How can you raise kids that are in good health when you don't see the lies that you're selling to yourself? 

 

I got into to teaching to make a difference,

To add some joy to a kids existence,

I knew, so well, the hurt and pain 

That kids in secondary school sustain 

The tears and the fears and the dread and the...

"Ahahahaha! Look at his Nicks!! He thinks he's got Nikes but he's wearing Nicks!"

And how it switches you off and makes you not care,

Because you just don't want to go back there.

So, you wander into town to HMV

Til your parents feel let down when you only got an E

Until you failed Art and Graphics and Literacy

But at least you got an A in history...

Because academic subjects are "more important"

 

How can you raise kids that are in good health when you don't see the lies that you're selling to yourself? 

 

So I left 6th form and I needed change

And wanted to go to somewhere strange

(And new)

Somewhere away from all the drama

At 19 I went by myself to Ghana

"God bless our homeland Ghana

And make our nation great and strong,

Vow to defend forever

The cause of Freedom and of Right"

And I taught

Maths and English

With no books

And no training

And no observing

And I was rubbish at it... Really bad

But somehow, i felt the change

Just because I cared and they cared

 

How can you raise kids that are in good health when you don't see the lies that you're selling to yourself? 

 

A few years later I started teachin.

GTP, hands on, straight in.

My teaching mentor was called Mr Hickey,

He smoked a pipe and drank down whiskey

 (In school)

My first proper job was Bradford inner city 

It was a bit rough and the buildin was shitty

There we had a guy who was a lazy old fart

And he had kids tracing instead of learning Art

When I first got there I was overwrought 

These weren't like the training lessons that I taught

These kids had opinions. They needed to engage...

To be taught in a way that suited kids of their age

I nearly gave up, because I felt so scared

But at the end of the day, I knew that I still cared

 

How can you raise kids that are in good health when you don't see the lies that you're selling to yourself? 

 

In my 3rd year I had this year 11 class

They wanted a good lesson and they wanted to pass

But they needed convincing and I nearly cried

So I tried and I tried and I tried and I tried

To listen 

And react

To change

And Adapt

And those kids made me better

And for 3 years I got better

Our grades were sky high 

The kids wanted to try

They wanted learn, they wanted to know "why"

But I got to the top and I needed to fly

Because I needed somewhere that I could ask the "why"

 

How can you raise kids that are in good health when you don't see the lies that you're selling to yourself? 

 

You have those moments sometimes in life, where you know that a decision is important, but you don't know why and you don't know which way is the right way to go with it. This was that point for me. Sat in the interview, saying I wanted to pull out but letting them convince me to stay. That was the point, I think where everything changed.

 

2010. New job. New government.

 

How can you raise kids that are in good health when you don't see the lies that you're selling to yourself? 

 

I was head of Art and I got noticed

Within a year I got promoted

Faculty leader of creative skills

This is the part where it really kills

What do you do when you just aren't wanted

When people are angry that you're there

When all of your decisions seem to be haunted

By the ghost of a culture where they just don't care

Where nastiness and gossip always bite

Resting in the coffin of a lost tradition

Kids so bored they're turning white

Beaten down to bored submission 

And everyone seems to have given up the fight

But they're still convinced that their way's "right"

 

How can you raise kids that are in good health when you don't see the lies that you're selling to yourself? 

 

After so much pain, we were getting through it

We realised there was much more to it

No more easy working out of booklets

(The teaching equivalent of rhyming couplets)

But every time you made a shift 

The goal posts seemed to start to drift

And this all caused a further rift

The final one I couldn't lift

 

How can you raise kids that are in good health when you don't see the lies that you're selling to yourself? 

 

Gossip and lies caused by others stress

Creates a catastrophic mess

Turns people's lives upside down

Gives off the sense that they're a clown

They're trying. They're just really down 

Simply trying not to drown

Marriage ending

Friends unfriending 

Children's lives are slowly bending

House and finance are up-ending

Mediation sessions need attending

Everything seems to need mending

And the pain seems to be never-ending 

 

How can you raise kids that are in good health when you don't see the lies that you're selling to yourself? 

 

Professional life vs Personal life

Professional strife = Personal strife

Personal wife goes through professional strife

Personal strife =

 

"I understand what you're going through, but we need to think about the learners."

 

Stress in teaching is the expectation

Work life balance has no correlation 

The pressures of a confused nation

Makes teachers into the poor relation

 

Goodbye btec, goodbye vocation

Hello Gove and his minds creation

Goodbye Gove and hello Morgan

Hiding behind a gritty slogan

Creating the pressure of pointless change 

For teachers to correct and rearrange

 

How can you raise kids that are in good health when you don't see the lies that you're selling to yourself? 

 

But here's the thing. It's not their fault.

Sure, they've no idea MPs

They've less common sense than a piece of cheese

But all MPs really do is set

Some criteria that need to be met

A league table

Academies

Appraisal 

Curriculums 

It's nothing new. They've always done it

But it's given to schools to interpret 

We don't lose money, we just get judged

We need conviction that can't be budged

We need to get a message out 

To every parent, round about

And what this message needs to say 

Is "we aren't doing extra maths today,

We're going to go outside and play

Because whatever MPs say

We'll do what's right for the kids 

And here's why it's right you know

Cause we want to see your children grow

We're not just for levels, grades, progress

We're also here to relieve stress

We're also here to make your child feel 

That happiness is something real

That in spite of all the crap you see

You can become head of art when you failed gcse."

Learn People skills

Determination

Creativity

Imagination

Honesty

Integrity

Sensitivity

And empathy

It's not an easy sell I know

You can't measure how people grow

You can't report or give a grade

But they're qualities that are heaven made

And maybe think the same for teachers

We're all very caring creatures

We care about how kids are raised

We don't need to be constantly appraised

Default 100%?!?

Like energy is heaven sent

Like when your kids are down with flu

You just man up, there's work to do

When you've got a quality person who just needs backing

Why give pressure and then threaten with sacking?

 

How can you raise kids that are in good health when you don't see the lies that you're selling to yourself? 

 

School - this week mark all your books

I need them up to date so I can look

 

Teacher - I've got to take my daughter swimming

I've got to see my son try winning

 

School - read through your teaching standards mate

And leave your children at the gate 

 

End of the week the books are done 

But head and deputies are overrun

"We'll have to put these books aside

To push our children down the slide"

 

And good for them. They work really hard. It's not a job to take lightly and they deserve to be there. But they don't have the time to step back and think "big picture"

 

Let's flip it round and just imagine

 

Teacher - I'm sorry, I'm afraid I'm ill

School - you can't be ill the learners will fail

Teacher - I need some patience, I need some time

School - the kids need work which is sublime

Don't they deserve that? Don't you think?

Do you really want your learners to sink?

 

And there it is. The teacher guilt.

Because that's the way that we've been built

We care too much

We try too much

We give too much

We work too much

And we lose too much

We get ideas above our station 

About how this job is a vocation

When we stop and look around

The evidence just can't be found

Someone tells me what to teach

Someone tells me how to teach it

Someone tells me how to plan

Someone tells me when to plan it

Someone tells me how to mark

Someone tells me when to mark it 

We work to targets, get appraised 

Residuals to get profiles raised

It's industry. I rest my case.

 

How can you raise kids that are in good health when you don't see the lies that you're selling to yourself? 

 

Or, put it another way. 

 

I just think that teaching has lost all its common sense. And it's kindness. It behaves like an industry which is about getting results and meeting targets. There's nothing that measures people's happiness or how deeply moved or affected someone is by what they've learned. It just checks that they learned it. And we are given this guilt trip. That it's about children and that we are affecting their lives if we don't meet targets. We give up more and more because "teaching is a vocation"  "it's about kids", and yet schools use cover supervisors, cut subjects, limit choices etc to save money and get results. So the profession behaves like an industry but the teachers have to give their lives to it like its a vocation. It's not a vocation. At all. It's a job.

 

How can you raise kids that are in good health when you don't see the lies that you're selling to yourself?