Wouldn’t it be nice if once a year every teacher had to take a little time to think about what they had achieved in the previous twelve months. Did it tally with what we wanted to achieve? Did we have any objective in mind?

We become so swamped by the day-to-day issues we rarely (if ever) take a step back to reflect on why we first entered teaching. What happened those great aspirations we had when we first walked into a classroom?

I’ve been thinking about this because this is my tenth year as a full-time teacher, and I need to take stock of what I’m doing.

For me teaching is not about handing out facts and figures to be ‘learned off’. It is (or should be) about enabling the students to become independant learners; to encourage them to think for themselves, not only in science but in their day-to-day lives; to question everything.
For me one of the greatest isssues is: To what extent is our high standard of living based on the exploitation of the Third World? I feel very strongly that it is a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’, and that’s just not good enough.

So what have I done  about it?

Nothing
“All it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing.”
 – Edmund Burke