A few years back, I was perusing the cleverly situated bookshelves at Manchester Airport, full of pre-holiday excitement, when I spotted a book that I had to have. Richard Templar’s The Rules to Break appealed to my inner rebel (yes, kids, we break rules too), along with my need to create a life-changing epiphany of some kind each time I go on holiday.
So despite the fact that I hadn’t read any of his previous work and didn’t know “the rules”, off I went, book in hand.
As educators, rules can offer us support, comfort and safety, but they can also imprison us, which is why we have to be selective about which we choose to follow enthusiastically.
Though I never did experience my life-changing epiphany during the holiday, the book has remained a firm favourite. So here are three of the most teacher-friendly of Templar’s rules that deserve to be broken.
Rule to break: ‘Success is a good job earning lots of money’
Swap it to: ‘Success is what you say it is’
As with most jobs, there’s a certain level of pressure in teaching to keep moving up the career ladder - one promotion after another. And this is perfectly fine, beneficial even…if that’s what you want. Just be sure that it is indeed what you want; that you’re not simply considering it because you think you should.
Set aside society’s expectations and define what success means to you. When you’re considering a change of role, ask yourself honestly whether this will bring you closer to your ideal situation, or further away.
Rule to break: ‘There aren’t enough hours in the day’
Swap it to: ‘Know your limitations’
If your work and home life is haunted by the spectre of an unremitting to-do list and the ghosts of jobs undone, then it’s time to rethink your list-making. As teachers, we all wish that there were more hours in the day, but there aren’t.
So what’s the answer? Learn to say no, to others and to yourself.
Essentially, you just need to be realistic about what you can achieve in a day. Make it your daily ritual to consult the “master” list: simply choose a few achievable priority tasks for that day and let the tasks on this mini list be the only ones you look at for the remainder of the day. You’ll very likely achieve more, or at the very least feel less overwhelmed.
Rule to break: ‘The job comes first’
Swap it to: ‘Don’t mistake your career for your life’
I really messed this one up in the past; for years, I put “the job” ahead of everything and everyone in my life.
Then, one day, someone asked me a question: “What do you like to do?” And I was utterly and completely stumped. My identity had become so wrapped up in my teaching career that I couldn’t remember a single thing that I enjoyed doing outside of my job.
Shocked at what I had become, I took up jiu-jitsu as a hobby - immensely fun, incredibly challenging and absolutely nothing like teaching. This was the first of many steps in rebuilding who I was, underneath the paperwork.
There’s nothing wrong with working hard and being ambitious, but be warned - if it’s all that you do, it’s all you’ll be.
Jo Steer is a teacher and experienced leader of SEND interventions and wellbeing strategies
