Rupert Segar finds out that a life of teaching and studying is lonely
Being a student on a “flexible” part-time PGCE is a schizophrenic experience. Much of the time you work alone in the tranquil environment of your own home - distance learning. They post you module manuals and you email them your “professional assignments”. The next week you are in the maelstrom they call school placement.
A Friday morning, and I’m as blank as the computer screen in front of me. As I look out of my study window, the vision of my daughter asleep in her pram in the garden reminds me I have a lot to do and limited time to do it. A “flexible” modular PGCE demands a lot of self-motivation, which means getting an assignment written while baby is supine.
I have to remind myself that in many respects I’m lucky. In the past, as a part-time househusband and part-time writer, I would have found it impossible to train as a secondary teacher. But, today, because the Government is desperate to increase the number of teachers, institutions are offering tailor-made PGCE courses to members of the awkward squad - such as myself.
The idea of working from home is idyllic. But there are drawbacks: the lack of comradeship; the absence of the comforting chatter of cohorts; the lack of reassurance that others are making the same mistakes. When you choose to do your PGCE on your own, you discover it is exactly how you will have to work - on your own. It’s lonely. Until you go to school.
Monday morning and my world is turned upside down. The excitement is intense. I have to teach myself; putting theory into practice is challenging and draining. Come mid-morning break, the staffroom is like a frantic parents’ evening, with teachers queuing up for quick conversations with colleagues. I realise, unlike other professionals, teachers work alone in their classrooms (I’m ignoring the pupils), and confer and socialise with colleagues only between lessons.
By the end of the day, my excitement has become exhaustion. I point my car towards the haven of tranquillity I call home.
Rupert Segar is a writer, broadcaster and trainee maths teacher
