I knew my days were numbered at my last school when we were banned from using the F word. Even in informal conversations in the staff room, we would be corrected and brought into line. It wasn’t consistent with school policy. It didn’t project the right image of what we were about.
I was sharing with colleagues a breakthrough I’d had when teaching short division to some very reluctant year 4 mathematicians:
“I found a great way to teach the bus stop method. It was really good fun”
“Ahem, Helen… the children enjoyed their learning…”
I understood the point that was being made. The focus needed to be on learning at all times.
Of course. That’s what we were there for.
But what’s so wrong with having fun whilst learning? Literally banning us from using the word fun was not only patronising and demoralising. It was also, in my view, fundamentally denying us a basic and universal human need.
We are all motivated by different things: money, status, power, progression…. To my mind, having fun is one most motivating factors of all. Surely all of us want to have fun in whatever we are doing. Being able to find humour and enjoyment in any task is a real gift. I’d rank having fun at work higher in priority than having a six figure salary.
The fun in primary education is fundamental to inspire and engage children, to help them develop interests and curiosity and a thirst for learning. This will sustain them through the rest of their educational journey, even when things get tough in Key Stage 3 and 4. What is more, there is a wealth of evidence to suggest that children perform best when they are enjoying what they are doing. In short, fun gets results.
I didn’t leave teaching because I fell out of love with teaching. I left teaching because I grew to loathe the education system. The school decision to ban the F word was just one tiny symptom of a much larger problem. I’ll always love teaching. I am a teacher - a very good one in fact - but I couldn’t tolerate working in a system that was so broken and so out of kilter with children’s real experience of the world.
I was lucky. Because I went into teaching later in life, I’d already built up a successful career doing a number of other things (friends remind me I should call it a portfolio career rather than describing myself as doing a load of different things that are hard to explain). Anyway, I was fortunate that I had other things to go back to. I’d always kept up my freelance practice and I’d always known I would ramp it back up when my own children had grown up.
So, I was luckier than many of the people who are leaving teaching in their droves and have to find entirely new careers. But fortunately there’s a whole industry emerging to support teachers who are leaving the profession and it’s great that there’s such a positive message about life after teaching.
But where does this leave the education system? No less broken but now also suffering the loss of much of its richest resource: its experienced and highly skilled teachers. All that knowledge and pedagogical know-how is lost.
I don’t have a solution to the problem. But I do think that there’s a lot to be learned from teachers who are walking away from a profession that they love because they can no longer tolerate the system. If only someone could spare the time to find out their opinions…
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