In response to my last post, David Minton’s comment about not getting “in the way of delight” has really stuck with me. I think, if it’s ok with David, I might use this phrase somehow. It has melded in my brain with the ethos “if you can’t do good, at least do no harm”.
As a motto for teachers, it initially feels a bit negative, a bit lowest-common-denominator. But actually, as a teacher of art in a primary school, after some thought, it starts to sound pretty damn good. I have, on average, the responsibility of teaching art to 120 children between the ages of 7 and 11, every school year. I’ve been there 7 years now… actually, nearly 8. That’s…. Hang on….. That’s 330 children! (that bit of maths hurt my head, and I had to get help, because I originally thought it was 960 – shocking!) If I have sent most of them out feeling good about my subject, or at least, better than they did when I started, that’s got to be a good thing right? If I add in all the after school clubs and workshops, and subtract my own 2 children who seem to have learned nothing from me, that’s about 500 children.
If I also take into consideration that I have taught 5 groups of training teachers – 25-30 in each group – who will eventually have charge of teaching art to their own classes, it starts to get into silly numbers… even if you factor in the high percentage that may not have been hanging on my every utterance!
I think I may have my angle.
I might even write a song.
I might get the children to write a song!
(I’m still not convinced about the maths actually, but there you go!)
