When I started working in a primary school I discovered that teachers at this level are quite interesting people. Some have unusual passions and interests. The idea that there is more to a person than they present on the surface is always one that has interested me but this seems even more exciting when you think about primary school teachers. They have a carefully crafted image. They are sweet, kind, encouraging and they work, oh so hard, that they never get time to do anything but mark books and complete paperwork. The inner life, however, could be far more interesting.
I'm sure this is true for all teachers but primary school teachers are different. Most senior teachers did a degree in the subject they then went on to teach. At senior school, my two maths teachers called Smith both did Maths degrees. One was tall and slim, read the Guardian, and was in his University rowing team and was impressed by my extensive Baroque music repetoire and the other was short and fat, read the Sun, played rugby and taught me lots of rude songs when we rehearsed in the staff/pupil choir. My drama teacher did a drama degree, worked in the theatre for a while before teaching and then became a woman and had to stop teaching. My music teacher went to music college for his degree, played the flute and piano, had a wife and two lovely children (contrary to the rumours that he only liked men) and could play his flute standing on his head (literally - a great party trick). My teachers at senior school were no mystery. Odd but not mysterious.
Some primary school teachers' degrees are in primary education but most did a degree in something interesting first . I know dancers, artists, geologists, actors, writers, journalists, psychologists, people with degrees in business management to name a few. Yesterday, however, I discovered from a facebook picture that one of my colleagues is actually a mermaid! I shouldn't have been surprised because she knows a lot about the sea and sea creatures, is beautiful with long blond hair but I had just assumed the beauty to be a co-incidence and her knowledge of the sea to be from a degree in marine biology.
In the Infants I had a teacher called Mrs Jones. I thought Mrs Jones was as boring as her name, only reading Janet and John books and counting up to 10. She was, however, an expert on spots. If any child in the school had a single spot they would be taken to Mrs Jones for inspection. Thinking now, maybe Mrs Jones had a degree in microbiology and grew secret cultures of mould and viruses, which she would test out on the children. My other infant teacher's name escapes me and all I can remember about her was that she was obsessed with safety. She taught us about making sure ladders were straight, wearing seat belts in the correct way (even in the back seat of the car - unheard of in the 70s) and wearing a cycle helmet (how we laughed at her). Maybe, though, she knew about all of this because she had a reason to be familiar with safety equipment. Maybe she was a secret daredevil, who abseiled down tall buildings or walked tightropes. My first Junior school teacher would keep us quiet by taking out and putting back in her contact lenses. It was gross and we loved it. I remember her as a quiet mousy woman but normal people didn't wear contact lenses in 1973 so she must have been a model!
How could I have missed all of this?
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