The Great National Sport of Teacher Bashing

Last Thursday, Rupert Murdoch tweeted, "No wonder China leading in medals while US and UK mainly teach competitive sport a bad thing. How many champions state school background?1" (sic)
Soon, this tweet had been picked up by the press, the lack of medals was entirely the fault of teachers in the state sector.  As I drove back from the Supermarket I was shouting angrily at the Jeremy Vine show, as people rang in with stories of how teachers had made their lives a misery in sports lessons. Agreeing that it was all the fault of teachers that we didn't have as many medals as China. Today, David Cameron has said, "The problem has been too many schools wanting to have competitive sport, some teachers not wanting to join in and play their part." (Not that this makes much grammatical sense but his meaning is clear - it's the fault of the teachers not the government!)

Teacher Bashing Olympic Sport - No medals for my drawing

Now, if we were to make teacher-bashing an Olympic sport we'd surely clean up.  No other country runs down teachers in quite the way we do.  The thing is the British are brilliant at running things down and everyone has experience of at least one teacher.  Most people have spent the majority of their lives interacting with teachers, either as a pupil or parent or grandparent and teachers come in all shapes and sizes.  I had a couple of maths teachers, who made me love watching Rugby because they taught me rude songs in choir and I also had a PE teacher who used to make me be her partner in hockey and would hit me round the shins with her stick.  I was never going to win an Olympic medal in sport, though.  I was quite good at music and never came across a single teacher in my whole time at school who didn't support and encourage me. Personally, I would be completely useless at providing extra sport in school as I have absolutely no skill I can share but I would encourage anyone who loved it.  I expect if you asked the Olympic medallists about their experience of teachers there would be a variety of answers but most would have been encouraged in their sport by their teachers on an individual human level.

Obviously, the winning of medals is far more complicated than the statistics can tell us.  It takes a talent, an interest, hard work, dedication, time, money and support of everyone around them.   Yes, teachers play a part but they are not wholly responsible for the success or failure of an individual.  Parents, grandparents, coaches, friends may have a greater influence.  

In schools, there is a great difference between inclusive and competitive sport.  PE lessons have to include everyone and yes I do think everyone should be made to do some sport each week. Keeping fit and healthy should be for everyone and it should be fun but those children that show particular skill should be encouraged to do more after school, or attend a club or compete in district sports. 

Thinking about Murdoch's original tweet the obvious difference between public and private school to me seems to be money.  The parents who can afford to pay for education can pay for private coaches and equipment (including the best horses!)   This is a sweeping generalisation but parents who send their children to private school are probably a bit more pushy and expect a lot from life and their children.  Also, boarding school pupils have evenings and weekends to fill at school and so are more likely to take part in sport after school hours, provided by highly qualified sports coaches (at extra cost).

Last Thursday the athletics started and the statistics have shifted, as all the athletics medalists are from state schools.  Loads of medalists are from Yorkshire, most are in their 20s, quite tall and have brown hair.  I blame the teachers, they are obviously favouring the brown haired students when suggesting who goes to after school athletics club.  As for the Yorkshire thing, well I can only guess they don't get a good TV reception up there (I am being sarcastic before anyone gets stroppy) and they probably have more children as well, as there's nothing else to do.

One of my colleagues wrote on facebook today, "It just drives me made that they constantly bad mouth teachers and then expect the pupils and parents to respect the very same people."  How right he is.  Maybe we shouldn't add teacher bashing to the Olympics, no matter how good we would be at it.