The idea that teachers have been lazing around during lockdown is more prevalent than we would like to think.
All the same, I was still pretty startled to hear a former secretary of state for education echo this view. In a recent letter to The Times, Lord Baker of Dorking writes that “teachers have already had too much holiday this year”.
As we teachers like to put it: I wasn’t angry; I was disappointed.
‘Holiday’ reading
It said so much, though.
If someone with his considerable intelligence, experience and educational credentials - ironically, the founder of the very national curriculum that we “holidaying” teachers have been desperately struggling to deliver since March - has that impression of teachers during lockdown, then it’s no surprise many others share that same view.
And perhaps he’s right. Perhaps it has been one long holiday for teachers - just not quite the holiday I normally have in mind.
Take my “holiday reading”, for instance.
My go-to books during lockdown have been the collected works of 8GR, 10DL, 12B, etc. I can easily lose myself for two or three hours a day in any of these collections - downloading, reading and then feeding back to the many contributors.
Though I would also strongly recommend something that “everyone’s reading at the moment” - namely our school’s recently published Covid-19 Policy Statement for the Safe Return of Year 10s and 12s.
It’s a must-read - literally - for all of us.
Relaxing over PowerPoint
At other times, I have spent the three months’ holiday just lounging and chilling out in front of my laptop.
If I’m in the mood, I might let my hair down and set another day’s worth of classwork and homework, or treat myself to some live online teaching, or explore another region of the online platform, or learn a new craft like making voiceover PowerPoint presentations.
Or if I feel like being social, I can attend an online staff meeting, phone another parent or, of course, exchange a few more emails.
Come to think of it, there’s never been a holiday quite like it.
Move over Baker days - make way for Baker holidays.
Dead badgers and afternoon strolls
This impression of teachers being on holiday arises, I think, from the fact that many people in our neighbourhoods only ever see us when we are not working, so they think that’s what it’s like all the time.
It’s a bit like assuming that all badgers are dead and lying by the side of the road.
During my days of working at home, for instance, I will sometimes be seen taking a break in the middle of the day to go for a run. I might similarly go for a short late-afternoon stroll, before then resuming work for another couple of hours.
Those particular occasions are the only times people will ever have seen me in the past three months. So I can well understand some people coming to a “There he goes again! Easy life!” conclusion.
The same goes for teachers with young children. They will often be seen taking their little ones out and about during the day.
These people then catch up at other times, often at ridiculous hours in the night.
Perceptions matter
Other teachers might sensibly do their food shopping at a quieter point in the day, saving time that way and simply increasing their work productivity. But that’s not how some people will perceive it, or choose to perceive it.
And there will be a few teachers, let’s be honest, out of over half a million, who will indeed have taken advantage of the situation and sometimes gone as mysteriously AWOL as some of our pupils.
It’s just that few of us know many - if any - colleagues who are remotely like that.
We mainly think of how professional, capable and committed our fellow teachers are today.
Indeed, in his establishment of training days, Lord Baker should take quite a bit of credit himself for helping this to be the case.
It’s a shame he doesn’t see it like that.
Stephen Petty is head of humanities at Lord Williams’s School in Thame, Oxfordshire
