e=mc2andallthat

Napoleon’s generals not only had to be loyal, brave and skilled in arms (obviously enough), but the Emperor also demanded of them a more nebulously indefinable quality. When others in his entourage would laud the skills of a particular soldier, Napoleon would ask the pointed question: “Yes, but is he lucky?”

It seems to me that being lucky is the quality that, these days at least, is the one most valued in teachers by those in power above them. The old adage about success having many fathers but failure being an orphan was never truer than in today’s educational world. Examination results, or “outcomes”, are the bit-coin currency of choice in the go-getting world of “performance management” and “high stakes accountability”.

Forgive me, but I am awearied of all that talk. More and more I feel something akin to Duke Ellington’s response to long-winded analyses of the magic of jazz as being “talk that stinks up the room”.

In my career, I have faced Triumph and Disaster in terms of results. Although Kipling advised us to treat “those two impostors just the same”, the truth is that we don’t. Few human beings can. Our perceived Triumphs make us arrogant, the Disasters make us hostile and defensive.

And yet, I think I begin to see a pattern. 

My triumphs occurred when I just got on with the business of teaching: turning up, teaching solid straightforward lessons, setting and marking regular homework. I remember one (internal) observer asking a student about their past paper practice question booklet, returned with a simple percentage grade (in red pen), “And how often are you set homework like this?” and the student answering matter-of-factly: “Every week”. I was so proud. That said, the observer still gave me a “3 (requires improvement)”, citing “lack of pace”, “no plenary” and “no feedback” (when they actually meant no written WWW/EBI comments). But I carried on regardless. And that year’s results were amongst my best ever.

My Disasters seem to occur when I am scrabbling manically to follow what is currently lauded as best practice. In other words, trying to copy what other schools do — or perhaps, more accurately, what other schools say that they do — badly.

Coincidence? Possibly.

So, am I a lucky teacher, in the Napoleonic sense? Sometimes, when I have the good sense to follow my experience and instincts, rather than fads and fashions.

So what about you, when faced with the russian roulette lottery of exam results (you do know it is just a lottery, right?): Are you feeling lucky, punk?