Someone put a thread on the other day asking why teachers are still considered to be left wing. As you all know, I'm a bit of a rightie and gave that particular thread my usual response whilst in full fledged 'zap the lefties' mode.

However I've been thinking about some of the more attractive elements of left wing politics and I've concluded that their main fault is also their main strength and that is their romanticising of the human condition. When you are given a particularly poor class in August you don't tell yourself that only a couple of people will pass come the following spring. You might fear it will happen but you have to shove that to the back of your mind completely and convince yourself into believing that they can all do well if given enough of a push by yourself. This is the only way we cope as teachers - by always assuming the best of people, seeing the good in them and, ultimately, being able to console ourselves with the few successes we do achieve. So, in a way I guess that makes us all "soppy liberals" - but in a good way.

celticqueen:

Aldo, if you carry on like this, I may have to admit to actually liking you!

Aldo1983:

My girlfriend might have something to say about it LOL

Och, she can have you back straight after the ceremony. I just want to wear the dress.

I'm the other way.  I make a usually accurate assessment of what the likely outcomes for a certain set of pupils will be, and if some of these are seen as unfavourable, uncharitable, negative or self-fulfilling prophecies (yawn), then that's because I had decades of experience and had seen it all before.

Doing your best to help a pupil fulfil their potential doesn't mean you have to don the rose-coloured spectacles and dance hand in hand through la-la land.  The main reason pupils get poor grades at GCSE is not lack of understanding or poor teaching, it's sheer lack of effort, the expectation that being present in the room in which the lesson is being taught constitutess their side of the deal.  Understanding through osmosis.