Enough!

I have been in Education for almost 50 years… if I include my own initial schooling then indeed I move beyond 60 years. As a Headmaster/Principal/Director in 3 countries over the years and a teacher/lecturer and leader I now need to say enough is enough!

Education CANNOT be reactionary! We cannot be speaking about how to fix things in schools/classrooms/districts/countries when what we ostensibly are preaching about fixing should never have been broken. Educational leaders (and here I include the teacher in the classroom) know what works. The list of “how to’s” is endless but all I read and hear is the modern world bewailing the same things that have been echoed since time immemorial. We use a multitude of excuses to cover up inadequacies… Insufficient funding/too many in a classroom/no support from the so-called upper echelons/and and and!

A teacher… is a teacher! She/he knows how to teach… what is needed to take a child from almost infancy to adulthood- and this is what is needed from teachers/educationalists/Principals/Headmasters/Directors/District Heads. Get on with the job and stop bleating. Follow in the footsteps of those who have taken young people from nothing to greatness while teaching under a tree or only having the basics with which to work.

Teaching… being an educator is a calling… and if you do not know what this means then get off the bus now! You are not going to become a wealthy yacht owner with two homes in the Bahamas and a Lamborghini in the driveway as a teacher. But you are going to be far, far more wealthy in who and what you are and have achieved with those who have sat at your feet and prospered. ( and NO I am not suggesting that an honest days work does not deserve and honest days wages!- this may be another debate for another day!

Our world needs dedicated teachers with dedicated support people. If you are a Principal/Headmaster/District Head, get off your rear end and support the people who are actually doing the job of teaching in the classrooms of the world. That is your job! Not to sit and enjoy the comfy office and the fancy coffee! You are a servant of those in the classroom! Not the boss!

I have said enough for now.