humble writer, have lodged themselves firmly in the recesses of my mind, never to be lost or forgotten.
There’s a fair bit of William Blake’s poetry in there, for example, which jostles for position with which pipes you can go down to collect some coins in Super Mario Bros, and an extended and exhaustive list of early 80s horror movie running times – y’know, really useful stuff that has limitless practical application in everyday life.
Guilt and eye-rolling
And yet, could I ever keep my duty day straight in my head from one week to the next? Could I ever pluck it from the distant deeps of my memory before the point where an irate member of SLT came bursting in, just as I had my feet up to enjoy my post-lesson Curly Wurly, looking almost purposefully relaxed and nonchalant just to rub it in?
Of course I couldn’t. I mean, that stuff’s actually useful. My brain has no time for that there useful stuff.
There’s no sprint faster than a missed duty sprint. You fly. But however fast you go, there’s no gold medal waiting for you once you’ve passed the finish line – unless you count a huge sense of guilt and some choice eye-rolling as something of a prize. I don’t.
(For me, a real prize is a bunch of gold coins that can be found in the 4th pipe just before the invisible 1-UP block on level 1-1, in case you are wondering.
Black marks
It’s those kind of mistakes which, if repeated, can get you a name in a school. A not a complimentary one. People notice those who miss their duty day. A mark is made – probably in some medieval tome fashioned from human flesh and inked in blood like in The Evil Dead (which is 85 minutes long, fact fans) – and the ink doesn’t come off easily.
Because missing a duty, whether it be break, dinner or bus (my personal favourite, since there’s nothing like making sure the kids are all safely stowed away on what’s essentially a double-decker pirate ship on wheels) means that someone else has to take up your slack. Just because you’ve got a mental blind spot, it doesn’t mean that someone else won’t have to get out there on your behalf and start chucking kids into waiting transports like so much luggage.
That person might have had a seriously bad day, only to then have it topped off with standing out in the rain because Mr Curly Wurly can’t get his act together and actually write down the day when he’s supposed to be hurling children onto the good ship Lynx And Red Bull.
I learnt quite quickly that excuses such as ‘my brain is too full of other things’ don’t really cut it. You’ve got to do your part or you end up leaving others in the lurch – and in a job that’s quite difficult enough as it is, thank you-very-much. And nobody needs that.
A lack of respect
Everyone works hard, and if someone has to work that extra bit harder due to someone else not pulling their weight it can really sting. A dropped duty may not seem like much in the grand scheme of things – but in the world of the school it can signify a lack of respect for the time and efforts of your colleagues, and that shirking of responsibility looms large.
Sometimes you’ve just got to put down the Curly Wurly, pick up a planner and make sure you’ve got your duty days for the following week clearly marked on it before you leave on a Friday. Blake and Mario and gore-laden chainsaws are all well and good, but you need to leave a little head room for the really important stuff.
If you do, then you’ll avoid gaining a reputation as someone who doesn’t really care about whether their colleagues end up doing someone else’s work, because you always turn up for your afternoon of press-ganging Y7 onto the Jolly Discarded Crisp Wrapper – and because you take your duty to do your duties seriously.
Thanks for reading.
Tom Starkey is a teacher in an FE college in the north of England; he blogs at stackofmarking.wordpress.com and tweets as @tstarkey1212
