I always wanted to be a teacher, presumably because I enjoy learning, loved being at school and assumed that I would love it equally well when I "grew up." I tried a number of careers post-school before I finally achieved this ambition. The average teacher lasts five years. By the end of five years, the gloss had worn off for me, too. While there are aspects of teaching I still enjoy, it is a selfless role that requires boundless energy, and the ability to be indefatigably cheerful whatever the circumstances.
I was discussing the topic of student engagement recently with a colleague. He, too, has tried a variety of careers, and returned to teaching when he found a role within the IT sector that meant he could operate outside of the classroom, having retrained from Mathematics. I have attended lectures at university where the lecturer has bedazzled, but conveyed little and ones where the lecturer has been deadpan and bland, but the content of his lectures was on-point and information-dense. I have worked in schools where my colleagues have been circus clowns and acrobats in previous career incarnations. Considering that students of today have a reportedly lower attention span, the future of schools will have to evolve to match the changes in student modes of learning or risk irrelevance.
