In our country, Christmas is the greatest time of celebration in the calendar year; it is a celebration of light. Maybe, this year, we could take a moment to celebrate the work of our profession, of our professionals; to celebrate the light that they bring into young lives.

There remains a stereotypical picture of teachers as, in George Bernard Shaw’s famous line, from almost 120 years ago, “… those that can’t.” The popular perception, amplified by Thatcherism, perpetuated by right-wing tabloids, personified by Michael Gove, appears, at times, to be that teachers are incompetent malingerers who need to stop moaning; that many are incapable and need to be rooted out of the profession. But there is another perspective, a perspective that values the work that teachers do.

True, unlike medical professionals, teachers rarely have people’s physical lives in their hands - instead, they have mental and emotional lives in their hands, on a daily basis.

It is true; unlike firefighters, the police or the military, teachers are rarely called upon to put their own lives in danger. Here my thoughts turn to the family of Philip Lawrence; to the secondary school teachers who police the roads, at home time, within communities that are infected by gang-related crime.

True; unlike judges or politicians, teachers rarely have the opportunity to personally contribute to changing history - they do, however, contribute to changing personal histories, every working day of their lives;

It is true; unlike scientists or engineers, teachers rarely have the chance to discover something life-changing for future generations. Although they are busy shaping the people who are all of our futures. They are also the ones who, most likely, sowed the seeds that have grown into the groundbreaking, prize-winning pioneers.

True; unlike athletes, entertainers or artists, they rarely take people out of their own worlds, to another place, amid the uplifting, chanting, cheering or singing within a stadium or muddy field, or amid the reverential calm and awe of an art gallery. Teachers do, nevertheless, take children and parents on journeys into their own worlds, into transcendental, or imaginary, spheres, through whole-school singing assemblies, Christmas shows or nativities, dance and drama performances, or through telling a simple story to a carpet-full of wide-eyed children.

It makes me smile when people say, “God, why on earth would you want to teach?” I think to myself, “God, why on earth wouldn’t I want to teach? Is there any other job that has the potential to be as interesting, as creative, as rewarding and as challenging as this one?”

The fact is that teaching must be one of the most complex, stimulating and difficult, jobs of all. It’s a job that requires one to attend to 30 pupils’ individual needs before a lesson can even commence; to attend to injuries - both of the emotional and physical varieties; to attend to the upsets, defeats, affronts, that invariably accompany a returning class following a break-time; to attend to the hunger of a child who has not eaten breakfast, the thirst of a child who has been charging around the playground like a blue-arsed fly (while neglecting to take the opportunity, that playtime provides, of grabbing a mouthful from the water fountain). Learning cannot really occur until these hurdles have been overcome.

Teaching is a job that requires the listening skills of a psychoanalyst - the skills to hear what lies underneath, to fathom what this is all about; it needs the skills to attend fully, with all one’s attention, not listening to the words themselves but to the feelings behind them.

Teaching is a job that requires the deep subject knowledge of a participant on Mastermind - the knowledge of a curriculum area on so many different levels. In the case of secondary school teachers, it needs the knowledge of a subject from 11-year-old to A level. For many, it requires the knowledge of more than one specialised subject, and in the case of primary school teachers, the knowledge of almost a dozen subject curriculums.

Teaching requires the knowledge of what comes before and what comes after, so that effective learning interventions can be, creatively, planned and implemented - interventions that may enable incremental steps to be taken or light bulbs to be ignited. This is the type of knowledge that sport’s coaches acquire - a meticulous knowledge, that comes from breaking a skill down into its tiniest components, so that, in the words of Sir David Brailsford (possibly the most successful sports coach of all), an  “accumulation of marginal gains” can be made.

Performance-driven culture

Teaching is a job that requires the skills of the analyst, in order to ascertain what went wrong - from all the evidence available, whether it be from a score in a test or from a comment, in response to a question - because we learn more from children’s mistakes than their successes. It requires the skill to extract the right information from the mass of data provided, to acknowledge the limitations inherent in any information. to interpret it correctly and to use the analysis in the most effective manner.

It’s a job that requires the presentation skills of an inspirational leader; I challenge anyone to go into a Reception or Year 1 classroom and hold the attention of 30 pupils, to have them, at times, like putty, in your hands. In fact, I challenge anybody to go into any classroom, anywhere in the country, and hold the audience as effectively as teachers do, every day of the week.

Teaching is a job that requires the negotiating skills of a United Nations diplomat, of a chairperson on a truth and reconciliation commission; the skills to guarantee that both sides have been heard, that both sides have an understanding of what pain the other has felt, the skills to ensure that reconciliation is given a chance.

The difficulty for teachers is not in how challenging the job is - teachers are incredibly bright, creative, conscientious and resilient. The problem is that the job takes place within a performance-driven culture that demands so much, that ultimately disconnects teachers from what they know to be true. That is what threatens to make the job untenable, unsustainable.

Christmas is a time of giving. If I could offer one gift, to every teacher in the land, this festive period, it would be the encouragement to devote time to themselves, each and every day of the holiday, time to recuperate, to relax; time to pamper themselves, whether it be under a duvet, in front of the TV munching a box of Maltesers, or relaxing in a jacuzzi on a spa day out.

I would give encouragement to reconnect, each and every day, to something that they love but that has been pushed out by the demands of the job: reading a novel, watching a boxset, sitting by a fire in a pub with people they love, playing an instrument, writing, feeling the sun on their face, walking through a forest, climbing a mountain, playing a board game in front of the fire, listening to a favourite playlist. It doesn’t matter what it is, it will be different for each of us. The point is to take time to reconnect with what is important, what is valued by oneself.

Christmas is a celebration of light. Let’s take the opportunity to shine a light on the incredible work that teachers do. Let’s take the opportunity to encourage them to shine a light on themselves so that they are able to attend to what may have been lost.

David Jones is a pseudonym. He is a primary headteacher in the South West

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