Five Ways to Kill a Teacher

The intention of writing this series of blogs is to show ways that the education system is inadvertently 'killing' teachers.

Educators do excellent work in the development of the social-economic conditions in which we collectively live. They should be fully supported and have their experiences included in the ongoing discussions that inform the necessary changes to the system.

Each of these stories - based on my personal experience - has a few suggestions for developing the education system to better support teachers.

Some of these suggestions are already in place in certain countries or certain types of school. 

We can all learn from each other.

The Author

Martin Richards has taught Mathematics to teenagers and English to adults for thirty years.

​He is now a certified Life Coach and has recently completed an assignment from the Swedish Education Authority where he coached Primary and Secondary teachers and
headteachers.

Martin’s Life Mission is to develop the potential of the Education System to its fullest.

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The stories in this series of blogs focus on the different types of community that aim to educate young people.:

• Hierarchical community, Teacher < Headteacher < God
• Closed community based on fear, Corporal punishment still rules here
• Loving community, financially anaemic. You can do it your way but you won’t get paid for it
• Alternative community, Desperate for solutions. We don’t know how it should be done but we will pay you to do it
• Education community, financially driven. High expectations, no resources

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Hierarchical community 
- Teacher < Headteacher < God

I took my first employment as a teacher at a school that was run by a religious order. Not a strange sect, a very common religious order. The Catholic church.

The headteacher of the Catholic school considered himself to be in direct contact with God. It was a natural part of his other role in life to hear confessions and give sermons.

​At this Catholic school, there was a pecking order amongst the teachers, based on service longevity. The teachers who had been working at the school the longest had more power than the ones who were new. I was very new and I was not willing to take my lowly place in the hierarchical scheme of things.

I had just graduated from University where I had learned for four years how to teach and was now the lowest amongst teachers who had been teaching for 30 years with no academic backing for how they taught. 

It was depressing to work in that rigid hierarchy that excluded modern thinking about pedagogy and curriculum. 

​Note: the hierarchy may well have had nothing to do with their religious beliefs. 

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SUGGESTIONS

• Flatten the hierarchy
• Move towards a servant-leadership style
• Include new teachers as a source of inspiration for the whole school community
• Create a space where new and established ideas are welcomed and respected