Interview / education

( Just a quick Insert here  : Apologies for a wee hiatus : things like life, translating and dealing with overgrown rosebeds
seemed to take over - more on those later. Let me just say congratulations to our friends in Egypt on their success in overthrowing a regime they could no longer tolerate. Let's wish them good luck in constructing the kind of system they want and let their voice continue to be heard,  especially in decision-making for their own future. )

And so to the interview – another form of gate-keeping.  A close friend and excellent EFL teacher is called for interview for a teaching post for young children to a large organization which prides itself on being a market leader on the language services front.  She’s a classic case of young mother with children now at school-age, trying to resuscitate   previous career jettisoned for child-raising and not brimming over with self-confidence. The interview did not quite go to the extremes of those in the John Cleese interview training materials, but not far off it. One interviewer didn’t go so far as to read a newspaper, but did chew gum incessantly, looking bored and constantly watch-watched, on one occasion yawning and saying “Yeah, that’s what they all say !” .....nice or what?  So what’s the point in calling someone to interview if you don’t give them a fighting chance but instead make them undergo a demeaning experience? Educational management, a la Fawlty Towers, indeed. Need I say she didn’t get the job? She’s relieved – didn’t bode well for desirable working conditions/ atmosphere!!  Further confirmation for me that professionalism has gone out the window and we’ve really moved from language services to a language industry.          

They could have at least brought some humour into the event : flash-back to my job interview in the 70’s at a very large , comprehensive in Edinburgh, located in a really rough area. As I go in, the depute- head invites me to sit down and, slightly lecherously, compliments me on my still-fresh Greek holiday tan.  Almost immediately he asks me to go and lock his office door. Before doing anything I ask him why- he responds that he has a bottle of whisky in the drawer.  Utterly taken aback, I laugh. When he asks why, I decide to play right back at him and say it’s because I always seem to have that effect on older men.  His response? He slapped his thighs in delight and told me that, being the first person who had challenged him and hadn’t actually got up to carry out his request, I had the job! I did join his staff and always enjoyed his total support and respect during my time there.  It also proved to be one of the best and most educational – for me - experiences in my teaching career!                                                                
  I read about Zenna Atkins, chairwoman of the Office for Standards in Education, recommending that        ‘every school should have a useless teacher ‘ on the  grounds that schools, particularly at primary level ‘need to reflect society” . Nice one, Zenna! So primary kids should  have to learn to deal with ‘naff teachers’ presumably as a life skill, because people at Ofsted have not done their job in the first place, in maintaining decent standards of teaching. Thankfully she is leaving and taking her single O level (???) with her! How do these people get these jobs? Just imagine applying that ‘logic’ to other professions – have naff doctors so that your immune system is encouraged to deal with illness on its own, get naff bankers who……let’s just leave that one!!