WARNING! This website is no longer actively maintained. It is an archive of 2 years work by Doug Belshaw who now blogs at dougbelshaw.com...
Will Richardson, of the excellent and daily-updated Weblogg-ed has quit his job after 21 years in public education. He’s not sure what he’ll be doing after May 15th but that blogging for the last few years has changed his outlook on the world of education. I know exactly how he feels, but for different reasons…
Will’s quit a job which he says he enjoyed:
This was not an easy decision: great job working with great people at a great school doing fun stuff with technology just three years away from bennies for life vs….um…something else. More than a few have questioned my sanity. But here is the undeniable truth in all of this: my brain, for better or worse, is more in the blog than in the building. For the past year and a half, I’ve been basically working two jobs, missing my kids, frustrating my wife more often than she deserves, feeling like I am less and less effective in what the taxpayers are paying me to do. Something had to give. Add in a pinch of growing distate for public school practice in general, and a serious yen for the time to tap into the creativity that the Web now holds, and at the end of the day, I really didn’t have much choice in the matter.
As George Siemens has commented, “Some educators will try and generate change (evolution) from within the system. Others, like Will, will seek the transformative route. We need both.” I myself am getting increasingly frustrated with the bureaucracy and inertia within the education system but want to stay within it to be able to change it. The trouble is that one’s time when within the education system is so taken up by administrative tasks and non-teaching-related activities that one doesn’t have time to reflect properly nor for projects or crusades.
As some of you will know, I’ve been off with stress from my current position since just before Christmas. It wasn’t the pupils that ground me down, it was the culture of the school and the environment in which I was working. I’ve now resigned and am looking forward to working in an educational environment that is fulfilling, in an organization that looks after its members of staff, and a department that is strongly-led and innovative. I want to have time to be able to update this blog everyday without feeling guilty that I haven’t filled in a form or that a scheme of work needs writing. I want to be able to lead and be part of projects which are focused on improving pupil learning. In short, I want to be able to do what I came into the teaching profession to do.
We need reflective practitioners who have time to focus on teaching and learning. Teachers in this day and age cannot be substitute parents, social workers, administrators and educators rolled into one. It’s time to change the system and, whether through revolution or evolution, something’s got to give.
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Sad that it has come to this! Hopefully, you’ll find another school/establishment that suits your skills/talents!
Thanks Nick. My ‘last day’ (even though I’m signed off until then) is March 10th. I’ll be on supply after that and then hopefully one of the schools I’ve applied to will recognise what I’ve got to offer. I don’t want to jump from the frying pan into the fire, so to speak, however. I’ll be careful to make absolutely sure what I’m getting into this time…
There comes a time when there are just too many obstacles and then is the time to go. If you can find yourself in an environment with like minded colleagues then it’s a different proposition but that too can change rapidly in schools. I hope that comment about telling his wife is a joke though!
From what I’ve seen in 35 years’ teaching, you’ll be very lucky indeed to find the sort of environment you’re talking about, Doug. It’s been my unhappy experience that many, many educational administrators take that career route becuase they’re desperate to get out of the classroom! They don’t really even like children, let alone have any idea how to teach them… This means that they sit in their offices all day moving pieces of paper from one side of their desks to another and thinking up new “initiatives”…
There are noble exceptions. I’ve worked for two or three of them and corresponded with several others, but I think, in general, the level of “educational leadership” in schools is woeful.
Perhaps you’re more likely to find the autonomy to organize your professional life the way you think it should be in an international school. I know that I have very little paper work to do here, and it is possible to avoid a lot of the frustration of dealing with incompetent administrators simply by ignoring them. I understand that this isn’t as possible in English schools these days. It’s also really nice having a maximum class size of 23…
Well hopefully I’ll end up in a position to influence or guide those in educational leadership positions. It’s extremely frustrating working in a profession which is based on time-service rather than merit. By the time I reach the ‘top’ I’ll have been conditioned by the system!
I agree with Nick that it’s a great shame that your first experience of teaching has been a negative one and I hope you find the right place soon. I also have to agree with Mike that the utopia you are searching for is not likely to exist. I know that when I joined my current school, nearly 6 years ago, I was not at all expecting to be in a boys inner city comp with no 6th form. in fact I just turned up at the interview as practice for the next interview I had 2 days later. However as soon as I arrived at Compton I knew that it was the place for me - the atmosphere, the Head, the staff, the buzz, everything. I still feel the same about it today, so I know that I made the best decision of my life, so far. I also partly disagree with your notion of time service versus merit. I always felt that it was extremely important for me to ‘learn my trade’ and I spent 7 years at my first school doing so. I then had to effectively retrain when I changed from a girls school to a boys school and learn my new trade as a HoD. As you know, Doug, I am now an AST and I really believe I have benefitted from those years of apprenticeship. I find it astonishing that there are ASTs out there with only 3 years teaching experience! And I absolutely do not accept that I have been ‘conditioned by the system’, you learn how to play the system. My advice - get thee to the inner cities - you will get the best opportunities, the best staff and the best educational vision, and if you don’t believe me there is an open invitation to visit me anytime you come down south.
Thanks Dan, I might take you up on that! I’m not saying that I want a school where everything’s perfect, but it would be nice to be in an environment where innovation and collaboration is the rule rather than the exception…