Life as we know it

Back in the UK I worked for a number of years either side of the millennium at a prestigious and venerable independent boys’ boarding school. It is the sort of school at which all of the pupils are obliged to board and only allowed to go home for a couple of weekends each term. There are twenty five boarding houses in total with around fifty pupils in each, under the close supervision of the Housemaster and the Dame (a sort of ‘Matron’).

These days the Housemasters receive considerable support from deputies, though this was not the case in even quite recent history. Since the Housemaster is responsible (in loco parentis) pretty much 24/7 you might imagine that the role can be a pretty exhausting one.

I was friends with several such fellows and used to tease them whenever they complained about what a hard life they led. I would point out that not only were they handsomely rewarded for their pains but that they also got to live entirely rent-free in really quite splendid residences – and to receive generous grants for decorating and furnishing the same.

At the end of each term the school (as indeed probably do all schools) would exhale a deep collective sigh as all the little treasures trekked off home in their parents’ plush automobiles, leaving the staff to relax abruptly and to try to get their lives back into some sort of sensible shape.

All except the Housemasters that is – who would at this point must needs write for each of their charges a detailed and considered report on their progress and well-being, such that the grateful parents would feel that they were truly getting their money’s worth. This task would keep these poor souls busy for another two or three days following the departure of the student body, whilst everyone else got on with the onerous burden of having fun and ‘chilling’!

What makes me think of this now? Well – I have spent much of the last three days marking homeworks, grading lab sessions, evaluating term projects and scoring the final examination papers of my recent students – who are doubtless all eager to know how they have done. I still have about half a day’s work to go and I am now really looking forward to the task being completed.

Strangely, I now feel considerable more sympathy for my former colleagues…

When I wrote this piece back in June 2015 – on the occasion of the closing of the final term of my final academic year at the illustrious London boys’ school for which it was my privilege to have worked for getting on for a decade immediately prior to retirement – I certainly did not expect that I would find myself almost three years later experiencing yet another term-end.

Neither – of course – did I envisage myself ever working again. This post was to have signaled a final farewell to all that!

‘Never‘ (according to the wisdom of American football coach Jon Gruden) ‘say never to nothing!’. A swift perusal of the InterWebNet reveals that he is far from alone in offering this opinion.

So – my first term back at work finished last Friday, with just the final exam to come tomorrow (Monday). I then have some marking and course development to attend to before my term contract expires at the end of April. I have already been approached several times about doing some further teaching in the autumn (fall!) – which would actually suit me rather well. Indeed, I was asked if I would care to go full time – at which I happily drew the line.

My current thinking is to try for a contract for the autumn term and then see if I can also get one for the spring term of next year (the which Canadians somewhat pessimistically call the ‘winter’ term – though perhaps in other parts of Canada that is more apt!). By that time my state pension will have kicked in and I will probably feel that enough is enough…

But as the man says – “Never…!”

I have found myself enjoying this experience to an unexpected degree. I have always taken pleasure from teaching and with post-secondary students there are few issues of discipline or motivation. I only work two days a week and even then they are not consecutive. I am left very much to my own devices and have been pleasantly surprised by just how much knowledge I seem to have accumulated over the decades – even if I were not consciously trying so to do at the time. On top of everything, being in a unionised post (and I find myself almost accidentally in a union for the first time in my life) my qualifications and experience all count toward my remuneration – which is as a result not to be sniffed at.

Well – I will certainly not be doing any sniffing!