My problem is that I apparently don’t inspire my students. This issue has come about as result of a college-wide initiative to do just that - “inspire”. We are being told that we need to be more ebullient and effusive and to draw from our students “the rich abilities inherent in them all”.
What is wrong with plain old teaching?
This word routinely appears in job application selection criteria. I decided to look it up. The synonym I liked best is “stir” as it suggests something is lying dormant, although this assumption relies on a leap of faith that is sometimes hard to muster. “Encourage”, of course, is not out of reach for most of us. Then there is the more problematic “arouse”. Given our Prime Minister Tony Blair’s pop evangelism, I can’t say I am surprised to find such language in FE now.
Dilemmas should be emailed to Donald Short at ds@moylescourt.hants.sch.uk