Speak of your teaching practice.

 

I. THE TEACHER

& Reading 1

 

And Gladly Teach

September, 7

Dear Ellen,

It’s a far cry from our dorm in Lyons Hall (Was it only four years ago? ), a far cry from Chaucer and a far cry from Professor Winters’ lectures on “The Psychology of the Adolescent”. I have met the Adolescent face to face; obviously, Professor Winters had not.

You seem to have done better with your education than I. While you are walking with your baby or taking a shower in the middle of the third period, I am automatically rubbing out obscene words from the blackboard.

What I really had in mind was to do a little teaching “and gladly wolde he lerne, and gladly teche” — like Chaucer’s Clerke of Oxenford, I had come eager to share all I know and feel; to imbue the young with a love for their language and literature; to instruct and to inspire. What happened in real life was something else again, and even if I could describe it, you would not believe me.

But it’s the truth.

In homeroom they went after me with all their ammunition: whistling, shouting, drumming on desks — all this with an air of innocence, while I stood there, asking for attention, my eyes on all 46 at once.

By the time I got to my subject classes, I began to feel lost under a mass of papers — directives, circulars, letters, notices, forms, blanks, records. It was especially difficult because I am what’s known as a “floater” — I float from room to room.

There’s a whole vocabulary to be learned. My 3rd termers are “special-slows”; my 5th termers are “low-normal” and “average-normal”. So far, it’s hard to tell which is which, or who I am, for that matter.

I made one friend and one enemy. And I saw hate and contempt on the face of a boy — because I am a teacher.

The building itself is hostile: broken windows, gloomy corridors and an auditorium, which has no windows. That’s where we had an assembly this morning. Picture it: the air heavy with hundreds of bodies, the principal’s microphone-voice crackling with sudden static: “...a new page; for here at Calvin College we are all free and equal, with the same golden opportunity...” The students are silent in their seats. The silence has nothing to do with attention; it’s a silence, ready to be broken at a moment.

The teachers stand in the passages: a hen-like little woman with a worried profile; a tall young man with amused eyebrows; a round lady — my colleagues, as yet unknown.

“...precious than rubies. Education means...” — he’s obviously winding up for a finish — “...and if you have any problems, remember my door is always open.” Significant pause. “And so, with this thought in mind, I hope you will show the proper school spirit, one and all.”

Released at last they burst, and I with them, into the hall.

“Where is your pass? ” says the elevator man gloomily.” “Have you got an elevator pass? ” “I’m a teacher, ” I say silly, as if caught in a lie. For only teachers, and students with a serious disability, may ride in the elevators. Looking young has certain disadvantages here; if I were a man, I’d grow a mustache. Or better still — a beard.

This morning, the students standing on the street in front of the school parted to let me pass — the girls, their faces either pale or masked with make-up; the boys looking at me with interest.

“Hey — eeah! ” the two-note whistle of insolent admiration followed me inside.

It seems to me kids were different when I was in high school. But the smell was the same unmistakable school smell.

I joined the other teachers on line at the time clock, and gratefully found my card. I was expected: Someone had put my number on it — 91. I punched the time on my card and put it on the shelf. I was in.

But when I had written my name on the blackboard in my room, for a moment I had a strange feeling that it wasn’t spelt right. It looked unfamiliar — white and drowning in that hard black sea.

I am writing this during my lunch period, because I need to reach towards the outside world of sanity, because I am overwhelmed by the clerical work still to be done, and because at this hour of the morning normal ladies are still sleeping.

We have to punch.

(From Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman)

 

4 Do the following exercises

Ex.1. Explain or paraphrase the following:

To imbue, termer, adolescent, special slows, high school, floater, ammunition, clerical work, the outside world of sanity, to release, to punch, insolent.

Ex. 2.Confirm or refute the following statements:

1. The lectures of Professor Winters were far from real life. 2. The pupils met the young teacher with hostility. 3. She had a lot of clerical work to do. 4. The young teacher had noble ideas and intentions in mind when she came to Calvin College.

Ex. 3. Discuss the text answering the following questions:

1. Who is the author of the letter? 2. Who is the letter addressed to? 3. Did the young teacher find Professor Winters’ lectures on psychology useful? Did lectures on psychology and pedagogics come in handy to you during your teaching practice? 4. Do you agree that Ellen has done better with her education than the author of the letter? 5. What did the young teacher have in mind when she came to work to school? 6. Was it easy to realize her noble intentions at Calvin College? 7. What difficulties did she come across? 8. Why did she think that it was a disadvantage to look young? Do you also think that to look young is a disadvantage for a teacher? 9. Do you think that a teacher has too many duties to perform?

 

& Reading 2

WHO ARE WE?

In an attempt to lure more people into the teaching profession, the Government has launched a TV commercial in which celebrities, including the Prime Minister, recall a particular schoolteacher who influenced their lives. While the prospect of getting credit from famous alumni may appeal to the next generation of teachers, this is not the only instinct, which drives people into the profession. Why do they really do it?

(1) The missionary

As Tony Blair would be the first to point out, teaching always attracts some idealists and philanthropists, drawn to the “caring” and “giving” side of the job. In a secular age teaching appeals to those who, in a previous life, might have been evangelists or missionaries, committed to the guidance of lost souls and the development of buried talents. Missionary-teachers, however, are not always ego-free — what could be more appealing to the ego than eventually being acknowledged and credited by someone who succeeds? It is this peculiar marriage of altruism and egotism, which informs the Government’s current advertisement, reflecting perhaps the pious yet ambitious PM who endorsed it.

(2) The exhibitionist

Teachers are given a ready-made, regular audience. As such, the profession will always attract second-rate comedians and frustrated thespians. The OED describes the “ham actor” as “an inexpert or ineffective performer “who rants and overacts” — a description applicable to at least one teacher in almost every school. One of my former pupils is a professional stand-up comic, working as Rory Bremner’s warm-up man. He told me recently that, as his teacher in the sixth form, I had been his “inspiration”. He admitted, though, that this inspiration took a rather negative form — for he recognized that his own efforts at stagey humour could not possibly be worse than mine.

(3) The fascist

Teaching is always likely to attract someone fascinated by power and the exercise of authority. For those with authoritarian leanings, the prospect of regimenting hundreds of impressionable youths into uniform procedures appeals.

This aspect of the profession has been diminished by the demise of corporal punishment in schools; nevertheless, there are still ample opportunities for punitive activity and disciplinarian tactics. A pupil who left a neighbouring school last year described his schooldays as “institutional humiliation”. But this would have required a very high quota of fascist-teachers in one school, which, while common up to the 1970s, would be unusual today. He must have been very unlucky.

(4) The bureaucrat

During the last few years, schools have become remarkably complex in their administration — making them fertile territory for those with pen-pushing, mandarin-esque instincts. There are endless opportunities for producing and reproducing pieces of paper, which make no sense. Accordingly, the number of internal jobs requiring some interest in administration, or “management” has grown - with financial reward for those who hold them. Indeed, the chances of promotion within the profession now depend on a mastery of arcane bureaucratic language and some familiarity with the enervating disciplines of “management science”. The result is that today’s ambitious ladder-climbing teacher is, in effect, a surrogate civil servant Schools, unsurprisingly, have become very dull places as a result.

 

(5) The scholar

Even in these days of GCSE and national curricula, schools still claim a link with traditional academic disciplines. Consequently, teaching may still appeal to someone who was adept at passing exams and who prospered in dusty libraries or empty archive offices. This is especially true of arts and humanities scholars, whose MAs and PhDs offer little prospect of remunerative employment.

Scholar-teachers usually face early disenchantment: the job simply does not lend itself to the reflective, hesitating approach of pure academic study. This harsh truth was discovered by a colleague who had just completed a doctoral thesis on electioneering in 18th-century England. Having started his first week of teaching practice with seminar-style discussions of Lord Grey and the 1832 Reform Act, he finished it with papier-mache models of Napoleon.

Such debauchment of academic study is quite usual, and normally severs any real interest teachers had in their specialist subject.

(6) The hearty

For those devoted to sport or outdoor activity, school teaching again offers you useful opportunities. This is particularly true in the independent sector, where extracurricular activities remain untouched by teachers’ strike action over the last 20 years. Within independent schools, one often finds teachers who are defined not by any academic subject but by an obsession with physically robust activities like soccer, rugby, trekking, mountaineering and so on.

Hearty-teachers have no cause for complaint. After all, where else could you be paid over 20.000 pounds a year for walking up Snowdon and running football teams for the under-12s?

(7) The cynic

When compiling these categories of teachers, it is easy to overlook what may be the biggest group of all, viz, those who entered teaching not out of any enthusiasm, but because other jobs looked even worse. These cynic-teachers have no real interest in their subjects, have no fondness for any extracurricular activity, are nor especially theatrical, are as familiar with bureaucracy as anyone else, and are not turned on by the exercise of power. In short, they are ordinary working people who simply want to earn a living, and can see benefits in a job with three months’ annual leave and relatively short office hours.

The happiest cynic-teachers will always be those who have tried other jobs before entering the profession. That way they can be assured that, in other jobs too, it is possible to be bored and miserable, while still working longer hours with much shorter holidays.

These seven categories are not mutually exclusive. It is quite possible, for example, to be both a scholar and an exhibitionist, or both a fascist and a hearty. But what this categorization shows, I hope, is that teaching (contra the new advertisement) is really a Profession for the Displaced. For it comprises those who should really be elsewhere – be it Voluntary Service Overseas, small-scale provincial theatre, the Prison Service, the town hall planning office, the basement of a university library, various Outward Bound centers or simply at home doing nothing. It isn’t true that those who can do and those who can’t teach. It is just that those who can teach can’t be bothered to do anything else.

4 Do the following exercises

1. Practise reading the following words:

Alumni, philanthropist, evangelist, pious, thespian, regiment, demise, corporal, punitive, quota, mandarin-esque, bureaucrat, bureaucratic, bureaucracy, arcane, surrogate, curricula, adept, archive, remunerative, papier-mache, debauchment, sever, robust

2. Give synonyms and antonyms (if possible) for the following words:

Alumni, secular, ego-free, to endorse, pious, a frustrated thespian, the exercise of authority, ample opportunities, punitive activity, arcane language, surrogate, adept, remunerative employment, disenchantment, to overlook, to rant and overact

3. Paraphrase the following:

1)the prospect of getting credit from famous alumni may appeal to the next generation of teachers; 2) committed to the guidance of lost souls and the development of buried talents; 3) with authoritarian leanings; 4) the prospect of regimenting hundreds of impressionable into uniform procedures; 5) making them fertile territory for those with pen-pushing, mandarin-esque instincts, 6) the job doesn’t lend itself to the reflective, hesitating approach of pure academic study, 7) such debauchment of academic study severs any real interest teachers have in their specialist subject; 8) independent schools; 9) GCSE; 10) cynic teachers are not turned on by the exercise of power, 11) to lure more people into the teaching profession

4. Confirm or refute the following statements:

1. Missionary teachers are selfless altruists committed to the guidance of lost souls.

2. As teachers are given a ready-made regular audience, the profession always attracts first-rate star performers.

3. At modern schools there are no opportunities for punitive activity and disciplinarian tactics.

4. Schools have become very dull places.

5. Teaching may appeal to those whose degrees offer little prospect of remunerative employment.

6. Hearty-teachers have every cause to complain, as the scope of extra curricular activities has been considerably diminished lately.

7. The cynic teachers are those who feel bored and miserable in their job.

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