I'd like to address this post to the primary school teacher I saw at London Bridge station at about 9.45am a couple of days ago, who was attempting to wrangle her class into an orderly crocodile of prearranged pairs.
Hello, 'Miss'. Congratulations on your 'teacher' voice. Wow. Piercing is just one of the words I could use to describe it. This is just a personal opinion of course, but I don't think you should shout at your group of pupils, loud enough so that the whole platform can hear, if not the majority of south-east London: 'OH YES, REBECCA IS THE ODD ONE OUT, ISN'T SHE?! SHE'S MISS WHEATLEY'S PARTNER.'
I just feel like you could mess someone up that way.
(To Rebecca: you won't always have to be partners with Miss Wheatley. Although, realistically, it is a possibility. I wouldn't want to lead you on in that respect.)
38. QUEEN ELIZABETH OLYMPIC PARK, LONDON
8 years ago
3 comments:
Public humiliation. Very much a teacher speciality.
I have a theory about teachers (as indeed about so much else). This is an informed opinion as I have ranked amongst their number since 1980/81.
Teachers are often bullies.
Teachers seem mostly to have once been children who enjoyed school but whose achievements were...modest. They long to be top-dog in school when adults. In infancy and beyond they aspired to be teacher's pets and attempted to fulfil that ambition by behaving with strict obedience to the rules. They never questioned those rules, seeking only the approbation of the staff. As staff they expect unquestioning and instant obedience and can't bear their authority to be challenged. They are rigid and humourless.
The proportion of such persons in teaching? At least 75%.
My son's supply teacher (a retired lady) apparently called them 'Ignorant Children' one afternoon.
Most of them are absolutely lovely wee things, but yes, there is the odd ignorant one (blame the parents) but Sonshine was very miffed at being called ignorant.
I did a bit of parent helping at the the primary school and nearly burst into tears when one of the class 'hard nuts' chased after me in the playground (I'd been doing a fun numerology/name/perfect career thing for Hallowe'en with them) to ask me whether I thought he could be a fireman when he grew up.
I just wanted to hug him and tell him that if he put his mind to it and worked hard instead of beating up smaller pupils, he could be pretty much anything.
Truthfully, I think he'll be a pimp or drug runner by the time he hits puberty, but it showed me that even from tiny inconsequential conversations, kids take a LOT to heart.
I didn't chase up the supply teacher's comments because Sonshine is at the, shall we say, unreliable stage in reporting what goes on in school.
Great post. I hope the teacher reads it :-D
Ali x
Poor Rebecca! While I recognise that some teachers can indeed be power-hungry, humourless and borderline sadistic, it is not true of the vast majority. Mind you, half my family are teachers, so I'm honour-bound to defend the profession.
Ali, you are wise. As my children's teacher once said to me, 'If you promise to believe only 50% of what they tell you about us, we'll promise to believe only 50% of what they tell us about you.'
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