I’ve done a lot of jobs in my time and one of them was a primary school teacher. There’s a lot of problems with the retention rate in that profession for a number of reasons, so it’s not a job I do anymore and not something I’d return to.
During periods where curriculum work was finished or caught up with and there was an availability for free time for the children, it was generally customary to give them the choice to just relax and do what they wanted. For example, before breaking up for the Easter or Christmas holidays, work is finished so you could put a film on for the children on the board. Some would watch, others would draw or read, etc.
Instead of this, I chose to teach the children traditional folk tales in the form of dramas for them to act out. The extroverted kids had the ability to take centre stage and the more introverted ones took smaller background parts but could still be included. When available, I’d teach them the folk songs associated with the story. In my opinion, this was something much more preferable to just sticking them in front of a Pixar film that they’ve likely already seen.
Recently I was walking through one of the towns I used to teach in and I bumped into three lads that used to be in my class, now in secondary school. We chatted and they told me how they were getting on, and mentioned that my folklore dramas were their favourite memories of primary school. Those stories will no doubt stick with them for life now.
There’s a part of me that’s sad that I’m no longer in that career in order to replicate that for hundreds more children. But sadly there’s just so much wrong with this country and its institutions and I didn’t want to stay in it. But that’s a topic for another day.
