Holidays

Okay, so I never got round to posting my second part of review of the year. Basically, it was frantic with nice bits and bad bits and generally ok. There. Done. Now back to 2011.

And it's the holidays! What, again? I must admit, I can't say I've noticed. Teaching is like one big long holiday after all.

I was informed (admittedly, as a joke, or so I hope) by a friend recently that because of the length of my holiday I would have no right to make any sort of complaint about the difficulty of work upon my return. But he wasn't being overly funny when he said it.

And he couldn't be more right.

What possible cause would I have to let off any sort of steam at, say, taking care of thirty young children for 6 hours a day, usually without any help? After all, parents have often been keen to point out that looking after one child is quite easy, with two or three or even more also being quite a stroll. Thirty is only about 27 more than the average parent has, so it can't be hard. I mean, if you had 3 pence, then got 27 more, it wouldn't make a big difference to your life savings, right? Right.

And it is cheeky in the extreme that teachers suggest that being responsible for these children's education is in any way a pressure. It's not like they get inspected, or assessed by the local authority or anything. It's not like teachers are held responsible for every mark or level their children do or not achieve. Maybe if we lived in a world where schools and their staff were judged by an organisation that could shut a school down, remove lots of its staff, or brand it 'inadequate' based on test results, teachers would have a case. But what would you even call an organisation like that? Ofsted? Don't be silly!

Even if teachers did have any sort of pressure, the holidays do of course make everything right. With 13 weeks a year only a fool would fail to see that having 13 weeks out of 52 out of the classroom means that anything that happens in the other 39 must be just lovely.

I really ought to have considered this last month as I filled in a mental health assessment for an 8 year-old child. Being a weak-minded character (no doubt brought on by the easy nature of the job I do), I found the prospect of a child having severe learning difficulties, schizophrenia and an unsupportive family vaguely upsetting, particularly after a day of being the listening ear to all sort of trivial worries from the other children, such as how to read, write and count. I was even soft enough to feel some emotion towards the girl who missed her dead sister, and the boy who had witnessed some domestic violence on the eve of the birth of his sibling. Obviously I should have just thought about how everything was fine because ultimately I'd have 13 weeks to forget about all this stress. And we do. The idea that teachers give their pupils any thought outside the school term is ludicrous. To express any sort of feeling about such small matters is churlish.

It's true that we should show more humility for our time off. Teachers do, of course, have a reputation for winding up everyone else by bragging endlessly about their holidays. Just the other day I walked into the local coffee shop and, upon looking at the business hours listed on the door, announced casually to the barista that I envied him his 5pm finish. A cosy little shop with coffee and pastries on demand, I thought to myself. Cushy indeed.

"But I have to get up at 4.30am to prepare the bakery and open at 6.45am," he said.
"Piffle," I replied. "You have those precious evening hours."

Teachers, unlike all other workers, have genuine time off in those 13 weeks. When was the last time you heard a teacher say they were spending any of their holiday marking books? What do you mean you haven't asked? What do you mean you don't know any teachers? Obviously that can't be the case or you wouldn't be so qualified to speak about how nice their job is. What's that? You know because you remember being at school? Well yes, that is the exact same thing. I too remember my teacher arriving at the same time as me in the mornings, setting up the classroom while also doing the register, preparing all the resources on the spot without even leaving the room, and then going home with us at 3.15pm, while the books- and the 270 or so pieces of work we created each day marked themselves. There were no meetings I was aware of; no forms to fill in.

These teachers who claim to have marking and planning to do in their spare time are simply fabricating. It's all a big con to try and justify their nice holidays while the rest of the population actually do some work. We should be ashamed of ourselves and the way we believe nobody else works hard or deserves more holiday. Any member of the profession who claims not to have time to read books or live their life is obviously plain disorganised- yes, even that 59 year-old teacher with the excellent record and reputation. Just doesn't know how to use her time- a disgrace.

We are sinners and should know our place. Thank goodness we've got 13 weeks a year to reflect on the easy, morally questionable lives we lead.