Having cancer has reminded me what it’s like to sit on the other side of the desk. Indeed, having treatment was very like my education: it was something that was done to you for your own good. You didn’t necessarily have to participate in the process. It just happened to you, and could be a bit bewildering at times. In fact, it depended largely on the good nature of those to whom it was being done for it to be effective. Teaching and treatment for cancer: they really are quite similar.
During my treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, I have enjoyed a luxury usually denied to practising teachers: the time to reflect. And I have thought about what makes a good teacher, or a good doctor, or a good person on the other side of the desk. The ability to see people as they are, I have concluded, is the main factor - and not as a case, a cancer, a lump or a league-table statistic, or even as a reflection on your ability as a teacher or as a person.
Moving to the other side of the desk sharpens one’s perspective. We are often judged in terms of outcomes, goals or targets, something measurable: dead or alive; pass or fail; percentage of A*-C grades. Of course, positive outcomes are good, and Iprefer alive to dead, and passing exams to failing them.
But what matters to me more is not the outcome, but rather how you get there. I went into teaching because I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to put right all the wrongs I felt had been done to me. Certainly, teachers - much like medics - have huge power over people’s lives. They can enable or handicap those in front of them.
Having cancer made me realise how much the little things mattered - the little things that identify you as an individual, someone with dignity. And having the space to reflect has helped me to remember all the times when I have felt powerless and didn’t have a voice.
We teach individuals. I would ask you to notice them - in their uniqueness - and help send them on the journey of 1,000 miles to reach their full potential. As individuals.
Kristina Humphries teaches at Newcastle-under-Lyme independent school in Staffordshire
