By Christine Swan
This week, my group of trainee teachers have been planning teaching sessions based around the theme of Esafety, which fits well with another general session, delivered by colleagues, on the topic of Safeguarding. Yesterday, this was followed up with a session which focused on teacher wellbeing.
Having been in this game a long time, I amused my students with funny anecdotes and little stories about my years in the classroom and how I managed the multiple demands of the role. I believe that teaching should be a sustainable profession where it is perfectly possible to maintain a healthy balance between work and life, rather than leading to a state of early burnout through trying to meet impossible expectations.
I have come in for a fair bit of criticism in suggesting that quick hacks, not reinventing the wheel, and learning the power of “no”, are essentials. Surely, maintaining a healthy work-life balance is the top priority, isn’t it?
As the nights draw in, and the pile of jobs grows ever higher, it’s natural to feel overwhelmed. In this post, I do not intend to focus on time management for teachers, but maybe I will in another. Instead, on this occasion, I will try to explain my ways to rage against negativity, and suggest ways to bring some joy back in your life.
Social media has a lot to answer for. Bullying is a perennial problem in schools, but how much worse now that young people cannot escape the twenty four hour scrolling doomfeed of social media. An anonymous pupil once said that social media was for saying things about people that you wouldn’t say to their face. It is quite easy to see the problem if this is a prevalent attitude. Added to this is the fact that some social media accounts aren’t people at all. Bot accounts churn out their hateful, spiteful nonsense, unaffected by the damage they wreak. In the early days of the World Wide Web, chat rooms and forums were moderated by real humans and operated on a far smaller scale. Whilst modern social media claims to be moderated, the onus is put on the user to report, or to block an account, rather than to systematically remove all harmful content as soon as it appears. Besides, the problem is just too big to handle easily.
Algorithms on social media platforms draw you in. Spend any time watching a reel or reading an article, and you will see more of it. Huge organisations manage the data on their platforms. They form a profile of who you are and what you are interested in. The more you click, the more you see, the more they learn. Whilst most social media platforms are free, there genuinely is no such thing as a free lunch.
Mastodon is interesting because it sits within the connected Fediverse, but no algorithm is at play. Accounts may be suggested, along with a brief biography of their interests, but that’s it. The user is in complete control. One fan of this platform is Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who I heard explaining in a recent podcast, that the Fediverse was more aligned to his vision of how social media should be. You can see a complete scrolling timeline of posts, including the delightful #Mosstodon and #LichenSubscribe hashtags for moss and lichen enthusiasts respectively. I was also drawn in by astounding astronomical photographs that popped out of the black framed phone screen with incredible clarity. It is quirky, definitely a place where geeks are welcome and a more kindly community has thankfully prevailed. Mastodon is hosted on a large number of small, connected servers, hosted by real people, not tech billionaires. I contribute towards the upkeep of the server that hosts my account, because I feel strongly that, as Sir Tim so eloquently puts it, this really is for everyone.
Young people tend to flock to big name platforms, because that’s where their friends, celebrities and popular culture tends to sit. But the algorithm curates what they see. Unhealthy content abounds and digitally manipulated images offer a view of perfection to be aspired to.
When I was a teenager, I would have aspired to a look in a magazine, of a real human, wearing real clothes, and real makeup. I could attempt to copy it but the stomping big foot of punk culture and then the dandy new romantics, encouraged young people to be whoever they wanted, and to reject convention and criticism. It was ok to be different, unusual, and to be weird together. This attitude has become my mantra, along with the fact that beauty is everywhere and in everything, rather than some unobtainable pinnacle that I’ll never reach. Punk was dismissed by some circles as a time of scruffy, torn clothing, moody looks and questionable music, but it was so much more, it gave us the right to be different.
I do not believe that it would be that difficult for social media companies to create a smaller timeline of curated, educational, or inspirational content to enrich the lives of subscribers. Rather than moderation, this is curation. I have achieved this by using the algorithms available, clicking, reading, and spending time engaging with content that brings me joy. Consequently, I see more of it – more cats, more delightful clothes and fashion, amazing historical facts about London, gardens, interior design, and the theatre. I have ceased to follow accounts unless, over time, I have learned that their aims and values generally align with my own. I’m not a fan of direct messages, unless I know the sender well, so I don’t read or reply to them and harbour no guilt about this. We spend so long telling young people what not to do, and banning things, do we ever show them how to do it right?
A few years ago, on a platform that I no longer use, I began noticing posts from stressed-out new teachers and trainees. I decided that it was my mission to add a little encouraging comment, suggest a workaround, or a time-saving hack. These seemed to go down quite well and I felt that I had injected a little bit of joy right where and when it was needed. It’s such a simple idea, and something that anyone can do. The problem with Education is that it aspires to a level of perfection, that is sometimes out of our reach. The language of outstanding, mastery, and excellence, create a culture where satisfactory really isn’t. When you are tired, things are not going well, and you have so much to do that you just cannot get started, I’m sorry, but satisfactory IS good enough. Maybe this is my problem – I have realised that your perfect wall display doesn’t amount to a hill of beans, and that real life matters more. I hope that young teachers will recognise that some day.
The greatest joy of all is surely getting away from it all. From social media, from work, from emails, PowerPoints, PDFs, plans, priorities and progress points. Emptying your mind by going for a walk, cooking, reading a book, listening to music, or socialising with real human friends, can all add another P, that of perspective. A robin singing, the ruby velvet of a rose petal, a sunny day, and the first pure snowdrops heralding spring, are all nature’s cost-free joybringers.
As a caveat, I must add that for those who do not feel any joy, they should seek support that this little blog does not purport to provide.
So, seize the day, be weird, be satisfactory, cut corners, find time to smile, and to say something encouraging to a fellow human who needs it. Curate your timeline with cats, dogs, chinchillas or penguins. Drop out of social media, go for a walk, and never forget that you matter most of all. Be the biggest heart on the internet, and remember that you don’t need to strive to be perfect – because you already are.
Awful Rigours and Wretched Pay 