Saturday 10 September 2016

THE TWO BEST JOBS IN THE WORLD

Of course the absolute best has to be ‘Parent’. Ok, so the financial rewards are not there and the opportunity for promotion is missing and it won’t get you onto the Queen’s honours list; but what other job takes your whole heart and never ends and goes on giving for the rest of your life?

It changes you, being a parent, in ways you can only imagine and in ways you can’t imagine, too. It is not an easy thing, is as hard as hard can get some days. And it hurts sometimes, too, down to your soul, but it’s not a job you can ever walk away from (though some do).

It surprises you and when you least expect it, being a parent lifts you up and rewards you and it does it again and again. And you get to see a seed grow and you know that you’ve had a part in what the seed grows into – and I’m not talking DNA which is just chemistry beyond your control.

And they come good, your children, in ways you did not expect, and they deserve all the credit for that – but you, as the parent, deserve some, too.

And teaching is like being a parent and must be the second best job in the world. It’s a bit more financially rewarding than parenting, and there’s a career ladder you can climb up if you are so inclined, and people will sometimes tell you that you’re doing a good job.

Like parenting it is not easy and is as hard as hard can be and it can take your heart and a bit of your soul. If you do it right then you are invested in what your pupils become, just as a parent is. But unlike being a parent you don’t always see the seed grow into the mature plant. They leave you at the end of their time at school and they scatter to the four winds and that’s all just natural.

But every now and then… you are surprised. Someone comes back to see you, and they are changed and you look for the child in the grown person before you and it’s still there, but altered, too. And they say thank you and they tell you about their lives and what they have become, and you have had a small part in that. There’s no better honour than that.

Yesterday, one such pupil, and she is grown into someone confident and smart and with a good heart and she must take all of the credit for that and her parent, too; but she tells you that you have played a part also and she says thank you and makes a small gift to you.


I am a parent and a teacher and really, what can be better?  Thank you to my three grown boys who make me proud every day; and thank you to all my pupils, past and present and future. I am lucky to be doubly blessed in doing the two best jobs in the whole world.