Professional Specialization

When people find out what I do for a living, the next question tends to be, "So what do you teach?" It irritates me a lot. I mean, if you say you're a doctor, people are not normally so ill-mannered as to ask you, "What specialty?" and I think that's generally true for lawyers and engineers.

The answer I normally give is: "I'll teach anything that I can teach. Hopefully it's something that the student(s) will benefit from."

Come on, all teachers in Atlantis are trained to teach. Just because they are pseudo-certified in two teaching subjects doesn't mean either a) that they are sufficiently educated, or b) that they are specialists, or c) that they will know how to handle all the things they're supposed to have been taught to handle.

I mean, all doctors in Atlantis learn anatomy, physiology, microbiology, pharmacology, community medicine, pathology, blah blah blah. It doesn't mean either a) that they are sufficiently educated, or b) that they are specialists, or c) that they will know how to handle all the things they're supposed to have been taught to handle.

Someone once told me that doctors specialise so that they can reduce expectations. As a specialist, you can duck your professional responsibilities by saying that you are a specialist and hence not qualified to do other stuff — a dermatologist can thus excuse the inability (or lack of desire) to handle an obstetrics case even though the requisite training was received.

Apparently, the same thing is true of teachers. If you're a Chinese teacher, nobody can ask you to teach Science. If you're a Science teacher, nobody will panic you by dumping a Lit class on you. This means that you don't have to think so much, you don't have to learn so much, you can be more confident about being a greater ignoramus than you were in school while being more learned about less.

What a life. What a profession. What nonsense.

Alamut

The Old Man of the Mountains has hired me to give a talk to his cadre of elite assassins. I think I am honoured. I will certainly scrutinize the refreshments before attempting them, but I have no illusions — these are professionals, after all.

Not So Regimented

I was much amused by a speech given by the Gnome on 17 October 1973 at the Grand Convocation of Educators. In that speech, while encouraging and exhorting the new stalwarts of the education system, he entertained as well. Here is one of the anecdotes he told, and which I hereby dedicate to my wingmen and companions in 'wayward habits'.

Let me relate to you an incident, a real one, which occurred in [a renowned warrior regiment of Albion] and which is recorded in a recent history of the regiment.

The regiment is noted for its unconventional fighting methods. Partly as a consequence of this, it was able to score glorious victories by doing the unexpected, thereby surprising and overwhelming the enemy. But while its battlefield record is illustrious, its peacetime activities posed a problem to top military brass. Top-ranking military officers, other than those of the highest level of genius, often have conventional minds with little liking for unorthodox behaviour. So Generals in peacetime looked with disfavour upon what they regarded as the wayward habits of this regiment.

It happened that when a General visited one of the units of the regiment, he drew attention to various shortcomings which he had observed. The unit's commanding officer was left in no doubt as to the poor impression he had made on the General. After the General's departure, the CO gathered his officers and men together and addressed them as follows:

"Men, I am afraid the General does not like us. But that doesn't matter as long as we like ourselves."

The men cheered their CO to the echo. And so, an episode that could have proved harmful to their morale was instead turned into something that boosted morale. The soldiers in this regiment were able to do this because they knew they were good soldiers...

Put in simple terms, it means this. If you want to hold yourself in esteem when you believe that some people do not, you must believe that you are proficient in your work. And the best way to cultivate this belief in your proficiency is to be proficient.

And that is all I have to say, in the time-honoured formula used to end military reports in the Atlantean army.

Noble

Today I had a surprise message appearing in my cellphone. A most noble lady had texted me to say, "I find comfort in the knowledge that friends I care about are well."

It really made my day. I doubt this person will read this blog, but from the bottom of my heart, I am grateful for people like that. This person was always a pleasure to work with; no politics to mess about with, just a good heart for students, a level head, and a desire to get things done right.

A teacher as an environmental unit must be like that. The calling is already tough enough without having to mess around with morons espousing an imaginary blue ocean or blue sky strategy.

Envisioning Exercise

Once in a while, established institutions decide that they want to reinvent themselves. It's interesting to look at the reasons why they want to do it, the way they go about it, and the kinds of outcomes they expect or manufacture.

Why do they do it?

The most obvious reason is boredom or staleness. Having done the same thing for so long, and perhaps never ever having come close to their previous idea of a Promised Land, they have decided to change things around. Instead of some great and powerful vision, they want something easier, lighter, or more accessible; most of all, it must be different. It's a sort of itchy-backside syndrome, symptomatic of this modern age in which attention span lapses easily and people want to be entertained rather than think about how to do things right.

The second most common reason is relevance. Somehow, they feel they are not as relevant to the times as they ought to be. So they look at present-day trends and near-future trends in a very scientific-looking way and say, "Hey these are trends which we should be targeting our envisioning processes at!" or some such guff. It's guff because a vision is independent of relevance. For example, if a school has the vision, "Every Atlantean a superior being!" then the means of getting there can be tailored to be relevant but the vision need not be changed. A good vision is always relevant.

The third reason is that various rubrics for measuring institutional capability and institutional excellence seem to require it. "Hey we need an envisioning exercise so that the quality-control inspectors will see that we actually have a process for perverting distorting prostituting enhancing our original vision, mission, and philosophy!" Never mind that doing so probably means that you are altering the objectives of your five-year plan every three years and hence never achieving anything serious. But it maintains cash-flow, cynically speaking.

How do they do it?

The obvious method is the eponymous 'envisioning exercise' (or EE for short). A good EE starts with nice music, a fanfare, a keynote address. It is held in some place which feels prestigious (if meant to be a public display) or pleasantly conspiratorial (if meant to be an inner-circle bonding exercise). It continues by posing irrelevant questions (see previous section for some hints as to what these might be) and the mass dropping of keywords like some sort of cluster bombing. It has an all-encompassing theme, like "Envisioning the Role of the Ministry of Education Security Services [insert Name here] in the New Millennium".

Occasionally, this exercise is outsourced to a think-tank, what Churchill might have referred to as, "Boffins on tap, but not on top." This is surprisingly sometimes better with regard to the outcomes, since an external think-tank is less subject to groupthink relative to the original group. But this is a bit like saying, "I can't see clearly, so why don't you describe to me what I'm supposed to be seeing?"

In detail, what happens is this:

• the Boss (or boss-proxy) will call the cluster-bombing meeting or conference to attention and stress the great importance of this congregation to the future of the institution, the nation, and the world (not always in this order);
• a keynote address or opening statement will be given, that subtly (or not so subtly) incorporates all the buzzwords, terms, and propaganda required ideals;
• there may be secondary speakers, shouts of "Hear, hear!" and other sounds of agreement and support;
• time will be given for discussion (although it is often quite clear what outcomes are desired from the keynote speech or opening statement);
• break-out groups (not to be confused with break-dancing) will be formed to give the sense that everyone is involved in an intense search for grand unifying theories or overarching ideas or some such;
• the conclave will be reassembled and a quest for the holy grail meeting will be reconvened to give the Boss an opportunity to 'synthesize' a vision that he will emphasize is the product of much effort on the part of the participants.

It is all rather exciting for some people.

What are the expected outcomes?

To be blunt, the main outcome is what might be called the construction of a 'professionally relevant concept'. a sentence of modern (hence 'relevant') jargon (hence 'professional') which is sufficiently structured but indefinite (hence 'concept') as to look visionary. It is often hard to differentiate the truly visionary from the delusional; in this case, it is easy because the people playing at 'envisioning exercises' tend not to be delusional but cynical.

I've had my share of envisioning exercises over the years. You can find my thoughts on 'holistic education' by searching this blog, for example; I raise that particular phrase because it is one of the targets of modern envisioning in educational circles.

For me, I don't expect much from envisioning exercises. It strikes me that to be powerful and moving and relevant for all times and all ages, a vision must be obvious and yet ineffable. When we say 'grand endeavour' it is something a lot more than 'lots of work' or 'helluva job'. When we say 'signs of a better age', we aren't saying 'ads promising a good time'. Similarly, "Each man a shelter from the wind and a refuge from the storm" sounds a lot better than "Each man a scholar, officer and gentleman."

Of course, your mileage (and vision) may vary.

Professional Impact

Over the last few days I've been mulling over what the girl who likes lying on the grass said. She's been thinking about education, profession, and career choices. She's been wondering about the responsibilities attached to or associated with various professional roles. And I remembered, because of what she said, the process that eventually led me to where I have been.

The obvious thing is that, just as with basic rights and basic skills, the identification of 'basic professions' must come from looking at the basic human condition. This is what I mean. Consider what you're like as a newborn:

1. you need protection from the elements; hence one of the basic human rights is shelter from exposure, one of the basic skills is learning to find shelter, and one of the basic professions is making shelters.
   
2. you need food and drink; hence one of the basic human rights is the right to sustenance, one of the basic skills is feeding oneself, and one of the basic professions is providing sustenance.
   
3. you need to communicate; hence one of the basic human rights is the right to communication, one of the basic skills is communication, and one of the basic professions is helping others to communicate.
   
4. you need to learn; hence one of the basic human rights is education, one of the basic skills is teaching oneself, and one of the basic professions is teaching others.

The list goes on, but these four cover most of the fundamentals. The next level up would be the interactive level which develops once communication is present – social needs, self-actualisation, dominance, combat, movement.

How do we consider various professions in the light of this? Here are some examples.

If you're a builder or an architect, a weaver or an insurance agent, you're obviously one of the first-group providers – you provide the means by which people survive their environmental challenges. If you're a farmer or a cook, a hunter or a fast food chain operator, you're in the second group – you provide the means by which people can be sustained physically. If you're going to be an artist or a politician, a lawyer or an advertising executive, you fall into the third group – you're a person who speaks for others when they cannot communicate. The last group is obvious; educators of all kinds are here.

Three things become obvious to me as I look at such lists. Firstly, parents do all these things for you, especially mothers. Secondly, certain professions – e.g. economists, doctors, car manufacturers – rely a lot on people developing secondary vulnerabilities, things which they are not normally born with. Thirdly, some professions are able to fulfil elements of many needs – those with creative, communicative and catechistic roles being obvious examples.

The last thing, not immediately obvious, is that the role you play after being educated and adopting a profession is yours alone. Each of us develops our own sense of mission and our own scope of deeds. Each of us chooses to provide services or goods or intangibles which fall somewhere in between. But the most important part of this is that we should think about this frequently, adjust our perceptions and perspectives, and aim for the best that we can do.

Isn't This The Carpenter?

The Christmas season is a time for reflection. I don't mind reflecting about the Christ as a baby in a manger, but I am inevitably led down the corridors of thought towards His life and work. I wrote this short piece a while ago, immersed in the ideas of work and professionalism.

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There are lots of modern professions mentioned in the gospels: tax collecting, law, carpentry, building, teaching and money-changing are some of them. Most of us, if asked to talk about what professional qualifications Jesus had, would talk about Jesus the carpenter – but that’s not the whole story.

The only verse which mentions this is Mark 6:3. Matthew 13:55 has the people referring to Jesus as “the carpenter’s son”. We should probably draw the conclusion that Jesus, as Joseph’s legal son, was an apprentice carpenter. Being the sort of person he was, he would have been a good one. Yet, the whole New Testament doesn’t say anything else about carpentry, and Jesus the carpenter is someone we can only make assumptions about.

Perhaps Jesus the lawyer also comes to mind – Jesus, conducting brilliant defences and legal expositions against repeated accusations and traps made by Pharisees. The questions he tackled are relevant to us today: Matthew 12:1-14/Mark 2:23-28; 3:1-6/Luke 6:1-11 and Luke 14:1-6 have questions regarding the extent to which the law should control our behaviour; Matthew 19:1-12/Mark 10:1-12 are about divorce; and Matthew 22:15-22/Mark 12:13-17/Luke 20:20-26 are about taxation (a topic on everybody’s mind these days, which means that you should read what Jesus had to say about it).

Among the many professions though, Jesus was first of all a teacher. There are almost 90 verses in the Gospels which refer to Jesus as teacher. When he was in Jerusalem, he taught every day (Matthew 26:55, Mark 14:49, Luke 21:37). As in everything else, Jesus was good at teaching. He taught with amazing authority and gave good answers. Other so-called teachers of the law hated him and denounced him, but even then, some gave him positive reviews (see Mark 12:28-34 for one occasion). Mark 12:37 says “the large crowd listened to him with delight”.

This, then, is one reason why I am a teacher. Although I’m no master of the Law, I can learn many things about being a professional from Jesus. Like others who are lawyers and practitioners of healing arts, I can look in the gospels for concrete examples of how I should work while carrying out my professional duties. How to use a good analogy without carrying it too far, how to focus attention with a single statement, provoke listeners to think, make sure they remember, motivate an audience, give a well-structured lesson — all these things are found in courses taught at Institutes of Education; but they were also demonstrated long ago by the Master.

Professional attitude, professional conduct, professional lessons. As my grandfather once told me, “If you’re going to do anything, ask yourself this question: How would He have done it?” There are lots of books on how people should teach. If you want to read them, go ahead – but never forget that Jesus was a teacher too.

Daylight 04

I've spent more than a decade at my current workplace. It's a somewhat more permanent temporary home than most. Much of that is due to the people – colleagues, adjunct staff, other adults; most of all, the students who pass through the millrace. Some people treat the job as just a job; this is to be expected, because to some people, it really is. Some people draw a solid line between professional and personal lives, which is ethically ideal to them.

I think that's not possible. It is unethical to have teacher-student relationships which do not partake of the personal. There. I've said it. This is because the profession and calling of the teacher are inextricable from the ministry of caring. Teaching, the art of shaping a contrary mind, is by nature intensely personal. It isn't like engineering, in which no person-person interface needs to be deployed, and in which humans need not communicate directly.

That's not to say that a teacher cannot keep a professional distance or make professional decisions. But it is true, by the nature of things, that these actions must be explained in professional terms with full awareness of the personal considerations which might develop from them or which are intrinsic to them. And so I have to say that I cannot be a friend to my students until they graduate, while being friendly and encouraging and knowing that I have invested emotionally in them. I am de facto a friend, but I cannot advertise it or even demonstrate it at times. That will have to wait.

It is sad to be unable to return what I have so often been granted by the grace of my students. But I try to compensate for it, and I hope that sometimes it comes close.

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Here is my fourth decade, which has just passed on.

I became a head very much against my own will at the end of 1996. 1997 then, for me, was traumatic and vastly irritating. I attempted to climb down at the end of the year and was told that I shouldn't, as I was doing a good job. It is interesting to see what that translates to in the minds of men. It was in that year that I was told to keep a professional distance from my colleagues, to spend time with the 'right people', and to increase my exposure in the 'right ways'. I felt that these were some sort of pseudo-Confucian-Buddhist instructions and ignored them.

My personal ethics, of course, made things awkward. I never took any of the staff I appraised out for a meal, whether singly or in groups. I gave them all presents, each and every one, every year. I pushed for bonuses and rewards whenever they deserved it. I ran the largest department in the country, doing all the paperwork and writing endless position papers. And I hated every minute of it. It was all about administration, you see, and that's not my gift. And so, a quick digression.

The gift of administration is the talent for instinctively seeking and finding the best possible way to simplify the job for other people. An excellent administrator makes life easier while achieving or surpassing the required objectives. An effective administrator achieves or surpasses the objectives, but might not make life easier. An exacting administrator makes life hard enough so that the objectives will be achieved at the very least. And an egregious administrator makes the work harder than it has to be and is unclear about exactly what the objectives are. I was effective, but not better than that. I don't have much of the gift, if at all.

I earned my Master's degree in 1999 and did lots of amazing and wonderful things (well, looking back , I can see how they weren't really that great, but they seemed that way to me) for the next five years. At the end of 2004, my time was up. I returned to the ranks of the teachers, no longer a head of the game. 2005 was the happiest year of my life in the school.

For two years now, I have been largely policy-free, largely administration-free. I have worked with true gems of colleagues, brilliant diamonds and resilient sapphires, tough jades and lustrous pearls. I caught up with my professional life, while (I hope) remaining an asset to the place in which I live and work and have my being.

Most importantly, I continue to find more time for students. My brain is at their service while it still contains enough connections to be of use. Of course, I will continue to infuriate people. I cannot help it; we are enjoined not to conform to the pattern of this world. And perhaps, those of you who read this will see me with kinder eyes, understanding that the pattern can indeed be broken, and I have done that in at least one way through the gifts I've been given.

You who have your own gifts, your vast and unexplored worlds of talent, break the pattern in your own way. And someday if you should be in a tavern in Marrakesh or Dublin, lift a glass to my memory – if that memory was kind to you.

The Teacher-Practitioner

This is an interesting point, brought up by a colleague.

How much of a practitioner should a teacher be in order to be considered professional?

Would you trust, for example, a driving instructor who didn't drive? A chemistry teacher who couldn't titrate? A literature teacher who couldn't write poetry (or drama, or prose)? An art teacher who had no art? A music teacher who had no music? An history teacher who could not construct an historical account or a geography teacher who had never 'done' geographical field studies?

I don't think you would trust such a person as much as you would trust a teacher with practical ability. The reason is simple. Teaching by the apprenticeship model (demonstration + mentorship) is the one ability which does the most to obviate the appearance of any possible barrier associated with language or encoding.

By that same argument, you shouldn't have a diploma or degree supervisor who hasn't done sufficient research to get their own diploma or degree. And by having access to their research or other signs of their ability, you have an additional input to consider seriously when choosing or accepting a supervisor. You might be able to see their limitations or strengths, their inherent advantages and flaws.

Which brings us to the next question, to be answered in some further, later post. Who should be held to account when teachers without these abilities are deployed? You can have a look at some readings which might help. See below.

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Readings:

1. From 'Group Action', a post on accountability
2. One of the best lists to read from
3. From 'How to Change the World', a post on how to be a hero

Hashish Speaks

It never mattered whether the Old Man of the Mountains was sane or not. The Assassins would carry out his mandate ruthlessly, even if not quite as efficiently as the true professionals. And in the end, history decided that they were all a footnote, albeit a quirky and interesting one. The world is full of such stories, and some are actually part of history; some are actual parts of history, and some have parted with history.

I have always been intensely curious about the patterns that appear to repeat themselves. But like the curling surface films found on an ancient keris, that wavy-edged sword of this region, repetition is an illusion - only similarity and parallelism remain. And those themselves are often illusions of elision, illusions of allusion. Games, every one of them, with players long gone and some imaginary.

The knives are out again. May the right birds be plucked and skinned, may the right feathering be done. Patterns repeat.

Community

Over the years, one develops a sense of deep community with certain groups of human beings. Of course, to put up links identifying my older communities might be embarrassing to some people who do not belong, some people who do, or some people who just get easily embarrassed.

Here are two of my latest communities - do check out the work of the NYAS and the SHS.

I strongly believe that all professionals, to be considered so, should be members of their own professional bodies. It's one of the ways you show that you consider yourself not beneath your profession or above it - but part of it as a member of the community of your peers. And to widen your circle of professional bodies or interest groups merely makes you more human a person, more entwined in the fabric of humanity and committed to the tapestry of life.

Daylight

Quick edit: I must thank every one of you who has shown appreciation, requested intercession, given thanks, wished for blessings upon me, expressed satisfaction, raised expectations etc. You, and the unnamed many others who have suffered me to teach them anything at all, in any way at all, are the reason for whatever gift I have and my use of that gift.

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Three things have come to me; four things have inspired me.

The first is of a rhyme written by a person who in all innocence flatters me, and to this I make reply:

Not fire nor earthquake nor wind in the night,
The ravens' King speaks in both silence and light;
The Master of men is the alchemist's sight,
True Lord of wisdom and my intellect's might.

The second is from the difficult creed of my professional life, taken from the thirty-second chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah:

2 Each man will be like a shelter from the wind
and a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water in the desert
and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.

The third is in reflection upon some words of that great bard of Cymru, Dylan Thomas:

I have sworn that my words will fork lightning;
I have chosen to walk upon water;
I desire to be light on a hill
Before the end comes,
Before I must leave.

And the fourth is in my heart, and there it stays.