School

Dear friends,

Do you know how long this post has been in the works? I have been thinking about writing it since like season 3, maybe 4. Whatever, it has now come time for me to finally get around to it. As for some strange reason I kept on thinking it would be better at this time, or at this time. As I sit in an empty classroom, I can think of no better time to talk about school.

The main reason why I wanted to write this post is, I now work within the school system. Which I hope by now is common knowledge. As this term I am looking at time as a concept, and looking at school seems appropriate. Also, me using words like term might also been a giveaway. As now I work within the school system, most people I talk to for some reason or other have strange feelings about. I enjoy my job very much, but most of the time I can’t help but reflect on my own time at school.

It may not only be due to the fact a lot of my work to get into education, had a direct correlation with my own education. Wither it was, doing my primary placement in my old primary school. Which to say it was a very surreal experience. As I hadn’t been there since I was 12, and realising how small everything was, or how it looks almost the same. What was even more surreal is how I was the person of authority, not the little kid.

Second being I did a small fraction of my training at school I tried so hard to get into, and a few of my friends went to. Even though, this was small experience it made realise, if I went their I would have been a whole different person. Or maybe, it was getting invited to do an interview at your old headmistress’ new school. The from the minute I walked in, I got all the flashbacks; as she is still the same person. With all of this going on, you can’t help but think about it.

It makes me think about my education experience, as those were all important blocks of making me who I was. Now of course there was nothing wrong with that. In any other universe I might not have done anything of these things and I would be a different person. However, as some who like to reflect on the past, it does  allow me to give and gain some perspective of what I should have been doing when I was at school. As we all know hindsight is 20/20 and we can’t change the past.

Now a lot of people react differently when I tell them I work in education. Some people are not surprised at all, and some people just look at me and think, why? One person said my job is their idea of hell. I like to think they meant it as a joke, but to me it was a little insulting. As what I do is to them,  is what they’d hate to do for eternity, is my every day. Sure there are a lot of jobs out there I couldn’t see myself doing, but it wouldn’t be hellish to me. I give props to the people who do them. While I also think, someone has to that job. It’s not like I have been forced to do it, I chose to do it. I think I know where a lot of people are getting the wrong idea, media and memories.

In a lot of the cases of the people I speak to about working in schools, they seem to remember some of the more dramatic things first. They remember making teachers cry, and fights happening everywhere. Or some remember not doing so well in one lesson, or hating a particular subject(s). Now all of that is true, but I think we remember them more because it was exciting, or interesting. When in my experience, and lot of the people I have spoken too, it has been far and few in between. I have been in education now coming up for years, and in that time I’ve seen two fights at two different schools. I’ve seen many teachers cry, with only one or two due to students, and generally a lot of kids just getting on with their every day.

When I think back considering getting into teaching, I thought about all those things, and I wondered can I do this? In reality I can, I have, and it’s nothing I worry too much about any more. When I was considering it, like most I thinking about the more eventful times, and thinking it will be my everyday experience. When actually, most days it can be a very pleasant experience. I will say, that is for me. Not everyone can have the same experience, but from what I know and asked around, when it becomes too much they won’t do it anymore. We’ve got to remember this is a choice, not something you’re forced to do.

Speaking of things I can’t force, is making students do work. As much as I would like to say I did all my work at the time, I know I didn’t. Which now I know, was pretty much my fault. I can’t blame anyone other than me. Of course, having dyslexia didn’t help, but when I do put in the effort, it usually works out. Which is something I have to keep telling these kids. Becuase if I would have done a little better I might have gone further. Which I’m going to guess, I had someone tell me, but maybe not to me as much as I was pretty smart. It’s just maybe if I tried harder, maybe things could have happened sooner. Which is why I am happy with at least a few lines of wring in a book, rather than a blank page.

School was this amalgamation of fun times, and a place you had to go every day. Now school is something complete different for me. It’s something I think about daily. I remember all the good times and not the so good times. It’s crazy how we used to hate going to school. Now I go every day and enjoy it. Well, one part of it, I’m not such a big fan of the paper work. For now, it’s feel right for me to there, and when it doesnt that’s when I’ll call it quits. Will I be like my ex-headmistress and still going 20 years later? Who knows let’s see what life has in store of me.

Xo FabEs

P.S. when think I will never get used to, is walking in classroom’s and corridors and smelling that stink of BO and cheap body spray. I really should teach hygiene.