Back to the Old School 5

The Ranting Teacher Five Year Retrospective

So here it is, my fifth blog entry for today, to mark Ranting Teacher’s fifth birthday. If you’ve just arrived now, it would probably make more sense to start back down there at the first entry of the day. But, please, that’s just a suggestion; after all, it’s the weekend, it’s my birthday, and I’d like us all to just relax and enjoy… if you can actually enjoy a good moan, that is. Well, I know I can.

Anyhow, I’ve been taking a peek back at my younger self to see what was getting my goat around this time five years ago; what drove me to commit my thoughts to cyberspace before I got committed myself…

Perhaps shockingly to some, but perfectly understandable to others, my work colleagues could sometimes really piss me off. Perhaps I’ve saved this topic until last because it’s the most important factor in why schools fall apart and don’t do as well as they could. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link… and it’s sad to say that there are quite a few weak links in schools and the education system as a whole. My thoughts on this haven’t really changed, and what I think I fear the most is that I will slip into the easy existence of a bone-idle incompetent teacher – and I’ve met a few of these. The more I see those around me - and allegedly in charge of me - cutting corners and screwing up, the more I worry that their bad influence is rubbing off on me.

Five years ago, I wrote about other teachers annoying me by leaving pathetic cover lessons when I was the teacher filling in for them, including the ubiquitous wordsearch, which still annoys me to this day. Then there were the times that somebody else was in my classroom and I would dread walking back in there afterwards, knowing I would be confronted with sweet wrappers, used tissues all over the place, and wrecked wall displays. Since then, I have witnessed many more instances of incompetence, laziness, and double standards. And maybe soon it will be time to spill some more beans on some of the worst offenders I’ve had the displeasure to work with over the past few years...