Summary
Having retired last year after nearly 40 years at the "chalk face" it comes as no surprise to me that, despite the McCrone report, the vexed question of teachers' working hours is never far from the surface. Abigail Wild (October 30) quotes Bill Milligan of the Association of Head Teachers, Scotland, as saying that the sight of teachers out and about in the community during school hours would make parents upset. This says it all and reveals how scared our "heedies" have become of parental criticism, fair or unfair.
I recall an incident many years ago when I attended a daytime concert in our local arts festival which I attended with my head's permission as my son was performing. After the concert I was greeted with "Are you playing truant today?", "What are you doing here?" etc, and every questioner was a professional person who had somehow or other managed to absent themselves from their place of business. Teachers will never convince most of the public that they work the extra hours they do and it is futile to attempt it.See the full content of this document
Extract
Our Scared 'Heedies'
One of the joys of retir...
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