ADDRESS TO LEAVING TEACHERS 2008
Once again we find ourselves in the sad position of saying goodbye to friends and colleagues who have given loyal and dedicated service to the Lancaster Community, some over a period of many years. They will take the Lancaster School with them in their hearts, just as they leave a part of themselves woven into the fabric of this community.
However far away you are, and in whatever circumstances you find yourselves, remember everything that you have learned from this experience and stay true the principles and values that make teaching a noble profession and not just a job, as described here by Andy Hargreaves and Michael Fullan[1]:
Teaching ... is charged with emotion – positively and negatively. It is a passionate vocation. Good teachers are not just well-oiled machines. Computers can never replace them. They are emotional, passionate beings who fill their work and their classes with pleasure, creativity, challenge and joy. Good teachers are passionate about their ideas and field of knowledge; about social issues, locally and worldwide; and about the children and youth they seek to inspire. Being passionate does not mean blindly loving all pupils – some are hard to love on given days. But passionate and caring teachers are more likely to set the right course, to stay with it when the going gets rough, and to avoid a “permanent fog of fatigue, ritual, routine or resignation”. They are more likely to go deeper.
[But] more then anything else, more than expectations, passionate engagement or standards, teaching is about hope. Every child is one teacher’s hope for the future. The bigger the child’s problem, the greater the teacher’s hope. Hope matters most for those children who least seem to warrant it. The best definition of hope is “unwarranted optimism”. There is no advantage to being hopeful when the conditions warrant it. Hope’s real value is when the conditions are not hopeful. Hope should never disappear.
And finally, from John MacBeath’s book Schools Must Speak for Themselves[2], a definition of a good teacher from a group of 13 year olds:
The Good Teacher
Is kind
Is generous
Listens to you
Encourages you
Has faith in you
Keeps confidences
Likes teaching children
Likes teaching their subject
Helps you like their subject
Takes time to explain things
Helps you when you’re stuck
Tells you how you are doing
Allows you to have your say
Makes sure you understand
Helps people who are slow
Doesn’t give up on you
Cares for your opinion
Makes you feel clever
Treats people equally
Stands up for you
Makes allowances
Tells the truth
Is forgiving