I enjoyed robust good health and if a cold or flu symptoms came along I just battled through. Days off were for the weak. And as for dental appointments - they happened exclusively during my holidays.
For the last twenty years of my career I was the Head of English, leading a team of ten English specialists. Teachers came and teachers went. I was the only consistent figure, holding it all together and in many ways leading by example.
One time, a temporary post was filled by Nigel - an itinerant teacher from Leeds. Another member of my team - Emma - related this conversation to me. Nigel had asked her, "What's the score with sickies here?". Emma had replied, "Sickies? We never take them unless we're genuinely ill. Neil never misses a day." She told me that Nigel had been surprised. It seemed he was used to working in English departments where staff regularly took days off. Perhaps they had sickie rotas or something.
Looking back, I realises that I was as zealous as a missionary - bringing English to the English. What could be more important than helping our nation's youth to gain good qualifications in English? A good grade could be the stepping stone to a better future. Besides, English was civilising and personally enriching. It was not just about the grades.
I marked pupils' assignments deep into countless nights. I thought it was all so important. After all, I could not name any job that was more important. Teaching English mattered more than making money or working for a profit-focused business.
Now, years later, and with the benefit of hindsight, it does not seem so vitally important after all. There are many other jobs that are more important or equally as important if indeed importance is ever a useful measure.
Society is like a jigsaw and we need all the pieces to make it whole. They all have their places - the road sweeper, the airline pilot, the hotel cleaner, the tech entrepreneur, the farmer, the hospital nurse, the miner, the singer songwriter, the car mechanic, the physicist, the shop assistant, the factory assembly line operative, the soldier, the stay-at-home mum, the banker, the baker, the candlestick maker and yes the English teacher too.
We all belong to this human ant colony and during our working lives we perform interconnected roles, dependent upon each other. Vocational zeal should be tempered by that simple truth.
What was your first week like and your last ?
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your statement "society is like a jigsaw and we need all the pieces to make it whole.." There's too much self-importance in this world.
ReplyDeleteI like your conclusion as it's reality. I taught some math. I ask adults how to divide fractions. They don't know. I ask them how to find the area of a circle. they don't know. I'm wondering how much of this they really need?
ReplyDeleteWe used to have a nurse who used her sick days like they were personal holidays. She didn't last long but she sure made everyone angry while she was there. We had a small department and if someone called in sick we usually had to work short.
ReplyDeleteI don't like people coming to work sick because they often make everyone else sick. Stay home. But I also don't like people abusing their "sickies".
You did a good job but may have given the job more of your time and energy than needed. At least you are still healthy now and can enjoy your free time. And yes, the world needs all of us, regardless of the job we do.
You worked through colds and flu and probably infected who know how many people. Tsk.
ReplyDeleteWell, Emma had drunk the Kool-aid hadn't she? What a dobber.
ReplyDeleteWe mostly need some vocational zeal in order to justify to ourselves the work we do. Otherwise, what kind of a dgaf cynic would we be?
"Zealous" has built into it the possibility of excessive zeal. "Zealot" often has negative connotations.
Not casting aspersions at you, but it's a short step from being a "slave to duty" (alternative title to "Pirates of Penzance") and indispensibility syndrome, which in extreme cases can even be a kind of narcissism.
Looking back to when I was employed, I did take sickies from jobs in which I was unhappy. Not that I was unremittingly unhappy. There were other times, even in those very jobs, when I soldiered on or worked late well beyond the call of duty. There should be a give and take for that sort of thing though it often feels that "give" by the employee is only met by the employer with "take." When I was an employed solicitor I left one job and found a much better one when I got fed up with that.
I enjoyed my time teaching, but I never intended it to become a 'career'. At my last school, I was offered a Flu Jab, which I declined. Then when I caught The Flu I had to pretend that I wasn't ill. I really regretted not having the jab.
ReplyDeleteI agree with those who say if you are sick, stay home. I think COVID has changed people’s opinions somewhat. Having said that if you have flu it is impossible to work. I never used to get the flu jab, then I caught flu one year, since then I always have a flu jab.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have just booked this year’s jab. The online booking opened today. So thanks for mentioning flu.
ReplyDeleteRiver does make a modern day point. If you have an infectious bug, don't go to work. I
ReplyDeleteOops. Must have hit send.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure about your first conclusion. A good command of the English language is a wonderful and advantageous thing to have. But you are right that society is like a jigsaw, needing many pieces, the well educated and the less educated.
Being passionate about your work, set a standard for colleagues and your students. I just spent a couple of days reading and scoring grant requests. A take away from that project, is you not only need a good idea, you need to be able to explain it in a way that the reader can understand it. Weak writing, results in a poorly rated proposal, even if the core idea is brilliant. I could tell who had a passionate English teacher and who didn't.
ReplyDeleteWe are all connected and depend on one another but lately many people are just out for themselves.
ReplyDeleteGood post, Mr. P.
ReplyDeleteOdd how you've come to this wisdom after you retired. I suppose you've noticed that the world still seems to travel around the sun, even though you're no longer doing the most important job in the world. I've seen so many people who truly seemed to believe that if they didn't show up for their own particular job every day no matter what, everything would fall apart immediately. Strangely, these same people don't always appear to truly enjoy their work. It becomes almost a martyr situation.
Yes, I agree that we need the jigsaw of jobs to keep our society going.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your penultimate paragraph. Yes, it takes many parts to form a whole.
ReplyDeleteI had huge absences from school due to my mothers illness but I had the most dedicated English teacher. She really cared about us as her pupils. She was always encouraging, always approachable.
I remember her fondly. She told me to make my local library my sanctuary and my classroom. I did. She has left an indelible mark on me.
We may never know the effects our daily works have on others.
This reminds me of a most excellent book I read, years ago. The five people you meet in heaven by Mitch Albom. A work of fiction but a most enlightened book.
As you know I am with Richard Dawkins but this book is a nice detour.
True, we are interconnected and depend on one another to stay home when sick and not infect our colleagues and children. If a person with immune issues is infected it can kill them. It's not a badge of honor to go into work sick.
ReplyDeleteUnlike you, my teaching "career" was cut very short, and what little there was of it was interrupted by health problems as well. All in all, I worked a lot longer as secretary (in various places) - but did not escape health issues there either. - What kind of teacher(s) one had in various school subjects can mean a lot for one's future choices in life, though - and no doubt a good grasp of language is the foundation for learning other things as well!
ReplyDeleteThis post provokes many a thought. Given my field, I came in knowing most of my fellow citizens and most of my fellow faculty men thought nothing could be more irrelevant. I enjoyed demonstrating to my students that was most emphatically not the case. My enrollments would go up and down, but that didn't matter as long as I got my point across to the students I had, and most said they were richer for the experience. That was enough; changing to world was never on the agenda. I called in sick maybe a couple of times in the course of my career--not out of a sense of mission, but simply because I almost never got sick, and I couldn't bring myself to say I was ill when I wasn't. I often wished I could. (This was unlike my first department chair who frequently got sick, for no more than a day at a time. I think she was taking off for interviews for another job.) In the end, the greatest professional fulfillment came from those students who got something out of what I taught and let me know that, regardless of their grade. That was unexpected. 99.99% of us do our small parts, and that makes the world work. Diligence is a better thing than zeal.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was working at Ludwigsburg‘s public library, I had colleagues who made no secret of calling in sick when they wanted to wash their curtains or expected visitors for a few days in a row, and strangely enough they always found a doctor to fill in the required form for sick leave. It would never have entered my mind to do something like that; I was brought up with a work ethic similar to yours.
ReplyDeleteI am convinced that one can find something to like about almost every job (although there are many jobs I‘d not be keen on), and putting your best effort into a job makes a big difference to your day.
I think the pandemic highlighted the importance of roles that have previously (and since) looked upon less favourable than others. The jigsaw analogy is spot on, I'd love to see some jobs rewarded better though.
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