Picking Your Battles

There are many battles we can fight each week: the incalcitrant pupil, the non-existent word, the crazed directives handed down by solipsistic fascists in mandate-less governments.

We can't fight them all. Sometimes, we try to. It won't end well. Like Harold, racing back from Stamford, down the A1, negotiating the proto-M25 then getting to the south coast just in time for a bank holiday brawl on the beach, you'll be over-stretched, over-tired and over-run. Hopefully, you'll avoid an arrow in the eye and loss of your kingdom, but it can't be guaranteed.

Some battles are vital and should be fought everyday. The recalcitrant pupil, for example, needs to be fought with the kindness and vigour we show consistently. The non-existent word does not need to be fought, merely corrected and learnt. The crazed directives from those who believe that what worked for them must work for all don't need to be fought. They simply need ignoring.

Select your weapons carefully. Select your battles according to their importance. Keep fighting hard, but fight intelligently. By doing this, we can overcome the most vicious enemies faced by our profession and those who we work for. Them's the kids, if you're wondering. Not Pob. He's not even the most vicious enemy; that's the system which oppresses and dehumanises us, reducing all to units of economic value.

That is what we fight daily. Its effects on the children's minds cannot be underestimated. Its effects on the minds of our dear leaders cannot be underestimated. In some cases, I venture, its effects on the minds of us, and our colleagues, cannot be underestimated.